Viaan Nayyar ’26

My long-term goal is to finance public infrastructure—directing long-term capital toward the systems and assets that underpin economic development. This requires a quantitative understanding of public and private investment decision-making, and the operational ability to structure and execute these decisions. That intersection is what led me to SOM’s joint MBA and Master’s in Asset Management.

At SOM, I was particularly drawn to the Swensen Asset Management Institute. David Swensen’s approach to institutional investing—especially in alternative assets like infrastructure—has shaped how endowments and pension funds deploy long-duration capital. Having encountered the Yale Model through my work at BlackRock and in the CFA curriculum, I was eager to study at the institution that pioneered it.

Coming into the program from New Zealand and Australia, what stood out was how the curriculum combines rigorous quantitative training with genuine accessibility. While the program is explicitly quantitative in structure, it remains anchored in the policy, regulatory, and stakeholder dynamics that shape real investment decisions. That framing is particularly important in infrastructure, where investment horizons span decades and returns are driven as much by structure and constraints as by pure financial modeling.

Over the summer, I interned in investment banking, focusing on energy, industrials, and infrastructure. That experience mapped directly onto lessons I learned in classes including Renewable Energy Project Finance with Daniel Gross, Financing Green Technologies with Richard Kauffman, and Energy Law with Joshua Macey. During the summer, concepts in financial modeling, emerging green tech innovation, and regulatory economics converged across several live transactions.

The MBA core curriculum also came into play. Each of our core classes emphasizes a different decision-making lens: for example, those of the investor, the customer, and the executive. During my internship, I saw those stakeholder perspectives play out directly—and gained a clearer understanding of what decisions were made, and of the incentives and motivations driving them.

Some of my most valuable lessons at SOM have come from the community. The school’s diversity across geographies, industries, and backgrounds results in a wide range of analytical perspectives. Whether in my core learning team, competitions with the Investment Management and Energy Clubs, or conversations with peers at the Yale School of the Environment and Yale Law School, I’ve found that the most insightful analysis comes from understanding how different people frame the same problem—especially when that problem is as consequential as the chronic underinvestment in the systems we all rely on.