Success Story: Aisha Ahmad ’17 promoted to chief engineer at Con Edison

Success Stories | Jul 10, 2017 | admin

Photo courtesy of Con Edison

Keeping the lights on for millions of customers in New York City and Westchester is an enormous undertaking.

It’s partly the job of one recent Gabelli School Executive MBA graduate.

Aisha Ahmad, EMBA ’17, recently was promoted to chief engineer in the design engineering department at Con Edison, one of the world’s largest energy companies.

In her new role, she oversees more than 100 employees in the areas of electrical design, civil and transmission design, and mechanical design. In contrast with her previous heavily tactical operations role, Ahmad’s current position requires more strategic thinking.

She’s ready for it.

Ahmad says her experience in the Executive MBA program “gave me a certain level of confidence, and it also gave me the tools to speak from a business perspective,” along with an understanding of “the drivers behind why things are happening.”

As an engineer, she acknowledges, that’s not always a skillset that comes with the territory, but “that’s what you need as you move forward.”

Working in an industry that regularly looks to streamline processes and incorporate modern technology, Ahmad found her innovation class particularly useful. “It taught us how to think outside the box and challenge the status quo.”

The opportunity to explore new things was a key reason she decided to pursue her MBA. Having worked at Con Ed for 12 years, she had a fairly clear idea of her career interests, but the program helped her to understand herself better, which was exactly what she needed at this point in her life.

Her favorite part of the program, in fact, wasn’t the courses themselves or the skills she developed. It was interacting with her cohort in Westchester, a group of people Ahmad says worked well together and were exceptional professionally and personally.

“I didn’t expect that,” she admits, “and I definitely made lifelong friendships with these people.”

Ahmad will get another chance to work with her cohort in August when she travels to Germany for the international capstone portion of the program, and she’s excited to keep learning.

“If you grow and challenge yourself, you can see what you’re made of, what you can do, and your potential,” she says.