Education is the biggest equalizer– you can come from any background, but with truly equal opportunity to learn, you grow to be an equal. - Shash Mody ‘01 Shash Mody graduated from Woodstock in 2001, having spent two years at the school. He studied Economics and Finance with a minor in Mathematics in Hiram College, Ohio, and later received an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Shash has worked in finance, education, and technology, and currently works at Amazon as a Product Manager. - we had the opportunity to catch up with Shash in Seattle.
What have you been doing since finishing University? After college, I went into financial services, first working with Progressive Insurance and later with KPMG Consulting LLC as a management consultant. In 2007, I received an exciting opportunity to work in microfinance at Unitus (through a grant by the Gates Foundation), to provide poor and socially marginalized households access to wide range of affordable, high quality financial products and services, including credit, savings, and insurance. Over four years, I worked with several of our 23 microfinance partner institutions in India, Southeast Asia, South/ Latin America and East Africa who ultimately were able to deliver quality microfinance services to more than 12 million poor families . In 2010, I saw an opportunity for creating content and offering quality, affordable education to lower-middle income students, and co-founded a small school in Lucknow, India. Soon after that, I moved to the US for my MBA., I’ve been at Amazon for four years where I launched Prime Now (Amazon’s 1 hour delivery service) and a wholesale distribution channel for Amazon Business. What are you involved in now that you’re passionate about? Outside of work I am an ambassador for Green Dot Public Schools – they serve 10K+ underprivileged students through charter schools (in California, Washington and Tennessee), where 75% of students live below the poverty
line. I also actively support Upaya Social Ventures - they build and scale businesses that create lasting, dignified jobs for the poorest of the poor in India, with over 4000 jobs created across 12 businesses. I am also super passionate about affordable housing and co-founded a small investment firm in Seattle with triple bottom line objectives: resource and energy efficiency, market-driven financial returns, and affordable housing for low income groups. Woodstock Alumni now have the benefit of a Professional Networking Platform - do you wish we had had this when you were graduating? Absolutely! To be able to benefit from the experiences that other people have had is such a gift. The added access to an entire network of alumni doing incredible things, is a great opportunity. Why are mentors important? Mentors show you light at the end of the tunnel– a good mentor helps set (big) personal and professional goals, holds you accountable to them, and encourages you to learn from failures and persevere through them. What is valuable about the WS experience and why we understand each other in a unique way? We have all been through the same experiences, eaten the same maggi, and tried to sneak out to Mall road when we weren’t allowed to. Life has stood still (in a good way) in that community, survived the grind and
created the same kind of friendships over the years. Tell us more about your time at Woodstock. What do you miss the most? Sunsets and maggi in Char Dukan! How did Woodstock shape who you are? Before coming to Woodstock, I was an introvert. The school gave me an opportunity to succeed and to fail safely. For example, - while running for the co-President of the CARE Committee, I needed to encourage conversation around socially motivated causes and motivate others to get involved. I ran for election while being terrified of public speaking, stood up for a cause I truly believed in while wanting to shrink into my shoes, and developed skills needed to run an organization when I had none - that was what Woodstock gave me. What were you involved in during your time at Woodstock? I played a lot of cricket, and as mentioned earlier, was part of the CARE committee. Spent a lot of time in Char Dukan (doesn’t everyone at Woodstock?). Ate momos and hung out with friends, built deep relationships, set off fireworks and tried not to get caught by dorm parents … A lot of deep friendships were formed during this time. Share with us a note on your time in Mussoorie. Love, friendship, memories…
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