Manasi Anju Mertia – PGP – Gold Medal for First Rank
Among her key academic accomplishments at IIMB, Manasi Anju Mertia, aged 27, maintained academic consistency throughout the first year, where she served as the Section Topper for all three terms and was featured on the Director’s Merit List. Beyond the classroom, she was awarded the Charpak Scholarship by the French Embassy for her exchange at HEC Paris and was an OPJEMS Scholarship finalist. She also served as a Senior Coordinator for the Alumni Committee through which she organized ‘Ask an Alum’ and facilitated interactions with alumni and the incoming cohorts. She also got the opportunity of shadowing the CEO of an NGO through the ‘Shadow a Leader’ program. Additionally, she represented IIMB as a National Finalist in case competitions for BCG and P&G (also received PPIs and internship offers), and as a Campus Finalist for Mahindra Rise.
Terming her IIMB experience as truly transformative, Manasi Anju gives credit for that to the Institute’s faculty and what she calls an “incredible” cohort. “Coming from a management consulting background, classes like Operations Management with Prof. Tarun Jain and Decision Sciences with Prof. Ananth Krishnamurthy were instrumental in teaching me how to optimize complex systems. Strategic Leadership with Prof. Shubha Patvardhan taught me to identify ‘artificial trade-offs’, the false choices we often feel forced to make between competing priorities. Learning how to bypass these binaries is a skill I know will be vital in higher-stakes professional situations. Most importantly, I found immense inspiration in my peers. The constant motivation from the broader cohort, and the unwavering support of my close group of confidantes, ensured that this experience was as much about personal growth and friendship as it was about academic excellence.”
Regarding her future goals, she says, “In the near term, I am excited to build my career in management consulting, where I can apply the analytical rigor and strategic leadership principles I have developed at IIMB to solve systemic challenges for large-scale organizations. However, my long-term vision is to bridge this professional toolkit with a commitment to the social sector. My dream is to drive meaningful change by building more efficient, scalable systems for social initiatives, ensuring that these organizations have the operational infrastructure needed to achieve their missions effectively and sustainably”, says Manasi Anju, who believes that success is never a solitary achievement, but a responsibility to drive meaningful impact and support the communities one belongs to.
Born in Kolkata, Manasi Anju Mertia’s family includes her younger brother and mother, whose resilience she says provided the foundation for her ambitions.
