A purpose-driven path in sustainability

A finance professional in her home country, Vani had always been passionate about the environment. During the first COVID-19 shutdowns, she and her brother started an animal welfare initiative, taking care of local stray dogs. They were also keen hikers who enjoyed getting out in nature as often as they could. 

For Vani, the natural world was a place she went to find reprieve and meaning. Now, she was literally watching it go up in flames. But what could she do to help?

“I was happy in the work I had been doing in the finance field, but there was no direct impact that I could see,” she says. 

It was a turning point, and also a conundrum. Vani wanted to channel her skills into work that would add up not just on a balance sheet but make a difference to communities and wildlife and support the quiet logic of coexistence. But how?

In her research, she came across the idea of doing a postgraduate degree with a sustainability focus. The UTS Master of Business Administration (MBA) leapt out at her—here was a degree that would help her continue building her business and finance expertise and contribute to social impact. 

“In other business schools, there was a rigid curriculum structure for the MBA, and I wanted something that would prepare me for a career with a sustainability focus after graduation,” says Vani.

“I was able to select my major in international business, and then my sub-majors and electives all revolved around organisational sustainability and impact.”

Where business meets social impact 

Today, Vani is a UTS MBA graduate and a consultant at BDO Australia’s CFO Advisory – Sustainability Reporting & Strategy team. In this role, she helps industrial clients navigate climate challenges, from emissions measurement to meeting climate-related financial disclosure requirements, showing them how to link climate action to value creation and adopt a profit-with-purpose approach.

Much of her work draws on her learning from the UTS Business School, which is known for its commitment to impact and to fair, equitable and environmentally sound business practice. 

One of Vani’s most valuable learning experiences was designing a logic model for a not-for-profit’s social impact assessment. This project later opened doors, including an internship with the environmental startup accelerator Ocean Impact Organisation.

She has since brought the framework into her role at BDO, sharing it with her team and using it to support clients’ voluntary sustainability reporting. It’s one example of how her MBA gave her not just practical tools but the ability to translate complex, climate-related challenges into clear, actionable insights for stakeholders.

Growing purposeful professional networks

Vani’s learning experience didn’t start and end on the UTS campus. After an initial period of settling into life in Australia—“I gave myself six months to marinate in the system and understand how everything worked,” she says—Vani threw herself into life in Sydney. 

That meant using her MBA as a tool to pursue networking and volunteering opportunities, as well as reaching out to companies working in her chosen sectors who she thought could benefit from her growing skillset. 

“It’s not just the degree but about how actively you network and build your professional connections,” she says. 

“Given the location of UTS, it was easy for me to attend events in the CBD, which is where a lot of that activity takes place, and to pack my schedule or arrange meetings.”

In 2024, Vani took on a volunteering opportunity with Climate Action Week Sydney, a grassroots initiative to accelerate action on climate change at the community level. When the organisation started looking for venue partners for their upcoming event, Vani knew just where they should be looking. 

“I helped facilitate a collaboration between UTS and Climate Action Week. The location was central, perfect for Climate Action Week activities, and the people from UTS were so driven to support this work,” she says.

“The whole ethos of UTS revolves around impact and sustainability and it shows in the way the courses and projects are designed for students.”

A career based on passion and purpose

If Vani ever wondered where she’d find a home for her business-for-the-planet passion and skillset, she got her answer as soon as she graduated: she was immediately snapped up by Dragonfly Enviro Capital, a growth stage venture capital boutique firm, and equity fund NorthStar Impact to work on a series of climate tech funding and impact investing contracts. 

Now, having found her place at BDO, she can see a clear path forward, both as a sustainability professional and as an international graduate who has built a new life in Australia. 

“I’ve strengthened my goal and purpose; I have more clarity and I’ve grown as a person. I’ve built networks in an industry where I had no one. At first it felt like Sydney was too big; now, it feels like Sydney is so small,” says Vani, who recently returned to UTS as a guest speaker for final-semester MBA students.  

“It feels like home.”