Dr. Deepak Madhavan received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in 2001 and spent several years in residency and fellowships specializing in epilepsy research. He founded Midwest Regional Epilepsy Associates in 2009, and currently serves as a faculty member and Director of the Nebraska Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at UNMC. Yet with all his experience and education, Madhavan believes earning an MBA from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, was a vital component in augmenting his career and independent practice.

His decision to earn an MBA at UNL began after setting up his own practice.

“Having no prior business experience, I was amazed at the level of business know-how and management tasks I needed to run a business,” Madhavan said. “I quickly realized an MBA would add versatility to my education by providing critical training to expand my career into areas such as consulting and administration.”

Madhavan also knew an MBA would provide practical experience through an internship which would let him see the business world from a new point of view. He actually interned twice while earning his MBA.

“I was aware of the solid reputation of the UNL MBA program. It also afforded me the internships that let me apply my MBA training in real-world, practical settings where I could expand on classroom training,” he said.

His internships not only provided additional skills, but also made him aware of aspects of a business he had not encountered before.

“One of my internships was with Cyberonics, a large medical device company. I worked with their senior executives and marketing staff to develop strategies to expand their marketing message. This in turn expanded the use of their products in new practice settings. I gained experience developing processes in marketing and corporate strategy I use today,” he said.

His second internship gave Madhavan a completely different perspective.

“I worked with Bridgeport Merchant Banking, a local investment bank as their medical and biotech associate. My responsibilities were to perform diligence and comparable transaction analysis to help make recommendations on potential clients. Because of my background in medicine, I brought a sought-after point of view to both internships which allowed me to jump into interesting projects with significant responsibility.”

Madhavan lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife and two children ages three and one. Even amidst an extremely busy schedule he encourages other MBA students to pursue internships.

“I viewed my internships as experimental ‘free-for-alls’, where I could pretend to work in another area and absorb as much as I could. Both internships created career growth opportunities and I remain involved with both companies,” Madhavan said. Published: December 4, 2015