Charu Jain, Managing Director of Information Services, United Airlines, Inc., Lake Forest MBA Class of 2006
How does an IT master become a strategic business leader? Ask Charu Jain, a recent LFGSM graduate. Jain manages more than $60 million in IT investments at United Airlines, and has more than 90 IT projects in development or implementation. She’s keenly focused on meeting customer needs and making United more competitive.
Jain began her career in 1987 as a programmer trainee for United. After five years at United, she joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a management and IT consultant, and then began consulting on her own. In 1997, she returned to United to lead a major PeopleSoft project. Currently, as Managing Director, she is responsible for all United operations technology.
Why a Lake Forest MBA? Jain responds, “To excel as a leader, I need to be a business person first and an IT person second. I knew I’d get this from LFGSM’s practitioner faculty.” Many of her class projects focused on United’s business. “This really helped me reach out to people in departments that I’d normally never have approached,” she explains. “Additionally, the School’s international program was eye-opening. It added to my overall understanding of how business is really done globally.” With Jain’s combination of drive and know-how, it comes as no surprise each time this LFGSM graduate achieves her next success.
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