Consultants Are Changemakers Too

Koki Ajiri aims to do the most good for the most people possible. It turns out there are various ways to get started on this path. One option, he discovered unexpectedly, is to become a consultant. “Nobody comes into college thinking they want to be a consultant,” he said.

Consultants help organizations solve their most pressing issues. Koki’s current role with the global firm Bain and Company in Tokyo is helping him develop the analytical skills he needs to drive change in the future. It’s the ideal place to get his feet wet.

“I have been very fortunate and I have to pay it forward,” he says. “I need to take advantage of the opportunities I was given to do the most good.”

Back in Abu Dhabi, Ajiri left behind significant positive footprints. He helped launch the local chapter of Effective Altruism, a global movement that aims to do good, better. Effective Altruism was formalized by scholars at Oxford and has spread around the world. Thanks to Ajiri and others like him, NYUAD voices are now at the table, bringing the UAE into the conversation.

Major: Social Research and Public Policy
Home Country: Japan
Current: Associate consultant, Bain and Company, Tokyo

“My proudest achievement is helping my university peers gain more opportunities to do good. NYUAD students provide a perspective that’s not commonly heard in the movement. I’m really proud of that.”

Ajiri has always been interested in addressing global problems like poverty and inequality. Being at NYU Abu Dhabi further stoked that fire.

My proudest achievement is helping my university peers gain more opportunities to do good. NYUAD students provide a perspective that’s not commonly heard in the movement. I’m really proud of that.

Koki Ajiri, Class of 2022

“I got a sense of what the real world looks like from some peers who come from very different and sometimes underrepresented backgrounds,” he says. Namely, a close friendship he forged with a fellow NYUAD student from a South Sudanese refugee camp. “My mind was opened,” says Ajiri.