Smriti Mishra

“Drive through—there’s so much to learn and so many opportunities. Coming from a strong educational background gives you the luxury to spend time finding the right opportunities. It’s worth doing that to make a positive difference in the world.”

At HBS, Mishra and a handful of fellow students collaborated with Professor Rebecca Henderson on a reading group that fed into curriculum development for Reimagining Capitalism, a course that examines the intersection between environmental pressures and the evolving role of business leaders. She cites that experience and serving as marketing chair for the annual HBS Energy Symposium as a source for ongoing contacts in a field that doesn’t necessarily follow a traditional recruitment process.

“Getting into clean tech is a network hunt,” explains Mishra, noting that a summer internship at Tigo Energy (funded through the Rock Center) came about through an alumni connection, as did a position immediately following HBS at EnerNOC, a provider of energy intelligence software where Mishra was the P&L owner for several demand-response portfolios. “Demand-response is a relatively new sector,” she recalls. “I had to understand the regulatory requirements and how it all tied into operations and the financial impact.” That experience has direct relevance for her current role at National Grid: “The old electricity model operates on a hub-and-spoke system. We’re changing that. Working in the new system of distributed energy resources is really exciting to me.”

Mishra concedes that it can seem daunting to enter the clean energy sector, but has three words of advice for MBAs interested in the field: stay with it. “Drive through—there’s so much to learn and so many opportunities. Coming from a strong educational background gives you the luxury to spend time finding the right opportunities. It’s worth doing that to make a positive difference in the world.”