Jen Wu

During three and a half years at L.E.K. Consulting, Jen worked on 25 growth-strategy and M&A projects across multiple industries, including the medical device and pharmaceutical space.

The healthcare-related projects left her with an extra sense of accomplishment. “We were helping our clients grow strategically and produce better products for patients in need,” she says.

Long hours and the “consulting lifestyle” eventually helped her develop an appreciation for the importance of nutrition and its impact on everyday life. After undergoing a “personal health transformation,” she realized her healthcare work did not address causative issues or long-term solutions. Rather, it was often a Band-Aid for poor nutrition.

“There has been a surge of consumer awareness and education regarding the food we put into our bodies. We are at the cusp of a revolution, and I want to be a cog in the wheel of change.”

Having graduated from HBS, Jen aims to make an impact in the food sector, where she believes leading manufacturers and retailers have the opportunity to drive lasting changes by offering healthier and more sustainably-produced products.

During the summer of 2015, Jen interned in the marketing department of General Mills, a company with the size and influence to sway food consumption and consumer behavior in the U.S. and globally.

At HBS, Jen organized an alumni panel on sustainable food and consumer packaged goods (CPG) during the HBS Marketing and CPG Club’s campus-wide annual conference. “It was encouraging to meet alumni who have structured their careers around food and CPG sustainability in different stages of the value chain and to see my peers attending the panel and expressing personal interests in the field,” she says.

Through her involvement with the Business and Environment Initiative, Jen says she gained an appreciation for how many of her peers were passionately about the environment and actively looking for ways to make a change through the private sector. “It’s a great community that inspired me to pursue my own goals,” she says.