Nari Malkhasyan

Nari Malkhasyan spent most of her career in the apparel industry, much of it working with manufacturers in Southeat Asia. “I loved my job,” says Nari, who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemical engineering. “I had fun working on projects where I could see someone wearing a garment on the street that was the final outcome of my work.” But over time, Nari started to realize that many of the industry practices did not align with her personal and professional values.

As some sort of consolation, Nari started volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, leading Global Village teams in remote communities in places like Guatemala and Nepal. “But what I couldn’t get out of my head was how much the communities in which I volunteered looked like the communities in which garments were manufactured,” she says. “It might have been different countries, but these were people who didn’t have much and didn’t have much choice. Coming from a developing country myself, I wanted more for these communities.”

Nari grew up in Armenia in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union when her country experienced an energy crisis. “Put more simply,” she says, “I grew up without electricity or running water.” Nari was familiar with making tough choices. “My parents’ generation had to choose between having firewood to keep their children warm and preserving the forests in Armenia, and I think the country’s ecology is still recovering.”

Suddenly, everything came into focus for Nari. “I wanted to learn what the financial outcomes of making sustainable decisions could look like, and how to successfully lead an organization while incorporating social context and environmental stewardship into its governance.” What Nari wanted was an MBA with a social impact focus.

Nari was Graduate Student Council President, a Cohort Representative, Internship Fund for Social Impact Fundraising Chair, Boston Impact Summit Panel Chair, an MBA Peer and Undergraduate Mentor, and a member of the BU Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing. And that’s just to name a few.

“I realized that Questrom’s impact focus wasn’t just a poster value, but rather a value practiced by students, faculty, alumni, and administration,” she says. “I knew that by coming to Questrom, I would find a community of people who had similar values, worked hard, and lifted each other up.”

While still a Questrom student, Nari interned with Amazon in Seattle as senior vendor manager. That experience led to her joining the Amazon Retail Leadership Development Program, and today, she’s senior vendor manager for Sports and Outdoors. She’s bringing her social impact mindset and skills to the online retail giant.

[Nari, could you talk about how the Social Impact program helped you get your internship and job at Amazon. And discuss what you do at Amazon, and how it relates to sustainability.]

“I want to be a part of the movement in the retail/consumer packaged goods industry that helps our society move past consumerism and leverages the rental economy, more sustainable materials, and more socially conscious manufacturing to ensure the longevity of our planet and our already-scarce resources,” she says. And she knows her Questrom connections will serve her well as she works to achieve her goals.