“Too many to count” is the way Vijay describes his greatest memories at St. Olaf. And it’s no wonder, considering the number of activities he participated in. A mathematics, economics, and English major, Vijay worked on the Manitou Messenger, was involved in theater productions, tutored calculus and French, and played intramural sports. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an annual giving phonathon volunteer, a junior counselor, and participated in a French Interim in Europe. Every new experience contributed to his overall feeling of being strongly connected to St. Olaf.

The well-rounded education Vijay received at St. Olaf helped pave the way for future professional accomplishments. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Engineering at Stanford University, and during his business career in Silicon Valley, he was cofounder and CEO of an operations management consulting firm and Vice President of professional services for a start-up software company.

Today Vijay is an associate professor of analytics and technology at the University of San Francisco in California and serves as the academic director for USF’s MBA for Executives (eMBA) Program. His Manitou Messenger experience introduced him to journalism, and for the past several years, he has been writing “Analyze This!,” a column in Analytics, an online magazine published by the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS).

In addition to the alumni board, he continues to engage with St. Olaf as the class correspondent for the Class of ’86, and was recently asked by his classmates to speak at their 25th reunion this past June (the text of his speech can be found on Vijay’s Facebook page).