Technology Management Alumna Unathi Mtya: SPS Program Prepares Students “for Any Role in Technology and Business Leadership”

When Unathi Mtya begun the Columbia SPS Govt Grasp of Science in Know-how Administration software, she was now a prosperous executive. But after acquiring her degree in 2018, her job skyrocketed into the C-suite. Now CIO at African Lender, she was lately named a Most Influential African Ladies Banker in 2022.

What led you to pursue the Technological innovation Management diploma? Why from Columbia, especially?

It had often been a desire of mine to study at a single of the Ivy League educational institutions and Columbia University was in my leading a few. I was approaching forty and experienced been in the tech marketplace for about eighteen yrs. I needed to enrich my government stage encounter in business management, as perfectly as in technological know-how. I also needed to get international encounter, as nicely as to study from colleagues all over the world. Which is accurately what the Govt Learn of Science in Technologies Management method at Columbia afforded me and so a great deal more. This continues to be one of the most effective conclusions I have ever manufactured. 

Notify us about your vocation journey and your purpose as CIO at African Financial institution. How did you progress to the C-Suite? 

My job journey spans above a time period of 20-four yrs when Initial National Financial institution recruited me from university at the age of twenty-one particular. My career was speedy-tracked by landing very important positions alongside the way, which led to overseeing a number of portfolios across a vast spectrum of IT disciplines, top multidisciplinary groups across the IT spectrum at senior administration, common administration, and C-suite degrees, both in the general public and the private sector.

My job at African Lender follows a two-12 months stint at Grindrod Bank as Chief Technologies Officer. African Bank is on an audacious expansion route, supported by an exciting strategy which presents way to the new IT approach as we cement “strengthening the main,” as perfectly as “expanding the core” of the bank. At African Bank, we are developing a scalable, sustainable, and diversified small business, and at the coronary heart of all this is tech enablement and digital transformation. I’m honored to lead the group, and have a duty to make this attainable each day, and [ensure that] we are on the proper track. 

Has the software served you to outline your job journey? Have your aspirations or specialist aims improved in any way due to the system?

I believe that the plan has definitely given me a competitive benefit by growing my perspective of the environment, the tech, and the business leadership landscape domestically and globally. Immediately after finishing the plan, I re-entered the banking sector, this time at the C-suite stage immediately after paying out time in other sectors. This calendar year, I was identified as one of the main CIOs under World wide CIO 100 for 2022. I was also recently awarded as a Most Influential African Ladies Banker of the Yr (Digital Transformation) underneath the group of Banking and Leadership Awards, which took spot in Nairobi, Kenya on May well 26, 2022.

Have any classes or college customers helped you to hone important expertise?  

I was blown away and quite impressed. All the faculty users had been pretty great. They manufactured the full practical experience worth the time and hard work. To day, I continue to refer to some of the system information and substance. The more blessing for me was the associations and friendships I forged, which have proved to profit me much further than the time I put in at Columbia.

What tips do you have for foreseeable future students who want to thrive in management roles in finance or tech? 

My advice would be not to postpone taking cost of your vocation journey. Start off building your individual tale and narrative. Columbia College and this plan in specific are just one for the books. At the close of this program, you will know you have developed in leaps and bounds and are ready for any part in technological know-how and company leadership.

Learn additional about the Govt M.S. in Know-how Management.