Nieshaal Thambipillay

Class of 2022-2023

Wabash College, 2022
Economics Major

Why Did you choose ESTEEM? 

As an undergraduate student at Wabash College, the ESTEEM Program was brought to our attention early as a freshman during a site visit to South Bend and further supported by the numerous Wabash alumni that pursued ESTEEM. With my experience in Economics, research, and consulting, I hope to develop my entrepreneurial mindset and apply the practical lessons from the program through immersion in my capstone project.

What is your Capstone and why are you excited about it? 

PwC is the world’s second-largest professional services network, offering assurance, advisory, and tax services. With this, PwC handles large quantities of data through its operations and performs data analyses to gather insights on a global scale. This capstone project seeks to develop PwC US’s understanding of its current data center operations and the implications for its 2030 zero-emission goal. The sponsor company is looking to apply a supplementary perspective in assessing decisions such as future data center operations by utilizing an ESG framework (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance). As pioneers of change and with its data center operations, PwC requires an understanding of the gap between its current state of ESG and its commitment-backed future state of reducing emissions in absolute terms by 50%. The student will work with the sponsor to adopt the ESG framework within the scope of data operations and make recommendations to fulfill the sponsor company’s goal of net zero emissions.

What do you hope to do after ESTEEM? 

My current plan is to pursue opportunities in management consulting due to the spontaneity that comes with each project and opportunities to form meaningful relationships with stakeholders. Most of all, I love seeing the results of my work with my own two eyes and interacting with the impacted populations.

What do you do in your free time? 

Some of my hobbies include story-based video games, cooking, and jumping rope. My favorite dishes have to be egg noodles with a spicy shrimp-based broth (Penang Hokkien Mee) and flat noodles with a pork broth and sliced duck (Kuey Teow Th’ng) from back home in Malaysia.