Sabu Paul Completes Harvard Leadership Program

Congratulations to Sabu Paul, Freese and Nichols’ FEMA Program Director in our Water Resources practice, for completing the Harvard Business School Program for Leadership Development.

Sabu, who offices in Alexandria, Virginia, joined the Stormwater team in 2022 to lead our work in a joint venture supporting FEMA’s efforts to reduce flood risk for the East Coast and Great Lakes regions. He also holds a PhD and is a licensed Professional Engineer, Project Management Professional and Diplomate, Water Resources Engineer.

The PLD program is an intensive training that involves six months of online coursework plus two two-week in-person sessions at the HBS Boston campus. Freese and Nichols supported Sabu’s professional development through schedule flexibility for his on-campus classes and a stipend toward tuition.

Here’s what Sabu wrote on LinkedIn about the experience:

Someone once said, “A man’s mind, stretched by new ideas, may never return to its original dimensions.” That’s what happened to me in the last seven months through HBS’ Program for Leadership Development (PLD 35 #pld), #leadershipdevelopment Harvard’s alternative to an executive MBA. When I was contemplating about joining PLD few months ago, I had my doubts – am I making the right choice. Anyway, finally I decided to move forward. I am glad that I chose to go.

In the last few months, I have learned an incredible amount of materials within topics like Leadership, Organizational Behavior, Strategy, Economics, Operations, Marketing, Accounting, and Negotiations. I learned from and became friends with about 150 smart people from around the world, from about 40 countries. The amazing professors such as Joshua Margolis, Gunnar Trumbull, Susanna Gallani, Hong Luo, Toni Moreno, Monique Burns Thompson, Elie Ofek, Katherine McGuinn, Deborah Winshel, and Leslie John made the learning exciting. Thank you to our executive coach Ellen Harris for the guidance throughout these months. Also, thank you to the amazing support staff Aleeq Kroshian, Bridghid Kelly, Nathaniel Koven and Lisa Hughes for making this flawless.

The experience was exceedingly interesting because of the company of my learning group LG17. Alessandra Karine, Magdalena Anna Brzozowska, Fahir Han, Dr. Vinay Kalia, Dr. Shiraz Suleman, Issa Sadio, Jonathan Camarillo made it memorable. I am sure this is the beginning of a lifelong friendship, an extended family that I can lean on.

Harvard was always my dream. Now I am a graduate from HBS. #hbs Very happy to share that I have graduated from there😊.

This became possible because of the sacrifice of my family, help from many people along the journey and support from my company Freese and Nichols.