{"id":165894,"date":"2026-02-05T23:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T23:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/165894\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T23:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T23:51:08","slug":"passing-the-baton-case-competition-winner-ahad-khot-bs-26-mentors-next-generation-of-haas-leaders-haas-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/165894\/","title":{"rendered":"Passing the Baton: Case competition winner Ahad Khot, BS 26, mentors next generation of Haas leaders – Haas News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"manAhad Khot, BS 26, led teams that participated in 13 internal and external case competitions, winning nine of them. He\u2019s using what he learned while teaching the spring edition of the \u201cBreaking into Case Competitions\u201d DeCal course.<\/p>\n

Ahad Khot <\/a>was a sophomore in high school recovering from a severe biking accident when he competed in his first case competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started doing case competitions because it was the only thing I could do in bed,\u201d said Khot, who grew up in Dubai, always interested in the intersection of business and technology. \u201cThe first one I did was the world\u2019s largest one at the time. It was the Tiger Global Case Competition and over 2,500 students participated online. Somehow our team won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khot, who will earn both a BS in business and a BA in economics this spring, was hooked. And when he arrived at UC Berkeley Haas, he was determined to pursue more case competitions, which are designed to pose tough business problems for students to solve\u2014everything from how best to market a product to how to expand a company\u2019s global footprint.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"sixUndergraduate students (left to right) Brennan Dai, Sahil Jaiswal, Maya Wu, Russell Kang, Ahad Khot, and Ellie Hwang at Morgan Stanley, one of many corporate leaders that sponsor undergraduate case competitions.<\/p>\n

Over his first two years at Berkeley, Khot led teams that participated in 13 internal and external case competitions, winning nine of them.\u00a0Many of his team members went on to become his best friends. The winning was fun, he said, but he credits the case competitions, sponsored by corporate leaders like Deloitte, PwC, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley and Capital One, with teaching him the deep skills that he needed to succeed in consulting, where he\u2019s launching his post-graduation career.<\/p>\n

\u201cCases teach you adaptability in a corporate setting,\u201d he said. \u201cThey teach you what to do if your plans don\u2019t work, and they teach you first principles thinking as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forming a diverse team<\/p>\n

Immediately after arriving on campus from Dubai, Khot began recruiting a team of students from diverse backgrounds to join his case team.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the nature of case competitions, you need a lot of different backgrounds because they really reward diverse perspectives,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need the tech, you need the business, you sometimes need biology and life sciences. These are students you wouldn\u2019t meet otherwise, maybe because you\u2019re in a different track at Haas. So you have to seek them out. Otherwise you\u2019re not going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khot said these learnings became clear during his internship as an associate consultant at Bain & Co <\/a>last summer. \u201cMuch of my day-to-day work was similar to what I did in case competitions\u2014using hypothesis-driven thinking and forming an answer first before testing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Khot\u2019s involvement at Haas expands far beyond his track record as a case competition winner. He served as VP of Consulting for Muslims of Haas and VP of Corporate Relations for the Haas Business Student Association (HBSA).<\/a><\/p>\n

This semester, Khot is leading the spring edition of the \u201cBreaking into Case Competitions\u201d DeCal, with a refreshed mandate shaped by his track record in case competitions. The updated course focuses on what judges look for on competition day, drawing from the guidance Khot has consistently shared with teams preparing to compete.<\/p>\n

Heading to Bain & Co<\/p>\n

After graduating, Khot will return to Bain as an associate consultant, working on corporate turnaround strategies that help companies rebuild. \u201cThis is something I\u2019ve wanted to do for a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cI really love turnaround strategy. It drives some of the most innovative changes because leaders coming from this background spend a lot of time with people on the ground and do research that executives don\u2019t always get the chance to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khot said his most difficult case competition was his first, the Nexus Case Competition, where he recalls being intimidated by the more seasoned seniors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were the gatekeepers and that was scary for us because we were just freshmen,\u201d he said. \u201cBut ultimately, I think what I tried to tell everyone was to focus on the fundamentals and to build a case and break the seniors\u2019 winning formula by doing something different, coming from an outside perspective. We ended up winning that case competition. That was really big for us in the community and for our self-confidence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

His most fun competition? The Thammasat Undergraduate Business Competition<\/a> held in Thailand in October 2024, which combined strong team camaraderie with a cultural adventure. Each year, Haas is invited to international case competitions worldwide.<\/p>\n

\"five(Left to right) Aryan Chaudhari, Karen Lin, assistant director for business with Berkeley Career Engagement<\/a>, Kelly Lee, Reeya Randhawa and Khot, who led a team at the USC Marshall International Case Competition last February. <\/p>\n

Karen Lin, assistant director for business with Berkeley Career Engagement<\/a>, served as team advisor at the USC Marshall International Case Competition<\/a> last February, where Khot led a newly-formed team. \u201cHe stepped up with clarity and initiative, helping shape a strategic and collaborative team culture,\u201d she said. \u201cThe team surged from a modest start to become a top contender under Ahad\u2019s leadership. This progression reflects his ability to lead through uncertainty and bring out the best in his peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Passing the baton<\/p>\n

During case preparation, Khot said he encourages students to take advantage of the power that their UC Berkeley email address provides with alumni and other connections to gather data and reach out with questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cCase competitions opened doors I never expected,\u201d he said. \u201cI was able to speak with a former U.S. Secretary of Labor and gain access to insights and connections that most people never do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khot retired from case competitions a year ago. Now, he\u2019s enjoying his classes and\u00a0serving as a mentor to students, particularly the first-years who bring new energy and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel you need to pass the baton,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no need for me as a senior to be going into these competitions. I mentor a lot of teams now and that\u2019s more fun for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0(left to right) Levi Montoya, Brennan Dai, Ahad Khot, Elias Benchekroun, Jessica Nguyen, Dr. Lauren Simon, and Ellie Hwang at a panel featuring Haas International Case Competition team alumni.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahad Khot, BS 26, led teams that participated in 13 internal and external case competitions, winning nine of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[30417,1979,143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-165894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-competitions","9":"tag-latest-news","10":"tag-oakland","11":"tag-oakland-headlines","12":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}