From IOE to the NBA
Ujwal Bharath (BSE IOE ’16) is building epic experiences for Chicago Bulls fans.
Ujwal Bharath is literally surrounded by history in his role with the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. The Bulls’ offices at the United Center hold a patch of parquet flooring from the legendary Chicago Stadium, the team’s home from 1929 to 1995. There’s a row of its red-slatted seats. And Bharath can look down on the bronze statue of a mid-air Michael Jordan that fans know as simply “The Spirit.”
But when game time rolls around, Bharath heads down to the court to immerse himself firmly in the present. Then and there, he can see the impact of his work in the delight of tens of thousands of fans.
“It sounds corny to say, but I think that’s what I enjoy most about my job,” said Bharath, who is senior manager, strategic projects with the Bulls. “It could be someone’s first Bulls game or it could be someone who’s been here since the Jordan era. But there’s still that magic that’s created from a live event. And having a role in that, whether small or large, is very, very cool.”
Bharath’s job, helping lead strategic projects to advance the Chicago Bulls organizational strategy, is the culmination of a career journey that has taken the Metro Detroit native from Michigan Engineering to Silicon Valley and now back to the Midwest. Here, he can do work he loves while staying close to his family.
Sports business might seem like an unconventional path for an engineer, but Bharath credits his time at U-M for the perspective that enables him to apply his skills at the intersection of engineering, business and marketing. The College’s broad base of students and connection with other top schools like the Ross School of Business were formative influences.
“I talked with a lot of older students as a freshman, and I really liked how the industrial operations and engineering degree enables you to apply engineering principles across a very broad area,” he said. “You could work in something like auto manufacturing, but you could also do consulting with a bank. I was able to experience some really cool opportunities and it helped me become very well-rounded.”
In his time at IOE, Bharath focused heavily on computer science and also took classes at Ross, giving him a perspective on how the worlds of data, engineering and business intertwine. He was also a rabid Michigan football fan and a member of Michigan Manzil, a competitive Bollywood student dance team. Those experiences offered an inkling of how teamwork could wow an audience.
After graduation, Bharath landed at prestigious companies like IBM, Goldman Sachs and LinkedIn, where he worked on the team that developed the “open to” feature that eventually led to the “Open to Work” banner. But he says his favorite early-career gig was at a Chicago food delivery startup called Home Chef. As part of a small, nimble team, he could do a bit of everything and see the results day after day.
“I really enjoyed working at a small company. That quick path to impact was very fulfilling,” he said. “That was something I was looking for when I saw the posting for the Bulls job. And I thought, ‘What the heck, just apply.’”
Today, the job enables Bharath to make a stadium-sized impact while sticking to his Midwest roots.
“The NBA is investing in ways to harness data to not only improve business outcomes but also to build better experiences for fans. And being involved in that has been a beautiful blend of all the things I’ve done in my career that I’ve really enjoyed.”
He encourages U-M students and others to enjoy the journey as well as the destination.
“Don’t go for the easy A. Listen to the part of your brain that is interested in something and give it a voice. Don’t think ‘Oh, you’re silly for liking this.’ If you like it, like it. And do it.”