The 2023 Rising Stars of the Profession: Alejo Delgado

Alejo Delgado is a Workday Student principal consultant at Avaap, an industry-focused technology and management consulting firm. Alejo has spent his career partnering with higher education institutions to modernize technology and improve the student experience. Alejo's experience has spanned large academic medical centers to community colleges that provide affordable education to underserved communities.

Alejo is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, holding a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. Alejo lives in Cincinnati with his wife Lauren, daughter Chloe, and dog Koda.

What would you say has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

Being surrounded by great leaders, mentors and co-workers has been a huge factor in my professional development. Starting with my higher education experience at the University of Cincinnati, learning from leaders and co-workers in academic advising centers, the registrar's office, other student-focused areas, and technical project management leaders was great. It helped build an understanding of what successful approaches look like both from a student lens as well as a project lens. From there, learning from other consultants across varying work streams on approach, methodology, functionality, and more has been important for my growth and success. In moving from the traditional higher education side to consulting, it is helpful to have the foundational background, but then gaining understanding, skills and leaning on experience of others is crucial.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

My favorite aspect of consulting is coming up with creative solutions for challenging issues at higher education institutions. Whether that is configuring something in a way that best benefits a client or determining an approach to a challenging internal business process or data conversion, the end goal is to deliver a solution that works well for clients. For higher education that often means solutions that are not only beneficial to your traditional end-user stakeholders, but also for the students who will be utilizing the system.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

I think having a balance between work and everything else is very important. From a work-related achievement perspective, going live with my first project at the University of Mississippi Medical Center is a big one. But along the way, building positive working relationships and friendships within the ecosystem (clients and co-workers) is really the most rewarding part of the process. From a personal perspective, being able to balance the get things done aspect of work with the fun part of team building and being present for family life is the most important part of all.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

I don't recall verbatim, but something along the lines of: Sometimes in life you are presented with opportunities, and you have to be able to see the potential in those opportunities to jump rather than being hesitant to change. Essentially, take advantage of the opportunities presented to you.

What does this recognition mean to you?

This recognition would really be more of a commentary on the mentors and co-workers that I've had the opportunity to work with. While I took the advice to jump into opportunities that led me to consulting, leaning on those who give advice, guidance, and feedback is really what would lead toward this potential recognition.