Discover Fox

It’s not often that a Fox Management Consulting client takes such a deep dive into the opportunities offered at the Fox School of Business. 

But Awais Sheikh is making his way through the Fox School’s directory of business and academic opportunities.

He is currently a specialized master’s program student pursuing his degree in innovation management and entrepreneurship at the Fox School. He’s also a Fox Board Fellow and a client with Fox Management Consulting.

“I’m getting the whole experience from Fox,” he says. “But it’s interesting to see how those things all connect together, right?”

As part of his graduate student curriculum, Sheikh enrolled in the Fox Board Fellows program, an elective, graduate-level course that matches a participant’s interest and professional skills with a nonprofit organization.

In Sheikh’s case, he already had a strong connection with Al Fatih Academy, a private, faith-based kindergarten through 8th-grade school in northern Virginia. Expanding his commitment to Al Fatih via the Fox Board Fellows program was a significant next step.

Sheikh began to work with a subcommittee within the Al Fatih board of directors to focus on succession planning for leadership at the academy.

“At Al Fatih, we find ourselves with a situation in our executive leadership, specifically the principal and vice-principal,” he says. “We had a vice principal and an interim principal heading into the year. So we focused on figuring out how do we shore that up and make sure that we have the leadership we need, not just for this year, but into the future.”

In addition to succession planning, Sheikh also connected the academy with Fox Management Consulting for a project that addressed some of the other challenges Al Fatih was facing.

“The consulting project had several parts,” he says. “One involved taking a broader and more holistic way at the overall staff and teachers to make sure that we’re attracting and retaining who Al Fatih needs.”

Another part of the consulting project involved looking at the broader financial sustainability considerations including tuition pricing, staying competitive and establishing a path forward for the school.

“We were fortunate to have these different Fox programs to help guide Al Fatih into the future,” he says. “The cross-learning that they were able to demonstrate was really fantastic.”