Hello, my name is Ashley Dimond and I am a rising second year at Booth. I’m originally from Denver, Colorado and plan to return there after graduation to work for my family’s hotel ownership and development company. While this wasn’t always my plan, I’m so excited to get back to my hometown and start working in the hotel space again.
Prior to Booth, I completed my undergraduate degree at Cornell University in the School of Hotel Administration. While there I pursued a minor in Real Estate and a concentration in food and beverage. While I learned about the hotel industry initially from my parents, Cornell really bolstered my analytical skills and taught me frameworks in which I can think about hospitality related problems. I’ve definitely brought some of that knowledge with me to Chicago and love finding the best outdoor spots to check out with friends (Let me know if you need restaurant and bar recommendations!).
After graduating from Cornell, I spent a year at Burger King Corporation, working on global procurement for non-food and paper items. After BK, I started at Uber and have spent the last four years there. I started my time at Uber focusing on driver and rider acquisition through local partnerships. From there, I served as a “launcher,” launching Uber in new cities and moving to India, to launch new Uber products. I closed out my time as a chief of staff to the head of operations for Uber Eats – this really rounded out my experience in tech and fueled my excitement to start at Booth.
I’ve just completed an amazing year at Booth and I couldn’t see myself anywhere else. At Booth I’m one of three co-chairs of the Family Business Group where I’m able to connect with similarly focused students planning on returning to their family’s businesses. I also really enjoyed my time working on a New Venture Challenge (NVC) business with five of my classmates, and though we didn’t make it to the finals, we have a great starting off point for next year. I’ve lived in five cities since graduating undergrad, and Chicago is definitely one of my favorites. The food, people, and scenery are second to none and the best part is you get to explore with your fellow Booth classmates!
