Employee Spotlight: Adithya Mathai

Adithya Mathai

Adithya Mathai is a director within ScottMadden’s corporate & shared services practice. He joined the firm in 2009 and has been an active participant and leader in the human capital management and finance and accounting communities of practice. As a recent initiative, Adithya is currently spearheading a health care community of interest, which aims to develop consultants and expand industry expertise. This group has grown in thanks to his thought leadership and years of experience! Prior to joining ScottMadden, Adithya earned a B.S. in computer telecommunication engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. with honors from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Traversing the World

Adithya has a rich cultural background—his mother is French and his father is Indian. Adithya was born in Paris, where his father worked for a French power generation company. During his childhood, Adithya’s father was repositioned to India and later to Indonesia. The Mathai family moved with each reassignment, and by his teenage years, Adithya was attending an international high school in Jakarta, Indonesia. When reflecting on this experience, he remembers the conscious decision to study his courses in English in order to attend college in the United States. Thanks to this decision, Adithya speaks French and English fluently. He also believes he could regain his Bahasa Indonesian if travel ever took him back to Indonesia for an extended time.

“Since I first came to the United States for college, I still consider myself a newcomer in many ways. I have kept a connection to my childhood because I was lucky enough to marry one of my best friends from high school.”

While attending the University of Pennsylvania, Adithya reconnected with his high school friend, Beth. With Thai and Irish American roots, Beth shared Adithya’s international background, and the two began dating. Adithya and Beth are now married with four-year-old twins!

On Land and In Water

While living in Indonesia, Adithya developed a love for scuba diving. He has fond memories of island hopping with his family to different dive sites. He even served as a dive instructor in college, leading trips to certify his students each spring break. Of all the dive sites, Adithya’s favorite is called the “shark hotel” off Turks and Caicos. Divers must slowly drop through a coral pipe, surprising the sharks below and often catching an up-close view (no, thank you!). Another dive Adithya enjoyed took place off the coast of Komodo Island, where five manta rays shot from the depths of the ocean into the shallow waters surrounding the divers. These are among the largest animals Adithya has ever seen while diving. Much of what Adithya has seen while submerged, like a school of hammerhead sharks languidly swimming with the current below, is nothing short of awe inspiring.

Diverse in his interests, Adithya also enjoys running, golf, and tennis. Fun fact—he and Beth were both on the high school tennis team! Though Adithya is quick to admit the kids have “put a cramp on their game.” Another shared hobby is travel. Growing up, Adithya and his family visited a new country each year, and by college, he had touched many parts of the world. This is a tradition Adithya hopes to continue with his kids. And so far, it’s going well! This summer, the Mathai family will travel to Mexico, where Adithya and Beth have two dives and one tennis match on the books!

A Mentor to Many

Adithya’s dedication to consultant development is known across ScottMadden. He encourages the firm’s younger consultants to try both energy and corporate & shared services before settling on one practice. He also shares the importance of cultivating a “complain group” and a “board of directors.” He explains, “A ‘complain group’ is a group of individuals who can listen to and understand your struggles, while a ‘board of directors’ is the set of mentors who guide you in your career and in your thinking. As there can be turnover in either group, always be on the lookout for those who keep you sane and on track!”