OneHaas (Haas School of Business (Produced by University FM))

In this episode of OneHaas alumni podcast, we chat with Rhonda Shrader. She is the Executive Director of the Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program and the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program for the Bay Area Node. Her previous experiences include founding and being an early stage member of startups in biotech, behavioral health, retail, non-profit, and AI.

Rhonda shared her story from Harvard to startups and then eventually to MBA. She also narrated her consulting career in healthcare.

Next, we talked about Lean Transfer, the class she teaches at Haas, her role as the Executive Director of the Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program and the I-Corps program, and how these programs can help startups.

Finally, she shared her advice on how to build and work with school or business partners.

Episode Quotes:

On the importance of spending time with the school community - "It's important. It's not scalable, but people need to know that you care, and that's the way to build a community."

"As an entrepreneur, you need skills. You need someone to hold your feet to the fire. You need someone to hold you accountable so that you do not fall victim to confirmation bias. As entrepreneurs, the worst sin we can commit is believing what we want to believe and hearing what we hear."

"Don't feel like you have to start a company as a student. This is not the only chance you have for the rest your life. So, learn what you need to learn. And when the problem comes for you to solve it, you'll be ready."

"You want to have someone who is obsessed about the problem as you are but has a completely different skillset. Not completely different, but someone who makes up for the skills that you don't have. Those are the best kind of partnerships."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship
• National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program 

Scott Kucirek has, hands down, the best job on Earth. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Ocho Candy, an organic (and seriously delicious) candy company based in Northern California. But Scott’s path to Ocho was a circuitous one. In this episode of the Crossroads Series, Scott sits down with Sophie Hoyt to discuss his journey from the Navy to Haas and beyond. He shares insights on how to stay the course when the going gets tough, how to know when it’s time to walk away, why consulting is just not his thing, and why Ocho is his sweetest job to date.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

• Buy Ocho Candy

Episode Quotes:

On why building a company culture that prizes its people is important:

If they believed in the leadership and the vision, it didn't matter what they got paid. They were going to do it. I always felt that compensation, to a point, was not the main driver of that. Believing that you made a difference and that you had an impact was very valuable. Creating a culture that celebrated the people was important.

On his work commitment to OCHO Candy:

I'm not worried about failure. That's just going to happen. That's learning. You still learn, you still experience, and your life is about experiences, not stuff you get. It is more about doing something that looks interesting and has value, and there's a calling to it. There's no regret. I'm just moving forward.

If four years from now, I can go into any store and see people have a choice for better-tasting cleaner candy that's focused on what's inside counts, sustainability for workers and the planet, that's important to me like my values and purpose in life. That makes it worth doing.

Today’s guest on the OneHaas Alumni Podcast is D’Juan Wilcher, the Deputy Director of the George W. Bush Presidential Center and a 2022 graduate of the executive MBA program at Haas. 

D’Juan comes from a military family with deep roots in Gary, Indiana. After getting his bachelor’s degree at Indiana University, he decided to join the Navy as an officer. Over the course of his 14 years in the military, D’Juan learned the importance of putting service at the center of all of his work. 

D’Juan sits down with host Sean Li to chat about his time in the military, including the culture shock he felt arriving in Japan and his experience joining as an officer. They also discuss his decision to get an MBA at Haas and the impactful work the Bush Center does for veterans. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On his family’s values around education

I also grew up in a home that was full of love, not full of very much money, not full of very much access. But my mother, she was definitely one who was big on education. She showed it when she was in school and she told us to lean into it the same way. I'm an advocate of public education for that reason. Every school that I've attended from the beginning all the way through Haas has been a public institution. Most of the time that has been by deliberate choice.

On earning the respect of his subordinates as a Naval officer

The way that I earn respect from them is from showing up every day. This was the most instructive period of my professional career, was that you show up. That's half the battle,  right? Because some people don't. They just mail it in. That was the first way to earn their respect. Two, know my damn job. Take it seriously. I am new, so when they came to me, they expected to see my nose in a book. They expected to see me asking questions, being curious. Figuring it out so that I can get better to be a better leader for them. 

On his decision to go to Haas

I'm looking down the road, and I can see the water, and I'm like, this is a done deal. This is a beautiful school, beautiful campus. Then I go to the classes, like, yeah, I like this approach. I went with my classmates. We had drinks and dinner afterwards. It's like, this is a done deal. I started my application and that's the end of that story. I never looked back at any other school. I didn't apply. This was my target school and I got in. 

On some of the work the Bush Center is doing for veterans

We recognize that part of the reason why people don't get to mental health care is because it can be difficult to navigate. So we've thought of creating an easy button whereby we have essentially a concierge service to do an intake. We have all these clinicians and veterans service organizations to help identify whatever supports you might need and we connect you for free. Your services that they get are for free and this year we've been able to reach 2,000 people. 

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile

*Warning: Please note, this podcast includes references to topics including violence and sexual abuse that some people may find disturbing. 

Today, we chat with Dima Okhrimchuk, CEO and Co-Founder at Organization.GG, a marketplace for online experiences in the gaming multiverse.

Dima was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. He had the opportunity to become an exchange student in the US and this experience made a huge impact on his personal development. He dreamt of getting an education abroad and after visiting Stanford and UC Berkeley on a business trip to Silicon Valley, he knew he should be there, where all the innovations are coming from. So, in 2015, he started his MBA at Haas, at a time when there was an ongoing war in Ukraine. Everyone is talking and saying that the worst started on the 24th of February this year, but it actually started much earlier than that, back in 2014. This was the year when Russia started its invasion of Ukraine.

In this episode, Dima shares with us what it was like to be studying abroad at a time when his home country was almost at a war, why he went back home after graduation rather than staying in the US, and his experiences founding his tech business before and after the conflict. 

Dima also let us in on the current situation in Ukraine, the recent developments, how people are united to help Ukraine win, and what we can do to support the people of Ukraine.

Episode Quotes:

On returning back home after getting his MBA

"For me, that was never a question of whether to stay or to come back to Ukraine. That was my goal from day one. I wanted to build out the network, get the knowledge from UC Berkeley, meet a lot of talented people, but upon graduation, I always wanted to come back to Ukraine and start using and sharing that knowledge with Ukrainians because Ukraine is a young country with a lot of perspectives and a lot of opportunities."

Global awareness and spreading the word about the situation in Ukraine

"In the first couple of weeks, the whole world was buzzing about it but as time goes by… And I understand people have their own lives and they forget about what is happening in a country that could be thousands of miles away. But the war in Ukraine is not over yet. It's far from being over with that planned aggression of Eastern parts. Putin is not going to stop. His main goal is to demolish Ukraine as a nation. We need to fight back and we need to win. And for that, we need to have awareness around the globe. So, continue talking about this and continue watching the news, especially the independent news. Spread the word about what's happening."

Show Links:

• Dima Okhrimchuk on LinkedIn
• Dima Okhrimchuk on Facebook
• Dima Okhrimchuk on Instagram
• Organization GG
• Organization.GG Charity Marathon
• Universal link with various ways to support Ukraine

The OneHaas alumni podcast is honored to have Allan Spivack, philanthropist, community builder, and business leader, share his career path insights on today’s episode. 

Allan spent much of his childhood fascinated by how his dad ran their family home furnishings business. But he was also curious about how businesses could be used for social good. After getting his JD MBA from Haas, he combined his two passions into RGI Home which he led for more than 30 years. 

He and host Sean Li chat about Allan’s upbringing in New York, his unique business approach to RGI Home, and how a passion for community and social impact led him to study Middle Eastern politics and how that experience still influences his social entrepreneurship today. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On his relationship with his father

“I remember pretty vividly spending a lot of time with my dad when I was quite young…My dad was not just an engineer, but he was also an inventor. So I would sit in his work room with him and marvel at the mystery of the inventions that he was coming up with. Then he fought for a couple of patents and I didn't really know the content of what he was doing, but it looked so interesting and innovative. And that was my introduction to bringing a different point of view to product and his point of view as well.”

On his decision to get his JD MBA

“I've always been somebody who attempted to be a student always and this was a chance for me to catch up to what I missed when I was in undergrad.You know, having taken the kinds of classes that I thought would matter once I got into business the quantitative side of things. So, law was gonna teach me how to think one way, but I felt business school would teach me how to think a different way. And together, it would provide me with the best, most well-rounded education.”

Some of the challenges he faced running RGI Home

“How to run a business with no money. That was my first challenge. Along with that, running an international business by fax, no email. So you're faxing overseas or whatever, and you know, people who don't even speak your language and trying to figure out how to be able to integrate, you know, the various offices with the U.S. based offices.”

On his lasting legacy

“Since I was young, you know, I've always thought about transforming societies. I can never quite understand why people couldn't figure out how to connect with each other. And also I thought that somebody like myself who had a fortunate upbringing and also had the fortune to be really educated, to go to places like Haas, build the business, had a responsibility to do more. So when I went to build a business, it was not just about industry. It was also about the ability to be able to give back to the communities that I was working in.” 

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• RGI Home | History
• Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins

Happy Earth Day! In celebration, we had the pleasure to chat with Lynelle Cameron. She is a business executive, investor, and board member with 20+ years of corporate experience helping large and small companies capitalize on market opportunities related to ESG, sustainability, social impact, and climate change. She was most recently VP of Sustainability at Autodesk and CEO of the Autodesk Foundation and is currently at a pivot point in her career.

Lynelle got a Master's in Environmental Policy and Management from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at Michigan which enabled her to really double down at the intersection of people and the planet further. But after reading "The Ecology of Commerce" by Paul Hawken, she became aware that business is part of the problem but also part of the solution. And to effectively drive transformative change and change the trajectory we're on, we need to work within the private sector and change how business is done. So, she literally applied to business school the following weekend. During her tenure at Haas, she led the student efforts to help establish the Center for Responsible Business.

In this episode, Lynelle shares a bit about her upbringing and how she got into sustainability, her extensive professional career that started at Hewlett-Packard, her first job right out of Haas, to Autodesk, where she stayed for 15 years, and how sustainability has changed over the years and the lessons she learned along the way.

Finally, Lynelle talks about the exciting next chapter of her career, focusing on supporting boards that share her ambition around climate, ESG and beyond.

Episode Quotes: 

Why she focused on sustainability throughout her career

"My dad always asked us about how we want to contribute to making the world a better place. I think those conversations really sunk in, and it's become a north star for me, the idea that we do get to design careers that have impact at the forefront. I got degrees in cultural anthropology and environmental science. And throughout my career, I've been focused on, essentially, working with people on environmental challenges and thinking about how we can live more sustainably on the planet. That's always been a passion."

On choosing Haas 

"I chose Haas because there were no programs focused on responsible business like there are today, but it was a school that was founded on ethics. Haas was one of the first institutions that taught ethical leadership 100 years ago. In addition, there were initiatives starting to emerge in the Bay Area around sustainable business. It turned out to be the perfect school for me because there was a significant community of classmates with an aspiration to use business to drive change and positive good. I didn't know the first thing about business. There was some cultural shock when I got to business school and started to learn a whole new language. But it proved to be super important and catalytic in my career."

How she got into Autodesk and started their first sustainability group

"I kept hearing about this relatively small company that makes design software that is used, quite literally, to design and make everything that's built on the planet - from the building you're in, electric utility grids, whole cities, even the phone in your pocket. What if we could embed the principles of sustainability into the design software so that companies in all these different industries wouldn't need to have specific expertise in energy and materials? And so, I wrote Autodesk a letter and said, 'You're sitting on this incredible opportunity. The future of these industries is about sustainable design. And I'd love to help you get this program up and running. Fast forward a couple of months, I soon became a team of one at Autodesk. That was 14 years ago."

Lessons she learned about leadership in terms of driving change

"A couple of lessons I learned along the way. One, your adversaries can become your biggest advocates if you use them wisely. That was a key learning insight, to pay attention to your adversaries so that you can learn from them and bring them along on the journey. Another is the importance of teams and building strong effective, what I call, healthy teams. I think teams that have fun together are high-performing teams."

On where her focus is now after leaving Autodesk

"I'm focused on boards. I want to support boards who have an ambition around climate and ESG, but really, going beyond ESG. ESG is a useful framework that has helped people get on board, probably because there's an E, there's an S, there's a G. It's easy for our linear brains to think along those lines. But the real opportunity is to go beyond ESG and cultivate systems thinking in the boardroom and throughout companies, identifying patterns and interconnections across ESG. 

The other focus for me is what I call regenerative businesses. Again, I think of regeneration as going beyond sustainability. If sustainability is about sustaining and doing no harm from an impact perspective, regenerative businesses are those that are truly in the business of regenerating social, human, or natural systems

And then the third area is health and resilience. And I think about health and resilience from personal to planetary. If we are at our best in terms of health and resilience, we can do better work in the world."It’s these three vectors that are my focus for this next chapter—i

On finding value and meaning in your career to prevent mental illness

"There's something interesting happening right now in the workforce with talk of the great resignation catalyzed by the pandemic. And to me, that's really exciting. It's exciting because people are starting to feel a sense of agency that they can create meaning and have purpose when they go to work, versus, I think, generations in the past. You had your work. You earn your money. And then you give back in your volunteer time or community service work. But now, you see more and more people that are really looking for that meaning and purpose every day in their work. 

It's when you don't have meaning or purpose, you have this existential vacuum, that mental illness sets in. And so, I would say, if you don't feel like you have that meaning and purpose today in your career, it’s up to you to create it. So, pay attention to what your values are and how you can live your values at work, and get paid for that. The world is shifting and we need businesses that are directly in the business of restoring health to the planet and the people on it. This is a decisive decade coming up, and I'm optimistic about what's going to unfold."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken
• Plan C Advisors
• Indigo Ag
• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, today's episode features Michael Martin. He is a systems thinker, consensus builder, and self-starter who currently serves as the Data and Analytics Global Transformation Manager at Google. 

Michael and host Sean Li chatted about how mental well-being contributes to productivity and the importance of building a sphere of influence. Besides his professional work, Michael established the John E. Martin Memorial Fellowship and the John E. Martin Mental Healthcare Tech Challenge, a partnership with Google and Haas Healthcare Association.  He discussed how experiences in his personal life and family shaped how he became more self-aware. 

Episode Quotes:

On mental health and well-being is a continuous journey:

“Unlike certain physical issues where you go in for surgery, the issue is addressed and you're good to go thereafter. I think with mental health care, it's this constant journey and you're going through. It’s like this helix. Sometimes it looks like you're going up and sometimes it looks like you're going down, and trusting that you're proceeding forward in the right direction. It’s really one of the things that are so key to your ultimate success.”

What recent stigmas have you witnessed regarding mental health?

I think things are getting better. And I think that's because people are more comfortable sharing that, which is their full self. I bring this up because a lot of times, I’m personally concerned with what I see in social media where, what’s being presented is seemingly one's best life, perfect life. And probably in many ways, nothing to go and do with the majority of that individual's life.

On learning from the younger generation about speaking up on issues surrounding mental health:

“The faster that we go and identify that there are issues, the faster, I think we're going to come up with effective solutions. And it's a bit of like, that first step in the 12 step program where you're going. I'm admitting that I’m no longer in control of this[...]But I certainly think, to go and admit that, is something that our younger generations have a much easier time doing. I'm really appreciative of that in a strange kind of way. I think they're actually teaching folks that are much more senior, the power that you can have, by going and sharing that part of your story.”

How can writing help you build habits that help improve your mental well-being?

“By writing things down, I feel like it gives them a chance to go and have their voice documented. In a sense, be listened to. I think one of the things we always strive for, it's we just want to go and be heard. It's a really empowering thing. It's a really great way of loving oneself, not in a narcissistic way. But, in terms of showing compassion to all of those facets of you and it goes along the way up this idea of striving for perfection.”

Show Links: 

• LinkedIn
• Haas Healthcare Association and John E. Martin Mental Healthcare Challenge

Today's episode is all about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Bree had the pleasure to chat with Nicole Sanchez, full-time MBA, class of 2012. She is the founder and CEO of Vaya Consulting, which offers best-in-class DEI, leadership, and culture consulting services for companies shaping the 21st century, primarily in technology and media.

Nicole has been doing DEI professionally for more than 20 years. In this episode, she shared her definition of diversity, equity, and inclusion and why creating DEI in the workplace became her passion.

This passion ultimately led Nicole to found Vaya Consulting. She started her own consulting company where she could go and do DEI on her terms and rules.

Furthermore, Nicole shared the challenges she faced when she began Vaya and gave us insights on how they carefully choose their clients. She also let us in on how they address wellness and mental health in their workplace, which is essential during this time.

Episode Quotes:

Her definition of DEI in a nutshell

"Diversity is you get a bunch of different people together, and you focus a lot on race. Equity is how we disperse resources and make decisions that ultimately are fair and point us towards outcomes we want. Inclusion is how do people feel when they're inside. It's about shaping your cultural norms around the actual shape of the people who make up your company."

Why psychological safety is currently her favorite entry point into DEI

"The most fundamental thing we need in a group is psychological safety. All people from all backgrounds want to feel safe. So, I start everything that was psychological safety. It fundamentally means that you're able to take risks without fear of repercussions, that you can say things and try things and point out problems without fear of the floor dropping out from under you. That's what it means in the workplace."

What people can do/change to create DEI in the workplace

"No matter what organization you're in and what your background is, no matter how involved or not involved you've been, there is a group of people of color in your company who is talking about this, whether it's been formalized or not. Get connected to that group and find out what's up. It's the same thing as any community organizing. Somebody else is already doing this work and has a good lay of the land and connect with them to see what they've tried, what they need support with, and what you can do to help."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Vaya Consulting

Our conversations for Pride Month continue with musician and composer Adrienne Torf. She and a few classmates co-founded the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual MBA Students Group, known today as Q@Haas.

Adrienne has been a piano player her entire life, but after getting her undergraduate degree in Political Science at Stanford, she saw an opportunity to help fellow self-employed musicians build their businesses. She just needed to acquire the business skills before she could share them with her community of self-employed creatives. Getting her MBA at Haas sparked a second set of interests, and she spent the next 30 years in the for-profit and nonprofit worlds while still recording, performing and composing music. 

Adrienne and host Sean Li discuss her recent retirement from nonprofit CFO work and full-time return to music and composing, what it was like forming an LGBTQ student group at Haas in the ‘90s, and the current threat facing LGBTQ rights. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Her tough decision to either stay in school or go on tour

My father, ever the entrepreneur and, I think, really an insightful parent, cut me a deal. He said, “You finish school. You've only got a year to go, finish your undergrad, and I will pay your rent for a year after you graduate. So you can work as a musician without worrying about where you're gonna sleep at night.”

What drew her to business school

I wanted to come back to the community of artists, of which I was a member, with wisdom, with knowledge, with resources. And over time, I have been able to do that, but not as directly as I had intended when I started at Haas.

The challenges her student group faced in the ‘90s

When we wanted to get the word out that we were having meetings, many of the other men who were gay and who wanted to be connected to this group insisted that we not put announcements about the meetings in their mailboxes, which anybody could poke into if they wanted to. So we had to fairly clandestinely post notices about our meeting times and places on bulletin boards where these guys would sneak by and get the information. 

What she hopes people will do this Pride Month

Spend half an hour reading about all of the legislation in all of the states that is designed to silence the voices of queer and trans people that is designed to deprive everybody of books and films and curricula that keep us visible, and that are already making it impossible for trans people to access the medical care that they need in order to be physically healthy as who they are. Read that stuff, and I hope you will be compelled to do something about it.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Adrienne’s music on Spotify and Apple 
• Q@Haas

Happy Pride Month! In celebration, we chatted with Mikhail Shneyder, President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as an owner of Nightingale College, an accredited, proprietary, post-secondary institution that specializes in nursing education, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is an experienced, visionary leader with a successful career of over 20 years of progressive management experience in health care services and post-secondary education for health professions. Through a generous gift to Haas, Mikhail and his husband also recently named the new Shneyder & Kirk MBA Commons on campus.

Mikhail is originally from Belarus. His family immigrated to the US when he was 19. Coming to the US was an eye-opener. All his childhood imagination dreams about America vanished immediately. Mikhail went on to do odd jobs for a few years, including dressing up as Barney in Times Square. However, after passing the RN licensure exam, he started to practice nursing.

In this episode, Mikhail shares the unique story behind their move to the US, his early experiences after moving, fully realizing he’s gay, and the dark part of his journey into finding and accepting himself and overcoming the challenges along the way.

We also get to hear why Mikhail is passionate about healthcare, his reasons for going to business school, and how he got into education. He also talks about the mission and goals of Nightingale and its plans for the future.

Episode Quotes:

On realizing that he's gay

“I really didn't understand. It wasn't spoken at all. Growing up, I didn't know the LGBT community even existed. It's an interesting thing of identity with me finding that eventually. But I didn't fully realize that I was gay until we moved to the States. And all of a sudden, it was like something smacking you in the face. I went like, ‘Wow. Oh, wow! Oh, it makes sense.’ All of this that I've been experiencing.”

Overcoming the darkness of finding his true self

“Climbing back out of what I described as darkness, really, took a long time. And as a human being, I think the biggest fear that one might have is fear of being in your own skin, fear of yourself. And so, for me, reconciling and journeying to self-acceptance and to my humanity, essentially, and recognizing it and learning about it and doing all of that. But it was many years of hard work, and everything from just becoming much healthier—from movement to meditation to all sorts of things—and then eventually arriving at this place of just peace.”

Why he is passionate about nursing

“I ended up being one of the caregivers to mom and learning through it all, started to understand what health really is and what health brings to an individual, a family, or a community, and the opposite of health, what illness does. And so, I became very passionate about it. It became absolutely clear that nursing is what I loved and nursing is what I have passion for, because of the care that it has at the heart of it because of what nurses can do for somebody who is on their worst day and supporting them, and nurturing them and allowing them and giving them the resources and tools and everything else and the support that's needed for somebody to get better and to flourish.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Nightingale College

In today’s episode, host Sean Li is joined by co-host, fellow alumni, CEO, and co-founder of Sounding Board Christine Tao. An exciting conversation takes place between them and Roy Ng, the founder, and CEO of Bond

In honor of AAPI month, the group tackled relevant social issues. Learn how they navigated this situation as leaders of their organization and members of the Asian-American community.

Take note of how they draw inspiration from successful Asian-American founders. They discussed their struggles as leaders in addressing social issues. Tune in until the episode’s end as they tackle how diversity helps build better business outcomes.

Episode Quotes:

On creating a diverse team: 

"On diversity, I don't look at diversity as an HR topic. I look at diversity as to how to build the best possible team that can address what our customers want [...] Diversity is a way for you to be successful, to incorporate the broadest scope of perspectives as possible in everything that you do [...] Diversity is a business imperative. Diversity is not philanthropy.”

Their views on balancing being a CEO, connecting with employees and customers amidst movements and social issues: 

"I think companies can be a very positive influence in terms of shaping, society and shaping culture [...] You can't be purely apolitical. I don't think that's possible." -Roy Ng

"People want connection. People want to understand more than ever. Even customers, your employees, those things matter[...] It's through friction, through conversation that you are able to create more understanding." -Christine Tao

Thoughts as a founder, a member of the AAPI community, and succeeding:

"There are a lot of people who kind of look like you with a similar background. Those who are immigrants, coming into a new country, who are successful entrepreneurs. I think for me, it's also validation. To me paying it forward to kind of fund that next generation of Asian entrepreneurs. That's the reason why I got involved."

Show Links:

• Roy Ng’s LinkedIn Profile
• Official Website of Bond
• Bond as Featured in Fortune.com
• Christine Tao’s LinkedIn Profile
• Christine Tao’s Profile at Sounding Board
• Sounding Board, Coaching Leaders for Business Impact

Alejandra is an Associate at Bee Partners. Her infinite curiosity and strategic thinking brought her to Asset Management. Her quest for large-scale impact and a greater connection with the people she supports attracted her to Venture Capital. 

Alejandra was born and raised in Chile. Her family spent some time here in the US before going back, where she reconnected with her roots.

In this episode, Alejandra shares her origin story, her career path from finance to venture capital, and why she pursued an MBA even with an already successful career.

We also hear about Alejandra's passion as an endurance athlete and how the things she has learned through her training experiences align with what she does in her current role at Bee Partners.

Episode Quotes:

On getting an MBA

It was something that I had always been thinking in the back end. And when I started having these questions of what's next and I just really hated visualizing and seeing what was coming next. It was all great, but I didn't want to have that level of certainty and have everything so figured out, being 20-something. And so, that's when I realized I want to change and I want something drastically different, not just a pivot or a tack that's similar to what I'm already doing.

On taking her MBA during the pandemic

I saw coming to business school during the pandemic as a good opportunity in the sense that a lot of things were going to change. And being a student, I felt, was the best way to experience that change and really learn about things that were going to be dramatically different, if we were able to get out of it or when we got out of it. And so, I saw it as a great opportunity to be a student rather than to be working and trying to do everything business as usual when the world was not business as usual.

Parallels between her experiences as an endurance athlete and her current role

The first thing is it's a marathon, not a sprint. And that means that you probably want things to happen now, but it's really important to just focus on what you have in front of you, have a vision of what you want the future to look like, what you want success to look like, but really hold it there, because you can't do both at the beginning. You have to focus on the present moment. And as you make progress, you start incorporating that future vision into whatever it is you're doing. But in the beginning, it's just about where am I. And what does the next short iteration cycle look like?

Alejandra's word of wisdom to the Haas community

I feel like every important decision that I've had to make, although I've done a lot of rational thinking, in the end, it comes down to intuition. And I think that's my inspiration here. 

When you have to decide between different paths, rationality doesn't really help. Being rational helps you look at pros and cons, but you can very quickly and easily trick yourself into thinking this option is right, and then two seconds later saying, "No, no, no, but this one is better because of another reason."

And so, when you're thinking about these broader scale paths or large decisions, it's really about your gut, honestly. And then rationalization is great for execution. It's great for, “I decided my path. And now, let me break this down, figure out where I want to go from here.” But listen to what you feel. I think connecting with your inner self and having that awareness — internal and external awareness — can go a really, really long way.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

We welcome Eric Sassano to the podcast today. Eric earned his B.S. in Business Administration at the University of California at Berkeley and currently finishing his MBA at Haas. He works in Investment Strategy at Compound. Before joining Compound, he was with Caprock Group as Manager of Private Investments. Eric began his career at Hall Capital Partners, a multi-family office based in San Francisco. He initially spent his time advising clients on portfolio allocation decisions. Subsequently, he focused on research and due diligence for the firm's Private Equity and Venture Capital fund investments. 

Eric grew up close to Berkeley, so it's no surprise that he is a Double Bear. In this episode, we get to know a little about his upbringing, growing up within the Berkeley ecosystem, his experiences both in undergrad and graduate school, and why going to business school is one of the best personal investments he has ever made.

Eric also shares what got him in the investment space, how portfolio management works, and the future of investing.

Episode Quotes:

On growing up within the Berkeley ecosystem, getting his undergrad, and coming back for graduate school

“I was pretty awestruck by that experience. And such a beautiful campus. I never really appreciated that growing up, but as I've come back to Berkeley again, some of my best memories are taking walks throughout the campus. And so, that's been an important part of just being immersed in this, again, just long-tenured history.

I'm fortunate to have that younger perspective and now a little bit older perspective. And I've certainly tried not to take it for granted because I think life is happening fast at 18, 19 years old. And you miss out on certain things just because things are moving so quickly. So, as I've come back, it's really trying to take the time and appreciate the experience for whatever it is.”

Transitioning from being a collegiate athlete to a hardcore student 

“It was hard. I felt steps behind, Imposter Syndrome, whatever you want to call it. Still, I'm certainly out of my league. And certainly, I have overcome some of those things. But when I came back to Haas, it was another feeling of that again because such impressive people around you have done so many awesome and interesting things, like, whoa, how do I even deserve to be in this cohort of people?

But I wouldn't lie that I certainly struggled for a period of time before I found my footing and that internal drive and belief to say, you know what? I do deserve to be right here. I can work at this level.”

On his experiences at Haas 

“You're making an investment in yourself. And ultimately, it's been one of the best personal investments that I've made in myself, both from a financial return and non-financial return perspective. I think the relationships between professors, colleagues, and alumni have been unbelievable. I think you can't put a price on this professionalization and self-confidence-building exercise that I think a lot of people go through when they go through an MBA program. You get to a point where, perhaps, before it was a little bit fake it till you make it. And then, after, you're like, ‘No, I can do this. I can learn something totally new and thrive and succeed in that.’ So, I think that's been incredibly invaluable.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

What happens when you combine the tools of entrepreneurship with the lens of social change? Today, we speak with Alex Budak, co-founder of StartSomeGood, a crowdsourcing platform for social impact initiatives, which has raised over $10 Million USD to fund more than 1,000 different projects across 50 countries using a grassroots community-driven approach.

Currently teaching at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, his courses are aptly named “Becoming A Changemaker” and “The Berkeley Changemaker”.

In this episode, we delve into Alex’s passion behind empowering changemakers and reinventing leadership—emphasizing qualities such as humility, empathy, and how a changemaker mindset requires changemaker action.

Episode Quotes:

On the idea for founding StartSomeGood:

“For so long I had thought that change comes from one or two big organizations like the Red Cross. I realized that actually Changemakers are everywhere in the world and that all of us can lead positive change from where we are just like this. . . . So often you couldn't raise money until you can prove your impact, but usually couldn't prove your impact until you had raised money as this terrible catch-22. So we saw an opportunity to democratize the way that we fund social ventures, believing inherently that no one knows better what a community needs than the community itself.”

On being a changemaker:

“So much of change-making is rooted in critical thinking. It's the ability to identify problems, but I would argue it's not just to jump right into solving problems. It's one of the things that I really try to work with my students on—is to kind of sit in the problem, sit in the discomfort that comes with identifying something and not being sure exactly how to solve it. . . . [T]hat allows you to make sure that you're not just solving a problem, but you're solving the right problem.”

On network-based leadership:

“The best changemakers will think of themselves through networks, not just as individuals.”

On helping fellow changemakers:

“[We] rolled up our sleeves everywhere from helping them come up with the videos that they would shoot to helping them write their copy. . . . Now, we had a secret weapon, which is that all of the people we worked with were incredibly passionate. They're change-makers. They wanted to make a difference and that story was latent in them. And so in many ways, our job was just to help pull that story, pull that narrative out of them. . . . Any changemaker who wants to lead that type of positive change—they’re driven. They have a powerful why."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

• StartSomeGood

In this episode, our guest is Robert Paylor, a public speaker, and motivational leader, with the story of defining the odds and overcoming challenges. Robert shares his passion and purpose with others, which has allowed him to battle paralysis and achieve goals, no matter how daunting they may seem. 

Robert broke his neck in the 2017 Collegiate Rugby National Championship, and that accident instantly changed his life. He was told he would never walk or move his hands again. However, by shifting his mindset, he could walk again, do more, and be more. 

Robert took a leap of faith by turning down an offer from Intel to go into public speaking. He has embarked on a career as an inspirational speaker and has begun writing a book with the working title, “Paralyzed and Powerful.”

Episode Quotes:

On competing for Cal's rugby team

"It was a tremendous opportunity to compete for the rugby program and go to school at a place like Cal. But it was also a significant challenge. I really had a hard time wrapping my head around not being a starter or being a mediocre or a subpar student amongst all these very bright people from all across the world. But I knew that the challenge was going to be significant. And really, in rugby, I'm not the fastest person out there on the field, by any means. And in the classroom, I'm not the brightest person. But I thought I had a good work ethic that would help me to be able to balance those scales and hopefully give me an edge."

On making one of the biggest decisions in his life

"In my mind, I was thinking that the answer was made. I couldn't believe that this had happened to me, but it did happen. And I've got one life. And I'm not going to spend the rest of my life with a victim's mindset, always thinking about what was and not what is, and what could have been, but what can I do? I couldn't stay in that mindset. I just needed to know that I was going to give absolutely everything I had to get absolutely everything I could get. I could live the rest of my life in a wheelchair or completely paralyzed, and I'll be okay with that as long as I give it everything I have. So, I decided to go into the surgery, and I said my prayers. I said goodbye to my family. I got rolled into the operating room. I closed my eyes. And that concluded May 6th, 2017."

Being optimistic despite the challenges

"Sometimes we can just have a mountain of a task in front of us, or we can just have this cataclysmic failure or drop in our lives that we just experience. And it can seem like we're just helpless, that there's nothing that we can do. We always have the ability to keep moving forward. We always have the ability to react in a positive way, with optimism."

Robert's word of wisdom

“My go-to for this is to be grateful for every day and moment. It's the advice I would give myself if I could go back and talk to myself on May 6th, 2017. This injury has shown me that life is fragile and life is a gift, and we ought to treat our life like a gift, embrace it, be grateful for it, to have the joy of receiving that gift every day. There are going to be challenges that impact us in our lives. And we don't have any control over that. But regardless, we ought to always focus on the positive things we have in our lives. There's always somebody who has it worse, and that's important for us to realize as well, to maintain that perspective, both looking through our experiences and the experiences of others, and to help us have that gratitude, just to realize the immense great things we have in our lives and just to never forget it. And when we start feeling down, to try to control our mindsets and remember that."

Show Links:

• Robert on LinkedIn
• Robert's website

In commemoration of Native American Heritage Month, Indian Country Executive Michael Garrow joins the OneHaas podcast to talk about his cultural heritage, his career, and his time at the Haas School of Business. 

Michael is a member of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in upstate New York and grew up on the reservation. After spending some time in an aviation career, he applied to Haas to get his MBA so he could give back to his community. 

Michael and host Sean Li discuss what it was like growing up on a reservation, the current challenges facing Native American communities, and how Michael has been able to use his MBA to help his tribe economically. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Why he decided to change careers and get his MBA

“I just started wanting to learn more about the finance and operations side and help the tribes. That really was my passion was to be able to give back to the community. When I applied to Berkeley, that's what I said I was going to do. And that's what I had always done with the reservation is helping youth and trying to develop the economy of the tribe because there's nothing really here. It's economically depressed.”

How gaming changed the economic landscape for tribes

“It gave our parents jobs, or in my case, us jobs, so our children had somebody to guide. Meaning like, they could see like a career path… You can get a job in a casino, and you can go get your education. But what's interesting with the Mohawks is a lot of people went to Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, back in the 1800s. So we are one of the most educated tribes, like reservations, where people have education. It's a big part of our culture is getting your education. So growing up was tough because there was not much opportunity.”

How his generation keeps the next generation involved and connected to their culture

“I think a  lot of that responsibility lies in the home with the parents and making sure they get out. For the Mohawks, a big part of our culture is the sports, you know, unplugging them and they're involved in sports and they have a positive outlet rather than drugs, alcohol. So I think doing things with your children as they're growing up. So when they're teenagers, you have a relationship with them, so they'll listen to you better.” 

His advice to young Native Americans about the value of college 

“I've talked to a lot of tribal youth and said, ‘Oh, I don't want to get in debt.’ And I would, almost like a spreadsheet, explain to them how it makes sense to get in debt for a university. How you would be better off. I always say, ‘Well, you can get your sneaker at Walmart or you can get a Nike sneaker. Which one has more perceived value? Well, the Nike does.’ And then go, ‘Well, that's about education. You go to a top university, the top employers hire there. And so that's why you need to work hard to get into these universities.’”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile

Christina Ma discusses how Haas School of Business prepared her for leading a cross-cultural and cross-border team at Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific. The episode features an exciting conversation between her and Dr. Brandi Pearce together with host, Sean Li about how she managed a team with diverse cultures. 

Her advice for building a high-performance team? Listen to everyone within the organization, from the CEO to the newest employees. A key insight that she offers is that leaders shouldn't follow one-size-fits-all communication methods when dealing with employees.

She ends with an important message about the importance of genuine recognition, nurturing passion, and encouraging empathy as key ingredients to a truly successful global team.

Episode Quotes:

On how Haas gave her a good foundation on diversity:

“It was an amazing two years. The people that I met in terms of the types of people, the variety, both international and domestic, the industries. It's not something that I think I could have outlined, you read the glossy brochures and you say, 'Oh, okay. That's great. That's great' [...] the program was slightly smaller and it was high on the diversity factor, whether it was ethnicity or from a gender perspective. I don't think any of that, the brochures, the marketing material is wonderful, but I don't think any of that did justice to that fact.

How do you build a culture of honesty and transparency between junior and senior members of a culturally diverse team?

“It’s the market and then stocks move as they are. So sometimes you have to listen to the junior member of the team because they noticed something that you don't. And, you have to make sure that they're fully confident enough that they can speak up, and say to someone like me that, “Hey, this is wrong. You’ve got to look at this”, and so on. Building that trust amongst the team that they can say stuff to you, that maybe might feel a little bit hard, or, telling a senior person that they're wrong is important.”

Her advice on maintaining her drive for growth:

“So my view is always, you have to have passion for, and you have to be interested in, and be passionate about what it is that you do. Because otherwise it just seems like a job, then it becomes dreary. As opposed to a career and something that is upstep and forward.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Meet Goldman Sach’s 3 New Hong Kong Partners

The OneHaas Alumni Podcast is pleased to welcome Keith and Kenneth Tsang, who are not only identical twins, but also had identical triple majors at UC Berkeley – political science, psychology, and business.

After being born in the Bay Area, Keith and Kenneth moved to Hong Kong where they spent the first formative years of their childhood. Growing up in a family that prioritized education and exploration, the twins developed a strong sense of curiosity for the world around them. It’s this curiosity that sparked their desire to pursue not one, but three majors for their undergraduate degrees at UC Berkeley. 

Keith and Kenneth chat with host Sean Li about how they applied those three majors to careers in entrepreneurship, lessons they learned from growing up in Hong Kong and then reacclimating in the U.S., and how their career journeys have taken shape thanks to a healthy dose of staying curious and making friends. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Kenneth on why their decision to add business as a second major

“ I think we were just blown away from the beginning, like, wow, all this business stuff is completely different from your history class and your chemistry classes in high school. It felt practical and relevant. And I think we were hooked pretty early on. And I think, to be honest, I think Keith and I are a bit competitive, and then I think with Haas, some people might know, the undergraduate is competitive and we figured we can do this too. So let's get in on this game and succeed here.”

Keith on how the brothers identify entrepreneurial opportunities

“ I've worked in all kinds of businesses and industries, obviously venture capital, then you have Nest with thermostats. I've also worked at LinkedIn and Meta, big companies, but also small companies doing housekeeping double-sided marketplace and robot delivery pizza. So it's a little bit of everything. But part of that is just being open to what's interesting, like do you see value here? Like are you able to have an impact? So that's like the first checkbox you're looking at: can you actually do something that is influencing change? And the second part of it is just being able to be open with your network… like you're talking to people and you're learning about these things and when something catches your interest, you just learn a little bit more and see whether you have a role to play in that. So I think that's, at a high level, that's what it really is, being open to these opportunities.”

Kenneth on being a student always

“ …Just to plug the Haas values, just being student always, I think the learning never stops. And I think that curiosity sort of kept us going. And in hindsight, I think a lot of these things are hard to plan. They're kind of serendipitous, but I think if you're open to learning and then having that curiosity is what sort of led us down these paths that we've taken.”

Keith on how their parents nurtured their curiosity early on

“ They definitely provided us with different opportunities to explore our interests – playing different sports, soccer, baseball, being in the Boy Scouts, which I think was actually one of the best experiences. It was kind of where we were able to just experience all kinds of things like archery, horseback riding, stuff like that, and just try different things. And I think that really is important for setting that foundation to be curious always, is that you are able, you're comfortable being in new situations and after the first time you realize that's enjoyable, you do it a second time, it's still enjoyable and you just keep it up. But I think if you were in a situation or environment where that is limited, you're always being constantly told no, I can very much see how that could be hampered.”

Show Links:

• Kenneth’s LinkedIn Profile
• Keith’s LinkedIn Profile

Today at the OneHaas Podcast, we have the pleasure to chat with Eric Alessi, EWMBA class of 2020 and a member of the Blue cohort. Eric recently transitioned from Pinterest to Masterclass as an Insights Manager.

Eric grew up in New York but spent some time in Italy, originally where his father was from. He studied History and Legal Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

In this episode, Eric shares his career experiences from being a contractor at Facebook, an Ops Specialist and Insights Lead at Pinterest, and now an Insights Manager at Masterclass. He tells us some fascinating details about being part of the insights team and what it's like to be on the other side of the table.

Eric also talks about what led him to get an MBA, what he's excited about in his new role in Masterclass, and his favorite masterclasses.

Episode Quotes:

His decision to get an MBA

"My primary motivation for starting the part-time MBA program was really around knowledge. I'd never really taken a marketing class or a strategy class, obviously, our core to an MBA. I just felt like those were huge gaps in knowledge myself. And it actually ended up being very helpful for transitioning on the insight side and move into a more business-focused role."

How does an Insights Team utilize data?

"We try to do a kind of a broad read of an audience or a topic to really find different insights that would be relevant to different industries. And so, that's more of an open-ended process. It takes a lot of time because you need to start with tons of unfiltered data and insights, and when you're really trying to look for those meaningful nuggets of information that are insights and not just random pieces of data, but things that tie together, things that illustrate a larger trend, are statistically significant, you get very excited when you find those and they're really compelling, but it takes a lot of time."

What's exciting about his new role at Masterclass

"What really got me excited about this role was that, in just talking to people at the company, using it myself, there was such strong overlap between what I enjoyed about Pinterest of like people using the service to explore their passions and having a positive feeling about what they're doing.

It's entertaining, but you're learning something new. You're exploring something that you're interested in. I find that very much like a compelling value proposition."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking
• Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation
• Werner Herzog Teaches Filmmaking
• Jimmy Chin Teaches Adventure Photography

The OneHaas alumni podcast is thrilled to welcome Dr. Victor Santiago Pineda – a social impact entrepreneur, globally-recognized human rights expert, and a leading scholar on inclusive and accessible smart cities. 

After immigrating to the U.S. at seven years old and navigating life with a disability, Dr. Pineda graduated from the Haas School of Business in 2002 and has since gone on to advise Fortune 500 companies, negotiate international sustainability agreements, founded and run the foundation World ENABLED, and is an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Sciences. 

Dr. Pineda chats with host Sean Li about moving to the U.S. from Venezuela, the different opportunities that gave him, his work to enact social change in the world, and why building inclusive environments benefits everyone. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

The impact that moving from Venezuela to the U.S. had on Dr. Pineda

“My mother was told that I would not be able to be educated, that I would not be able to have a job, I would not be able to form a family. And all of those ended up being not true, because it wasn't my physical limitations that constrained me but the lack of public policies, the lack of institutions, programs, and laws that allowed somebody like me to thrive. That all changed when I came to California.”

How Dr. Pineda is enacting worldwide social change with his work

“We're not going to fix these challenges by only pointing out what's wrong with the world, but rather what's investing in what's right with the world. So what we've invested in, in a partnership with the city of Amsterdam, was a three-year project on leveraging AI to map access barriers. Now that's important for disaster risk management and for emergency preparedness, as well as for infrastructure upgrading and climate adaptations.”

How listeners can make an impact and support Dr. Pineda’s mission

“We can each become advocates for more inclusive innovation, no matter what sphere we work in. I think sharing my research around AI, this playbook on inclusive cities, the autism-friendly design guidelines, as well as some of the work we're doing to build a global advisory council on inclusive innovation becomes ways that the very talented Haas community could connect with real systems change.”

Dr. Pineda’s thoughts on ensuring AI is used as a force for good in the future 

“I think we need to open up our hearts. I think we need to be grounded with who we are as individuals, what we value, and really create a more intentional approach to how we direct our attention. Because what you appreciate, appreciates, right? If we're in a fear economy, we're feeding fear. For an economy that's investing in more integrated, holistic approaches, we're building those.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• The Victor Pineda Foundation
• World Enabled
• My Disability Justice Youtube series
• Victor Santiago Pineda’s book: Building the Inclusive City: Governance, Access, and the Urban Transformation of Dubai 

Other recommended reads in this episode: 

• Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life) by Kat Holmes 
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle 

One of the key issues that employers and job seekers face today is the overcompetitiveness of the job market. Many industries are affected by the pandemic, and companies are finding ways to efficiently spend budget by hiring the right person fit for the job. At the same time, the sheer number of displaced workforce contributed more to the already cutthroat employment marketplace. Our guest in this episode, Brett Waikart, leads a company that aims to reshape how corporate recruiters hire valuable team members, making the hiring process more effective, efficient, and equitable.

Brett is MBA 2020 and Co-Founder and CEO of Skilful.ly, an employment platform that focuses on demonstrated in-demand job skills, science-backed cognitive strengths, and drive to hustle. Through this platform, skilled job seekers can access opportunities that are otherwise only accessible to university graduates.

Listen to this podcast to discover how Brett and his team started creating an equitable and efficient hiring process for recruiters and job-seeking candidates.

Episode quotes:

What is Skilful.ly and how does it provide an equitable opportunity to job seekers?

[00:00:33] Skillful.ly at its core is building a more equitable alternative to allow the employment platforms that are out there today. And we reached that equity by focusing on the demonstration of relevant job skills first and foremost.

[00:01:31] It is built around the premise that what really matters and what's really most representative of someone's potential in a particular job is not the match in some of those factors that have become the heuristics, that have become the metrics that those systems really based themselves off of, but rather the affirmative confirmation that you actually have the skills that are required for a particular job. 

What do you consider the most important aspect of becoming a startup founder?

[00:35:10] I think what gets lost is just how meaningful it is and how important it is to find the team that you want to work with to build those relationships, to invest in them. I think that is maybe the hardest challenge, but the most rewarding pursuit in terms of the benefits that have accrued from that is to spend a lot of time and a lot of thought on how to build that team. That is the secret to your long-term success, as opposed to any idea that's locked up between your ears.

Show Links:

• Brett Waikart on LinkedIn
• Skillful.ly Official Website

For women’s history month, the OneHaas Alumni Podcast is pleased to welcome Olivia Chen, a Haas undergrad alumna and the co-founder of Twrl Milk Tea.

Like so many of the best entrepreneurial ventures, Twrl was born out of a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic. With boba milk tea shops closed, Olivia and her co-founder Pauline Ang were finding ways to still enjoy the treat at home while also making a version of milk tea that prioritizes quality and pays tribute to their Taiwanese and Chinese heritage. 

Olivia joins host Sean Li to chat about being raised by immigrant parents from Taiwan, her career journey from Haas to Twrl, and Olivia dishes on all the ways her on-the-go milk teas are taking the boba industry by storm.

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On her family’s deep Berkeley roots

“I actually am,  I would say, like a Berkeley baby, because we were in the Berkeley family housing units, there are baby photos of me playing on the playground. And so Berkeley has always been a really big part of my identity because my family, my dad are Berkeley alums. And so, my parents were really, really proud when I actually was accepted into Berkeley. And so being kind of from the Bay Area, you know, when relatives came, the first place we'd take them would be Berkeley to go see the campus. And so when I got in, it was kind of a no-brainer that I would be attending.”

Lessons on entrepreneurship from her parents’ career paths 

“ How the evolution of entrepreneurship goes is, you know, you climb one mountain, but you're at the bottom of another hill. And so you just keep climbing these mountains and then you just hope you can peak at an amazing peak. And so that is literally entrepreneurship. That is also the journey of an immigrant, right? Like, you go through these ebbs and flows of mastering language or mastering cultural norms.  And so those types of skills that I've seen my parents persevere with, they have been very, very motivating.”

On what makes Twrl stand out

“ What makes our canned drinks unique is we're the first to bring nitro infusion to the tea category. We're the first to bring pea protein. And so there's very little innovation in the last 30, 40, 50 years of the tea category. So we are literally the first tea brand out of all these big players out there to bring nitrogen infusion, to use pea protein. So it has actually changed a lot of things that are happening in the tea category itself.”

On how Twrl got its name 

“ Twrl is a really special name for us because we, you know, think about our heritage and our origin. And an emperor was walking through a garden holding a hot cup of water and a leaf twirled into his cup and that's where the first brewed tea was born. That's the origin story. And we'd love to kind of say that, you know, our brand is steeped in history, but we're twirling for the future. And so we're really excited to share a little bit more about ourselves. And we're really, really proud of our heritage as Taiwanese and Chinese Americans.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Twrl Milk Tea
• Podcast Rec: How I Built This with Guy Raz 

Episode #46: Celebrating Pride Month on the OneHaas Podcast, we're honored to have Stacy Nathaniel Jackson join us on the show today. He is a fellow Haas alum from the class of 1990. Stacy talks about how being an over-achiever and solid performer helped him achieve a successful career in senior positions in corporate and nonprofit.

As an African American transgender artist-activist, he has served on various community boards including mayoral appointee of the San Francisco Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force, UCSF Chancellor's GLBT Advisory Committee, San Francisco LGBT Community Center Project, and former board president of Fresh Meat Productions, a leading transgender and queer performing arts nonprofit.

Stacy has since retired and is now focused on being an author, artist, and activist.

Our guest is Stanley Lam, Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon. Stanley is an experienced business and technology professional with experience in engineering and product management. At Haas, Stanley was a Dean's Fellow and the VP of Careers for the Haas Technology Club.

Stanley was born in Hong Kong and moved to the US alone when he was only 15 to study high school in a boarding school in Missouri. Here, he learned how to be independent, and he considers this experience one of his life's pivotal moments.

In this episode, Stanley shares his journey of moving from a small town to a big city, his experiences studying in every major college in California, and his career pivots.

Stanley also tells us why he decided to pursue an MBA, commuting experience, the importance of networking, and the value of jumping out of comfort zones and challenging the status quo.

Community:

Join the community for this podcast at clever.fm/haas. Here you can ask the guest a question, connect with other listeners, and leave your thoughts.

Episode Quotes:

On moving from a small town to a big city for college

“That was challenging for me actually, just getting myself out there. Although I have everything that I learned from college, you just have to throw yourself out there, knowing that you probably don't know what you're getting yourself into, but you just have to believe in your gut feeling that this is what you want to do and where you want to be and just do it. Just that experience of jumping out of my comfort zone is something I'd take with me.”

Transitioning from being a student to a professional right after grad school

“It's definitely different. There's a lot of responsibility that, as a student, you don't have to deal with. Getting yourself situated with all the financial stuff, just one thing, and then just getting to be responsible. It's not late for homework anymore, or late for an exam. This is actual business. There's actually a business impact for you not living up to your expectations or doing what you're supposed to do. So, that's a big change. But I think, again, going back to my high school experience, just being independent, that helped me a lot in transitioning to the real world pretty quickly. Especially, getting exposed to very diverse people really early in my life helped me. It's just easy for me to get along with a lot of other people. That helped me a lot at work, honestly. Just to understand different cultures really quickly in my life is pretty good.”

A piece of advice for everyone

"Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. You only have a finite amount of time. And everyone dies. You just got to get out of your comfort zone. You will always remember when you get out of your comfort zone. You probably won't remember when you are in the comfort zone."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• clever.fm/haas

Having endured a major health setback, Brad Kittredge was pushed to think of ways to address a lesser-known but more pervasive problem: the lack of quality mental health care. The healthcare sector faces many issues, including bureaucratic structures, guess and check diagnosis systems, and inadequate access. Fast forward to today, Haas alum Brad Kittredge has contributed to the digital health space by developing tools that enable data-driven health care services. 

Brad is MBA 09 and the Founder and CEO of Brightside, a company that provides expert depression and anxiety treatment from home comfort.

Listen to this podcast with Brad Kittredge as he tackles the gaps in our health care systems. He impacts the digital health space by building a whole new type of mental health care delivered with telemedicine technology and data.

Episode quotes:

How did the pervasive issue of lack of quality mental health care affect you on a personal level?

[00:06:55] It hit home for me because my father has managed depression my whole life. And I saw the ups and downs that he had as he went over ten years from seeking care to finding a treatment that worked. And so, it just really set me off on this mission of how do I take these tools that I'm excited about and this trend of empowering people to drive their healthcare and apply it to really fixing mental healthcare delivery. That one event of having a personal health setback turned into a positive and set me on a track to do work that I find really interesting and rewarding. 

Did you ever doubt that putting all your time, energy, and resources into digital health would pay off? 

[00:11:58] I never felt afraid of failing. Maybe that was something I already had, or maybe that was something I learned in part at Haas, being around great people and the things we talk about that you can't do anything great without trying and failing. And so I wasn't worried about that. It didn't hold me back. I, of course, had tremendous self-doubt about whether I could do it or what are my chances of succeeding. But that allure of really trying to build something and create something from scratch, and honestly, the thing that got me over the edge was picturing the people out there that needed help and didn't have any solutions today, and the potential impact we'd have, just feeling that inspiration or even imagining that made it really easy for me to want to take the risk. And it's the thing that really keeps me motivated and going every day.

On what inspires him to continue Brightside on difficult days

[00:14:44] It always comes back to the impact. There are hard days where I go look at our reviews page because the voice of the customer and the feedback of the impact that we're having never ceases to make me feel happy and inspired, and is the reason we're doing it. 

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Brightside Official Website

On this episode, OneHaas is honored to welcome Chuck Gibbs, class of 1973, to the podcast. As one of the first Black MBA graduates at UC Berkeley, Chuck has spent his life and career paving the way for younger generations to follow their dreams. 

Chuck’s time as a pioneer dates back further than business school. Growing up in Macon, Georgia in the ‘60s, Chuck navigated segregated times but nevertheless pursued his passion for aviation. At Berkeley, Chuck got his MBA before Haas was Haas, and applied that degree to an impressive career in aerospace, military tech, and Homeland Security. 

Chuck joins host Sean Li to discuss his upbringing in Georgia, his time in the Air Force, Chuck’s experience at Berkeley including how he helped shape the foundation for the future Haas School of Business, his time working for the Department of Homeland Security, and how he continues to help future generations pursue higher education.

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On growing up in the South during the Civil Rights Movement

“ In my junior year, which was about 1965, schools are starting to be integrated in the state of Georgia. So I live right in front of, believe it or not, a white military school. And I used to see the guys out there doing their drills every day and, you know, marching around. I said, one of these days I'm going to go to that school. I went to that school and integrated it my senior year. That was one of the firsts of my life that I did. Everybody always said, you did things first. You were the first in everything. I was so involved with the Boy Scouts of America. I became one of the first Black Eagle Scouts in the state of Georgia.”

On why he chose UC Berkeley

“ I was always known to be a radical. Because I spoke my mind when I saw things being done wrong. I just couldn't bite my teeth. I had to let it out, you know, whether you like it or not.

And I was that kind of person. I've been that way all my life. And if I see it's wrong, if something's wrong, I'm going to tell you it's wrong.  And how I can make it right or how we can make it right, you know, we're going to do it together.  And one of the reasons why, at Berkeley, Berkeley was just, it was one of the schools to be at in the United States during that particular time.”

On how he’s helping the future generations now

“ Mentoring is the best way to make people feel good about themselves…So that's where I am right now in my life. I'm trying to encourage young folk, you know, I thought about writing a book maybe. And I said, well, is it really worth it?  No, it's really worth it for me to do exactly what I'm doing right now. Talking to you, you know, putting myself out there to let people know who I am and the life that I've had.”

On how he celebrates Black History Month

“ I learn a little bit more than I knew the year before. I do that for a reason, and try to put it in perspective. Somebody that created something, did something, you know, and then never recognized, you know, like myself. I created a lot of things, I've done a lot of things in my life, I never boasted on it, you know…But the real pioneers of black history, you know, we always say Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and whoever else, you know, the mainstream people, but you've got a lot of people, man, that are black history pioneers that have never been noticed. They didn't want to be noticed.”

His openness to the possibility that life may not always happen the way he planned enabled Oshri Kaplan to become a successful student and venture capitalist. While he was still undecided on which career path to pursue, Oshri seized the opportunity to grow in various fields, including the military, law, and business, where he gained a network of corporate leaders and entered the venture capital industry.

Oshri started his career as an analyst in his homeland, Israel, before moving to Silicon Valley— the Mecca of VCs and startups, to continue providing value as a venture capitalist. He is MBA 2013 at Berkeley Haas and a seasoned investor who later joined Munich Re Ventures as an Investment Director. 

Learn about the challenges of finding investment opportunities, the day-to-day activities of a venture capitalist, and which class at Haas helped Oshri advance in his entrepreneurial career.

Episode Quotes:

Which class at Haas influenced you the most?

[00:08:36] The most influential course I took at Haas was negotiations with Holly Schroth. I'm negotiating now every day. My job is essentially to negotiate. So with that, I don't think about any other course that I would rather take a test than the negotiation. That was eye-opening because, as an Israeli, they're teaching you tactics around negotiation, which I found very different from the tactics taught in US-based schools and definitely at Haas. That was super refreshing, and it was hard. It was hard, and it was challenging at the beginning to find myself in situations where I needed to adapt. I need to figure out a different way to approach things if I want to be successful. That's one of the classes that I've been using since then.

What does a venture capitalist’s day-to-day operation look like?

[00:16:56] In general, an investor needs to divide his time between looking and listening for new opportunities; depending on what exactly is your role, whether you are in one of those funds or principal and later, director or general partner, you need to manage your time. 

His advice to fellow Haasies or other students who want to have a successful career.

[00:24:39] I think people need to be vulnerable. They need to open themselves to the ideas of what they are going to see and learn and be open-minded about networking and the people that they're going to meet during those couple of years or three or four years at school, as those are the years that you don't really know who you're going to meet. You don't know where the next opportunity will come and how you're going to meet your next employer or a reference to a new employer. I always had a plan in my mind, and I needed to follow it, but the reality is that nothing really went according to the plan, but it was parallel, and I was open enough to expose myself to other options.  

Show Links:

• Oshri Kaplan on LinkedIn
• Oshri Kaplan on Twitter

Today's guest is Juan Scarlett, a technology-focused venture capital, strategic finance, and equity research professional. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of OneValley Ventures, an early-stage investor in dynamic founders emerging from the OneValley ecosystem and its partners.

Juan talked about his practical upbringing that led him to follow the most practical path in his education and career and eventually to venture capital. He also shared his experiences at Haas, what made him interested in investing and venture capital and his work at OneValley Ventures.

We also discussed why investors should break the status quo and go outside their networks and invest in underrepresented and underserved founders.

Episode Quotes:

On growing up in a hardworking and practical family

We really worked hard to make sure that we had everything that we needed and, maybe, a few of the things that we wanted. And for those other things you wanted, it was very clear that, from a very early age, you have to go make your own money to do those things.

Why he left investment banking

It's great money. It's got to be a good experience. It'd look great on my resume. But I know I'm not going to enjoy it. I know I won't love it. And so, I just decided (to leave).

I already learned that doing something that you don't enjoy was not going to be fulfilling for you or for the company that you were doing it for.

On breaking the status quo to help minorities develop pathways into VC  

During 2022 and '21, during the racial justice movement, we started to see that people were much more willing to take that chance to invest in minority founders, ones that they didn't know or came outside of their networks. We started to take that chance. But there wasn't a follow-through, necessarily, in 2022.

And so, I think you still have to just continuously remind people that that issue is still there and that it does require a little bit more work to find interesting startup opportunities to invest in outside of your small-ish network, and really develop broader top of funnel with the mindset, "Well, if I want to find these minority-led startups where they are, I have to be there, too."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

This episode is to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month. We're joined by Cristy Johnston Limon, a Bay Area native and a proud "double-bear," having earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business and a BA in Political Science. She most recently served as the Executive Director of the Center for Social Sector Leadership at Haas and launched her own social impact management consultancy called Proxima Partners, where she is currently serving as a principal. 

Today, Cristy shares her experiences growing up in a San Francisco immigrant community. She talks about going to UC Berkeley in college, eventually getting her MBA at Haas, and using it to scale her impact and advance her career. 

She also shares her involvement in community and economic development efforts, with her values aligned with building the beloved community from an equity and gender-based lens with a bias toward building solutions for the common good.

Episode Quotes:

What inspired her to focus on community and economic development efforts

"So much of what we do does stem from childhood experiences. And, for me, it was seeing this huge contrast between the neighborhood that I would commute to across town on the bus every day to go to school. At a very early age, I became very conscious of inequities. And I think that really helped to form my worldview and to question those inequities and to really try to think about how to close gaps so that other young people growing up in my community who were really smart, really talented, but just didn't have access to AP classes or arts program or after-school enrichment programs. It just seemed like it was a matter of justice and fairness. And I think that runs really deep in our family, this idea of justice."

On starting a nonprofit to support small businesses 

"I found it to be incredibly powerful to be able to help stabilize a small business owner. Because you're not just working with them, you're actually working with the entire family and the community that they employ. And I could see the power of supporting a small business owner. I worked directly with them to help them figure out how to purchase the property that their business was in, for example. And that's one pathway, is to start to stabilize and build assets and wealth, which we know is how so many folks are able to, in one or two generations, go from abject poverty to actually being homeowners and being able to affect generational transfers of wealth, which is how folks are building their family and their impact."

Why she pursued an MBA, and what she appreciates the most about the program

"My first inclination was that, maybe, I could benefit from a little more learning. There's so much that you know, but so much more that you don't know that you don't know. I'm really thankful for those folks in my community who've guided me along the way. When they see potential, they open doors. And I think that's what I appreciated most about the Haas MBA program. As soon as you're in, the whole world is open to you. It's an incredible way to just not meet people that, maybe, you wouldn't otherwise encounter, but really build relationships. It's not just about getting ahead or trying to advance your own work. It really is about getting to know folks and seeing what values you share, what aspirations you share. We have so much more in common than we don't. And so, for me, I think that was really one of the impacts of the program."

Being a student-always

"I really wanted to continue to learn. That's always been innate in my family. From a young age, my father was always instilling in us the need to pursue an education and to continue learning. Everyone says I'm a fast learner, but there's things that you really want to try to learn, like financing and marketing and great leadership. And those are the things that I just had never really had access to before."

On why she continues the fight against generations of marginalization and inequality

"In the 1980s, we saw a wave of Central American refugees who were fleeing ethnic genocide and cleansing from Central America. And here we are, 40 years later, seeing a very similar outpouring of people and these communities are here and getting adjusted to a new country, a new way of life. And that gives me hope. It means that there is an incoming generation of young people growing up in the United States seeing opportunities that they didn't have back home. It's why I work with young people. It's why I'm working in immigrant communities, because there's the ability to shape how these young people and their families are going to engage in a democratic society. It's why I'm working to make sure that they have their basic needs met, so that they can be involved in the political process. And so, that's how I stay inspired, just seeing, again, these new and growing communities across the country of folks who have the same values that we have. They believe in family. Many have a Christian or Catholic background and believe in God. And they pray. And they have this work ethic and this belief in supporting themselves and each other. They believe in education. We believe in higher education as another way to continue to build up and uplift our families and communities."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Proxima Partners

In today's episode, we chat with Joe Spector. Joe is Founder and CEO at Dutch, an online veterinary pet telehealth service. He is also an investor and advisor to several startups in the healthcare space.

Fleeing from Uzbekistan at a young age, Joe experienced a massive culture shock. However, it didn't stop him from adapting to his new environment and learning new things, including English. 

It wasn't an easy path, though. Because of financial issues, Joe had to work nonstop during college to support himself. He learned the value of hard work and education early, leading him to his entrepreneurial journey.

In this episode, Joe shares his experiences right after college, going to business school, and finding his passion for entrepreneurship. We also get to hear the history of Hims, a telehealth company that he co-founded in 2017, and Dutch, his current company.

Finally, Joe tells us valuable insights on entrepreneurship and the lessons he learned in his journey.

Episode Quotes:

On the challenges he faced as an immigrant

A lot of these things, later on, led me to this entrepreneurial journey by giving me a very thick skin, by making me feel comfortable with the uncomfortable because I've had to learn everything that was just so foreign entirely from scratch. I also think it made me empathetic to other immigrant experiences and other experiences where someone may feel outside of their comfort zone.

What he learned on his startup journey

I started my first failed startup right after business school and I would say that sort of created this journey where I worked in a number of other startups and all of that led me to Hims where really it started off just like other startups; it was an idea on a piece of paper. But along the way, I learned the people I need to surround myself with. I built up relationships. I built up more confidence and more strategy. And so, by the time Hims came around, I think I had a lot of battle scars that made that experience go significantly better. 

On being an investor and a mentor

I wanted to stay in health care because I think the mission aspect of it is something that resonates. One thing I was saying earlier is that realization in my twenties that there's more to life than making money. I want to have a positive impact on the world around me and I think healthcare is kind of one of those areas. And as far as advising and mentorship, I've had mentors who have had an immense impact on me, and I think, again, I’d like to give back and mentor and pay it forward. 

Advice for students

Take advantage of the multiple experiences that are available. And don't have horse blinders on in your undergrad. Use that moment to do things that feel uncomfortable.

Advice for entrepreneurs

Don't take no for an answer. And change is constant. If you're having a bad day or something's not working, that's not forever. But at the same time, you're in control of your destiny. I think another one, and this is my mantra for this year, is that I don't have to react to everything right away. You can take a moment as long as you need because again, with startups, it just seems like you have to decide right away, but know that you can take a pause and not answer everything immediately. 

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Dutch Pet, Inc.

As part of AAPI Celebration Month, we welcome Eurie Kim to the show. Eurie is a venture capital investor, serving as Managing Partner at Forerunner. As a former entrepreneur, Eurie has deep personal appreciation for the emotional commitment and relentless passion required of a founder, allowing her to be radically empathetic to the entrepreneurs she works with while being realistic and honest in the advice she offers. 

Her point of view reflects her practical nature and her penchant for seeing the big picture through the mess of fighting fires day to day. Inspired by identifying evolving consumer needs, Eurie seeks opportunities to leverage technology to optimize and innovate every aspect of life and to find the right entrepreneur with the vision to take on the challenge.  

Listen as Eurie and host Sean Li discuss her South Korean roots, growing up in white spaces, pivoting from consultant to venture capital, and staying cool, calm, and motivated.

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On why she had not been vocal about her Asian roots and AAPI-related topics

My answer, very authentically, is that I don't spend all my time thinking about it. I'm just really busy living life, doing work, trying my best, and moving forward. I didn't feel like I had discrimination overtly, either for being Asian, Korean, or female, to be honest. I know it was there, but I just didn't bother with it. I just kept moving on and ignored it and considered it the exception, not the rule.

Now, with so much conversation that has happened over the years with all the AAPI hate, I felt very personally afflicted. And it's always sad that you can't really feel it until it gets that close. And I hadn't felt it until those few years. And now, it's more on my mind. And I say, representation does matter.

On the path to becoming a good venture capitalist

If you do not have an appetite for risk, you will never be a venture capitalist. Well, you'll never be a good venture capitalist.

So, for all of those listening who want to get into venture, ask yourself really, do you have the risk appetite? If you picked your next job as though that was your venture investment and your dollars was your own labor, what company would you pick? That mentality will help you get your head in the right place to speak the language.

Challenges of being a VC

I think one of the largest challenges of this job is that you don't know if you're good for over 10 years. It's not just one investment makes you a star. It's the continued ability to do this job on an ongoing basis and to have internal validation and motivation. So, it's a roller coaster industry. You need to have serious conviction in, not only the companies you invest in and the founders and the entrepreneurs you invest in, but also yourself. Because there's plenty of weeks where I'm like, I don't have a good idea. I'm not inspired. And then, there's other weeks where I can't stop myself from thinking things that are interesting. So, you have to think about it as like it's an ultramarathon, and you can't just get give yourself a pat on the back at 26.2 miles and be like, “I crushed it.” You've got 99 million miles to go.

How Eurie keeps the motivation up and going

If you can enjoy the wins of the building, when you launch a product, when you see that consumers are excited about something, when you work with a founder and you see her crush a pitch or raise that next round, those are absolutely worth celebrating, because those are the moments that I like to always say, my philosophy is all about the baby steps. The pyramids were built one brick at a time. You can't see it yet for so long, but you're building something amazing. And so, it does require you to be able to pan back.

And I don't want to say there's no validation, because there is. You have to celebrate those wins, because otherwise, I mean it's honestly too long, of a course. But the motivation comes from knowing that you took something that didn't exist and you gave it life, or you gave the founder of this idea the chance to bring it to life.

And that is amazing. That feels really, really special. 

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Forerunner Ventures
• The Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Our guest on this episode is Priya Bajaj, currently Head of Engagement Management at Google Cloud for US West. She is an experienced business and technology professional with extensive career experience with tech giants.

Priya is originally from India, but she grew up in Doha, finishing high school there. She then came to the US to pursue her undergrad.

In this episode, Priya shares what it was like growing up in the Middle East, where the culture is so diverse. She also talks about going to college in the US and how she literally Googled the top schools to find the right one, ultimately ending up in Georgia Tech, where she spent most of her formative years. 

Priya also tells us why she still pursued an MBA even after accomplishing so much in her career and how she uses what she has learned in B-school in her current leadership role.

Along with engaging executive leaders in her work, Priya is also passionate about creativity and giving back to the community.

Episode Quotes:

On her experiences at Georgia Tech

"Most transformative years of my life, for sure. I think my mindset, my values, everything was challenged in those four years. I had the privilege to be meeting people from all walks of life, meet some great friends there, and learn a lot from people. It was a journey. At Georgia Tech, there were people who challenged my belief system, created awareness with respect to what's a different way of thinking about certain scenarios. And I appreciate that. I learned so much during those four years, not necessarily academically, but personally, about my hopes for life, what are the things that I like, what is the kind of life that I want to live? All of that reflection happened in those four years."

Why she pursued an MBA

"The first one, again, student always. Truly, for me, that constant learning was very important. So, getting an MBA fulfilled that part of me that wanted to learn more. The second was imposter syndrome. At Google, there are so many amazing people that I always felt, am I playing catch-up with their brilliance and their expertise? And do they know something more that I don't know? And since I knew I'm going to be in the business side of things for the rest of my journey, at least how I see it now, I wanted to make sure I, at least, understand at a one-on-one level, what are the different aspects of running a business as a leader? And what better way than to learn it in a structured manner at this school?

And the third reason was to learn from other people. I think we as human beings are meant to be social beings. We are not meant to just be put in one place. And the best learnings and reflections that I get are from conversations and idea exchange and conversations with other people. And I really felt that, at Haas, meeting people from different backgrounds, bringing different perspectives, just like how it was at Georgia Tech, helped me think through the way I'm thinking about certain things. Opened my mind to different concepts, different ways of approaching, and grew myself professionally."

On giving back to the community through mentorship

"One of the things that keeps me grounded is giving back. Every six months, I mentor two women who are either at Google or outside. And I do this in a six-month rotation to allow for me to scale my impact, but also to allow them to take the learnings and go be successful. The reason it is so important for me is because I am acutely aware of how privileged we are to be here in the Bay Area working for the best firms. I would not be where I am today without the help of other mentors who coached me and guided me, either in a formal or informal capacity. The best thing I can do is pay that forward. And mentorship is one of the best ways I find of doing that."

One piece of advice for MBA students

"The biggest thing I would say is to not get pressured by the concept of networking. I have always done what I term as selective networking, because there often are going to be people in the room who are not there at every bar, who are not there at every party, but they still manage to get a lot out of the program. And I think I am one of them. And I would still like to think I'm friends with many people in my cohort because I took out the time to do those one-on-one relationships and create those bonds that were outside of the traditional networking avenues. So, for those who are unable to participate in those traditional avenues, I would say, don't be afraid of selective networking."

Show Links:

• Priya Bajaj LinkedIn

OneHaas Undergrad Series Episode #1: Today, we’re joined by Camilo Ossa, from the undergraduate class of 2017. He shares with us his journey to social impact consulting, and subsequently to social entrepreneurship. He also discusses how the community at Haas has motivated him to strive for excellence.

Episode #50: We're joined by Kenny Vaughn, FTMBA '16, on our podcast today to hear about his life from West Point, to his career serving our country, and his journey since Haas.

We chat about everyone from why he chose Haas to our society at large and what he's doing with his Haas degree to make an even bigger impact.

Episode #47: In this episode, Sean chats with our very own, Dean Ann Harrison of the Haas School of Business. She's our 15th dean and a renowned economist who has dedicated her career to creating inclusive and sustainable policies in development economics, international trade, and global labor markets.

Dean Harrison talks about growing up between cultures and their influences in her career as an economist and lecturer around the world. Economics was not quite the typical background for somebody who wanted to make the world a better place, but this is where she started and continues to make her impact.

As an economist, she shares her thoughts on how we should continue opening up to global trade, while still protecting our most vulnerable. As our dean, she explains her vision for Haas, what she has been doing for the past year and a half, and her future plans.

It’s Veterans Month, and this episode of OneHaas welcomes a special guest and a special guest host. Last month’s guest, Cassandra Salcedo, MBA ‘21, speaks with her former classmate and military veteran Joseph Choi, an account executive at Amazon Ads.  

As the son of a Korean military vet, Joseph grew up always wanting to go into the service. After attending the Naval Academy, he landed one of the few and coveted spots with the Navy Seals and spent nine years in the service before enrolling at the Haas School of Business. 

He and Cassandra discuss his parents’ journey to America from Korea, the intensive training he went through with the Seals, lessons he brought from the military to business school, and his current role at Amazon. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Common misconceptions people have about military service members 

“One big misconception is that those who decide to join the military are very close minded, narrow minded, and not very intelligent people…Or sometimes that it’s troublemakers who decided to join the military.”

What inspired him to go to business school

“I'm going to be real honest here. A lot of military folks when they get out of the military have no idea what they want to do. And I was one of them. I had no idea what I wanted to do. However, thankfully, because of a lot of those ahead of me who got out were great mentors in this sense where a lot of them do go to business school. So it's not uncommon to see a lot of military folks go to business school.”

His advice to prospective business school students

“I think what's more important is, you know, instead of taking that depth and trying to dive into academics, use that time to get to know your classmates, to try new things, expand your reach, do things that you wouldn't have done normally because I think it's also a safe time to take risks.”

Insights he’s taken from the military and business school into his current job at Amazon Ads

“The job in itself is usually quite simple in comparison to people. People are the hardest. Human relations are the hardest thing to work with, to navigate around and deal with. And I think that is something across the board that I've seen consistent.  In the military, with my last role, with the current role, is that in anything and everything, humans are the most complicated, and hence that's why communication is so important, having empathy is so important.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile

Our guest today is Orion Parrott, General Partner at the Orange Fund. He is an experienced leader in business and technology and uses his background to build, explore, and invest in crypto. 

In this episode, Orion talked a bit about his background, his experience going to Haas for the EMBA program, and his transition from being an entrepreneur to an advisor and eventually becoming a general partner.

Orion also shared about Orange Fund, the investment fund of Orange DAO that invests in crypto startups, some critical aspects of DAO, and what to expect in building, exploring, and investing in crypto.

Episode Quotes:

On getting his MBA

I looked at the MBA as a way to really focus on this other set of skills, the people skills, but also some hard technical skills in terms of finance and accounting, and to be able to get a broad picture of what it would take to start a business. Some people will say you don't need an MBA to start a startup, but for someone like me, I prefer to go at it all at once. And it was such a whirlwind of productivity, growing a dollar, and seeing different perspectives. So many things that I had always wondered about the world made a lot more sense.

On how DAOs can impact the investment world

I am excited about participating in the evolution of DAO, doing the group decision-making, and keeping it really about the people so that we can support each other and really be a community. I'm excited to see how being a DAO can be an enabler of the community rather than something that detracts from it. Because, honestly, it's not necessarily a better world by being a DAO, right? You lose some of the legal definition of how things might be treated, and we believe we're paving the way to make it possible for more folks to create DAOs, which will create more opportunities for community capital and investment.

Words of wisdom for the Haas community

Being in Berkeley Haas opens many doors, and folks should feel bold about reaching out to whomever they want to connect with. I refer back to what Dean Lyons would say during our EMBA program: Berkeley Haas takes you from saying they do things to I do things, and I guess that's the encouragement. When you see people doing amazing things, you are the people who are going to do that—now and in the future.

Show Links:

• Orion's first OneHaas episode
• LinkedIn Profile
• Orange Fund

Today, in celebration of Black History Month, we chat with Jason Atwater from EMBA class of 2019. He is the Head of Inclusion & Diversity in Ancestry and co-founder of Black Roots, an employee resource group that champions black employees and customers to enhance Ancestry’s business. He also became the VP of Diversity and Inclusion for Berkeley Haas Executive MBA Program.

Jason walks us through his career from being a sales engineer to digital marketing before pivoting into inclusion and diversity, which is his true passion.

He lets us on the challenges he met while building Black Roots in Ancestry and offers advice on how other people can create a similar group within their companies. 

Jason also shares where to find helpful resources when starting a resource group and effectively position similar initiatives within a company.

Episode Quotes:

On why he chose to go to Haas - "The positioning of the Haas program, the focus on leadership, the focus on ethical responsibility, and the pillars, all of that just really spoke to me. I think this is where I think I'm supposed to be to take me to the next level of where my journey is supposed to go. And I was right."

His advice on people who want to create a similar resource group like Black Roots - "Be clear about your mission statement and goals, what you want to do and who you are as a group. Find like-minded individuals who believe in your mission and willing to help. Finally, find at least one senior leadership person who can act as your guide or your sponsor."

On why he pivoted from marketing to diversion and inclusion - "I will always love marketing, but I had been doing it for a long time. I really wanted to help make the world a better place, and working in inclusion and diversity is my way of acting change in a positive way."

On being successful as a marketer - "I think my brief career in sales and the success I had were because I was good at relationship building. I was good at being genuine with my customers and really talking to them, trying to understand where they came from and what they needed, and not just trying to slam in a sale. It was the right thing to do."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

Business Administration alumnus Neeraj Gunsagar knows that straight, even teeth aren't just for looks. Getting access to oral healthcare can greatly improve one's chances of finding a job, starting a relationship, and even preventing diabetes. And at one point, it even saved a life of a bullied teenager. He talks about his initial meeting with Scott Cohen, and before he realizes it, he is looking into an opportunity that allows him to help more people.

Neeraj also shares some of his experiences growing up in the Bay Area with his immigrant parents, working at DLJ (Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette), and then at TrueCar. He emphasizes how his background in investment banking and focus on tracking and measuring KPIs helped him transition from CRO to CMO and finally as CEO. Make sure to tune in until the end to find out about his 15 minutes of fame with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant!

Episode Quotes:

How Haas Evened Out the Playing Field for Career Opportunities at Investment Banking

[00:03:26] Investment banking was like Google or Facebook, or wherever it was, five, 10 years ago from an undergraduate perspective. And to compete against the East Coast Ivy League Schools from a west coast perspective, Haas really helped level the playing field there.

On How Race Affects Access to Healthcare

[00:25:28] So, the U.S. population is about 65% white, 14% Latino, 12% black, and maybe five, or six percent Asian, something like that. But orthodontia work is like 80 to 90% white, the people who are getting it done in the communities that we all know are privileged, the higher income, and all these things. And when I realized that byte®, one of the first things I did was try to analyze. It’s literally 64% to 63% white, 15% Latino, 13% black, 5% to 6% Asians. Literally, that's our customer base. And you start to realize like, “Wow”. We as a country, we as a company, and we, as individuals, need to figure out a way more and more to break down some of these historic barriers that were created decades ago. And figure out a way to make oral healthcare more accessible and affordable to folks. 

Practical Areas in Life Where Oral Healthcare Matters

[00:29:19] I spoke to Bumble and some dating sites as well, they've done a lot of analysis on this. Women, I think it's through a survey that Bumble or Matched did, won't go on a second date with a guy if they have bad teeth. 72% of women said they wouldn't do that. Job interviewers, you probably don't want to say it out loud, but subconsciously, or consciously it makes an impression, right? If that person doesn't take care of their teeth, how are they going to take care of this job? Right?

When the Dentists Fear Became Their Pivot

[00:30:47] Before the pandemic started, I talked to a bunch of these big DSO, dental service organizations. They hated what we were doing. They said, you can't do this over, telemedicine or at home. And, and then as soon as the pandemic happened, they realized nobody could come into their offices. What were they doing? They were doing Google hangout, consults, Invisalign over zoom, all these different things because it was interfering with their monthly income.

Making Oral Healthcare More Accessible: byte®'s Moving Forward Goal

[00:35:04] We want to make oral care more accessible to consumers. At scale, we want to build technology and systems to allow that to happen. And we want to bring dentists, GPs, and orthodontist into that platform in the long run.

Show Links:

• Neeraj Gunsagar on LinkedIn
• Neeraj Gunsagar on Twitter
• byte® Official Website

Today, we chat with Hector Javier Preciado, EWMBA, class of 2011. He's a Sales, Strategy & Operations Executive who is deeply passionate about diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging. Currently, he works as the Chief Growth Officer in Alluma, a nonprofit organization that produces technical solutions for social problems.

Hector shares his humble upbringing from Mexico to the US, immigrating with his big family to have a better life, and living in a neighborhood like Boyle Heights.

Even though the opportunities weren't so great back then, education has always been a crucial part of Hector's life. With God-given gifts and talents, he took advantage of different programs that offered support for kids like him. He was able to pursue education and even had the experience of going to college campuses when he was 11 yrs old.

Hector also narrates his purpose-driven career, his reasons for pursuing a business degree, and his experiences in Haas, including becoming the first Latino president of the EWMBA association and being selected by his classmates as the graduation speaker.

Finally, he talks about leadership and why he loves being part of Alluma, his visions and missions, and his words of encouragement for people with similar backgrounds to pursue and develop their careers.

Episode Quotes:

"Oftentimes when I'm talking to people who have a similar origin story as myself, I tell them that in many ways I'm nothing special. I like to remind them that if I did it, you could do it. And if anything, use me as a bar that is set to some heights and irrespective of where you place me, exceed that bar. Exceed what I've been able to do."

"From a leadership development standpoint, one of my biggest leaps was through humility and being humbled."

"My brand became, this is a leader. And I embrace that and I was humbled by that."

"Though I feel that I have been blessed by natural gifts and talents and drive and hunger and a passion, at the end of the day, I've seen through my walks in life people that have more talent, who are smarter, who are more gifted, who are more talented than I am, who have not had the opportunity to do what I have. So, I want to remind folks that you've got to think big. You gotta be proactive in developing your career because the world needs more people like us."

On being in the podcast - "You're giving me a platform to tell my story that reaches a community of people who are influential, who are leaders in their own rights, who are part of a global network as leaders, who are in these spaces, who have power and authority to make a huge impact in other people's lives. It's amazing for me and it's humbling."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Gentefied
• How Successful People Get Ish Done

In this episode of OneHaas Undergrad series, Ellen Chan talks with Sallie Jian. Sallie is a VC at SAP and the head of SAP.iO Foundry New York. SAP.iO is a corporate venture arm of SAP, which is a publicly-traded enterprise software company.

Sallie shares how she found her calling in investment banking out of college and how that became the launchpad for her discovery of technology and Silicon Valley and the startup world.

She also narrates what led her to the venture capital and growth equity space coming from the finance world and her career at SAP where there is a blend of operator experience plus venture capital experience.

Episode Quotes:

On exploring other avenues - "I really encourage everyone who is still in school that you should explore as much as you can because college is one of the only times that you will be able to do this ever, ever again. Figure out what resonates with you and start looking at ways to pursue that."

When it comes to just career advice - "I think it is very important to step out of your comfort zone and be unafraid to explore. Be unafraid to go to that networking event, go to that happy hour, go to that conference, go to that trade show, whatever it is, because you never know who you're going to meet and the relationship and the opportunity that can come out of that."

On staying humble and coachable - "Stay humble no matter where you are in your career journey because people will respond better to someone who has that kind of trait."

Show Links:

LinkedIn Profile

OneHaas is pleased to welcome Yael Zheng, class of 1992, who is a seasoned marketing executive with two decades of experience in the tech industry. She’s served as the Chief Marketing Officer for companies like Bill.com and VMware, and has sat on seven different boards including MeridianLink and UC Berkeley’s  Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.

Yael moved to the U.S. from China when she was a teenager and found herself drawn to the world of engineering. After getting an undergraduate degree at MIT, she felt like her true calling was elsewhere and decided that business school was the best way to find it. 

Yael chats with host Sean Li about finding her passion for marketing at Haas, her family’s experience emigrating from China after the Cultural Revolution, and some of the top lessons she’s gained from serving as a Chief Marketing Officer and now a board member. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On coming to the U.S. from China in 1981

“ When I came to this country, I went to New Jersey and was finishing up the last few years of high school. And it was such a completely weird experience. Eyeopening would be an understatement. And I remember going to a local supermarket and finding the shelves just full of stuff like everything was stocked with stuff, and I was telling my sister like, oh my gosh how could there be so much stuff in the store? You know, of course, I came from a country back then, stuff was still kind of scarce.”

On the misconceptions of what a Chief Marketing Officer does

“ It's not about just taking a product and then, you know, go put out a website and some blogs and whatever, some market advertising. I mean, that's kind of the tactic. [But] far more important and far more interesting is to really figure out, behind all the tactics, [the product market fit i.e. what customer problems need to be solved and how big and how pressing,] what strategy you need to adopt, how you price it, how you package it.”

On the importance of doing your homework on a company before working there

“ I've known people who kind of feel like, oh, you know, you seem to have got pretty lucky with several companies that have really gone somewhere. I think luck is definitely a big part of it. But I think like anything, as we all know, you improve your luck or increase your luck by really doing your homework ahead of time, right? You try to see, okay, this company is really trying to attack a problem that's really big. A lot of customers, right? A lot of businesses feel the potential pain. And so there's a really potentially big opportunity to try to solve that problem.”

On being a board member vs. an operational executive 

“ I think that we are constantly reminded as board directors that it's not our job to actually run the company. That's the job of the leadership team, the management team. We're supposed to provide oversight and governance. So having been an operator for many years, you know, I have to constantly remind myself   nose in and then fingers off. So it's our job to ask questions and ask good questions to help the management team to make sure that they have the right strategy in place and that they're executing effectively.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Yael’s recommendation – HubSpot blog

We welcomed Keitha Pansy from the full-time MBA class of 2002. She is currently the Managing Director at the Women of the World Endowment. WoWE provides institutional financial support to accelerate gender lens investing and promote impact for women and girls.

Keitha takes us back to her background from studying accounting at Howard University to finance at Haas and why she decided to get her MBA. She also walks us through her 15 years of blended experience within financial services working with different big companies like JPMorgan and BlackRock.

Keitha also talks about the year she traveled to different places to reflect and enjoy life for a moment. Finally, she shares how she got into impact investing and co-founding WoWE.

Episode Quotes:

Why she chose Haas - "When I stepped foot on the campus, it just felt right. I'm finding my tribe. It's just that easy for me. I had paired up with a first-year who took me up into the Berkeley Hills, and there was this beautiful view. And it's so vibrant in my mind, still to this day. You can see the Bay, and you can see the mountains, which was so beautiful to me. And I was like, this is my home. It just felt right."

On finding her true purpose and making an impact - "I believe those who know that they are called for a purpose while they exist here on earth were not meant to just be consumers. We are called to do something greater. I know there's more. I want to wake up knowing that I'm having an impact. I want to wake up knowing that what I do everyday matters."

On being part of the impact investing space - "I feel like this is a full circle and what I'm supposed to do with the second half of my life. The first half was a setup. It was the training ground for my purpose-driven life."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Women of the World Endowment

Episode #54: Deepak Gupta, an advisor in startups and venture capital in the Career Management Group at Berkeley Haas, joins us today to talk about the Berkeley startup ecosystem. 

He shares how the startup ecosystem has evolved throughout the year, where students and alumni can find the resources they need and what they can do in order to build their startup companies, and Haas' mission as a leader in entrepreneurship.

He discusses cross-college collaboration as one of the key resources that students and alumni can tap into and also reaching out to other startup advisors and mentors via CMG/Entrepreneurship Center.

Episode Quote:

"The goal is to get the skills while you're at Haas that even 5 years down, 10 years down, when you're ready to start a company, you know where to come, you know what resources you have."

Show Links:

LinkedIn

Berkeley Begin

Career Management Group

Skydeck

CITRIS Foundry

House VC

LAUNCH

Berkeley Entrepreneurs Association

StEP

An entrepreneur at heart, CEO and Founder of Xendit featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30, shares his secrets to start-up success - from finding the right people to setting bigger things in motion.

In this episode, we sit down with Moses as he talks about how Xendit started and how he weaved its success. Leading an award-winning start-up digital infrastructure and payment gateway in Southeast Asia, he speaks about his experiences from his days at Berkeley doing 24-hour hackathons, to expanding and launching in emerging markets, and to set out to accomplish more and bigger things. 

Episode Quotes:

On starting the framework and finding the right people:

“Similar thing with the Co-founder, I said, these are certain qualities I want, most important being commitment. Someone that you can build things with; you can argue with. Who actually makes the decisions? How committed are people going to be when things go badly? So those were the dimensions I cared about. And I tried to test that through a few examples.”

On setting up a business in Southeast Asia:

“I had no idea how hard it was going to be. I didn't understand fully. I knew it in theory because there are books about it, but I had no idea what it looks like in practice. What it's turned out to be is a mix of working with the right investors who can help navigate these dynamics, building relationships. Asia is all about relationships and building the right relationships.”

On dealing with potential disappointments:

“What we said to ourselves as we tried to be really rational, I think this is the Asian side of me, but it's to get rid of your emotions. And you have to be really logical and rational and say, ‘Okay, all right, it failed. What's the next best thing that we can try?’ Iterating and believing that if we kept iterating, we would eventually find something that would find a product-market fit.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Xendit
• High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil

In today's episode of OneHaas, hosts Ellen Chan and Sean Li profile Haas Alumnus Andrew Chau, the guy who refers to himself (on LinkedIn) as the "janitor" and CEO of Boba Guys. As AAPI and mental health awareness month come to a close, Andrew discusses discrimination and mental health.

Andrew discusses how leaders are vulnerable to being dehumanized. Check out his tips on how to handle these mental health issues affecting leaders. Listen to the end of the episode as he discusses his experiences with discrimination as a leader and as a business owner. 

The episode ends with a very good discussion on the struggles Asian American leaders face in balancing their eastern influences on collectivism and western influences on individualism.

Episode Quotes:

On Discrimination and Prejudice in the Food Industry:

“I believe that there is bias and prejudice, definitely in business that people don't want to talk about. We're not perfect, but we're trying to fight the good fight. We're not gonna do that much damage in one generation. It takes multi-generational to kind of move the whole industry.”

What’s One Advice He Gives to Young People Who Want to Study Business?

“You want to study business and you want to be a great leader in business? The number one skill you're going to need to have is your people skills.”

Andrew shares tips on handling the stress and pressure of CEOs and founders:

"Every founder has got to get a therapist […] if you can afford one, get one ASAP. The number one thing that hurts[...] most founders, because it happened to me, is when people dehumanize founders and leaders[…] Especially if you get big. I'm going to tell you, people will never understand."

Show Links:

• Andrew Chau on LinkedIn
• Andrew Chau on Instagram
• The Boba Book
• Dare to Lead, Brené Brown
• The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown
• Rising Strong, Brené Brown
• The Boba Guys Official Website
• The Boba Guys Official FB Page
• The Boba Guys Official Instagram Page
• The Boba Guys Official Twitter Page

Episode #43: We're joined by the one and only Haas Rap Legend Ace Patterson AKA Call Me Ace. He shares with us his journey through Haas and how he rebooted his passion for rap music his last semester of Haas while recruiting for consulting. Ace pursued a corporate career post-MBA from Deloitte to Facebook to YouTube to hone his business acumen while concurrently launching a successful music career. Check out his music everywhere under his rap name Call Me Ace.

In this episode, we chat with our special guest, Chase Roberts. Chase is an EWMBA class of 2019 and currently Principal at a venture capital firm, Vertex Ventures US.

Chase shares his journey from studying at Oklahoma University and starting his career in finance to his pivot to Sales in the Bay area at a company called Box. He then shares his decision to go to business school at Berkeley Haas and land a job at Segment, where he was involved in Business Development and launching a startup program. 

Throughout the course of his career, he has built a network of venture capitalists. He tells us how that network led him to pursue an earmarked career in venture capital at Vertex Ventures.

He also shares the investment focus of Vertex Ventures and his time spent on the data space, which led the conversation to the evolution of software tools and website development. Finally, Chase invites listeners to join his network and potentially build a partnership in the future.

Episode Quotes:

On venturing into Sales - "At the time, I wasn't that excited about a job in sales because, for me, sales just carried a different connotation. I was like, I'm just going to use this as my way into the company and then see what happens from there. And so they took a bet on me, and I joined the company in an entry-level sales job. And it ended up being one of the most, the best, learning experiences of my life. You learn a lot about yourself when you're told no all the time."

Why he loves his job in Silicon Valley - "Part of the thing that gives me a lot of satisfaction in my job is I get to meet people who are the ultimate form of entrepreneurship in the software-based world. They have the opportunity to build these massive companies and not do so over 50 years but do it over five. And I'm amazed by the process of zero to one because it is incredibly hard to build something from nothing. I think it takes a lot of courage to do that. To meet with these people and, in some sense, subscribe to the belief system that motivates them to take a risk and take the hard path and try to build something great, I think it's remarkable."

How to succeed in Venture Capital - "I think that people who tend to thrive are the ones who are just curious about everything. It's not so much about going incredibly deep on a specific area, but it's getting through the surface and learning enough to be dangerous in a lot of areas."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• The Innovator's Dillema

Our guest, Yogesh Pingle, is a Corporate Development Manager at Intel. He partners with business leaders and their teams to define and execute strategic growth initiatives.

Yogesh was born in India, where he spent most of his formative years before moving to the US to pursue graduate school. Getting an MBA had always been part of his plans, and choosing Haas was a no-brainer.

In this episode, Yogesh shares his experiences from studying engineering in India, moving to the US and balancing work and school, and his career as a planning engineer before eventually going to product design and marketing and ending up in corporate development.

Episode Quotes:

On pursuing a business education

I realized that to create maximum impact, you have to be on the business side of things essentially. And so, it was sort of what stoked in me, the desire to be a business leader. And I realized that perhaps if impact is what I'm driven by, then having a business education is also something that's critical to creating impact.

Having different plans to mitigate risks

Something that has always been a part of my philosophy is to mitigate risk in such a way that the next step I take should always be something that doesn't close too many doors. 

On procrastinating and compartmentalizing

Focus on the essentials, whether it is homework or your actual job. If you just do the main important tasks and ensure that they're done well, then that'll keep you moving forward. I think it's really important to sort of compartmentalize things and making sure that you're not procrastinating and the absolute essential tasks are being taken care of so that you're not distracted when you're with family or when you're at work.

Word of wisdom to his future self

Continue the hustle and not settle. Regardless of what I end up doing in my life, I think there is this constant deal of learning that I should never let go of. So, just keep hustling and keep learning.

Show Links: 

• LinkedIn Profile

On this episode of OneHaas, hear from alumna Sahar Kleinman – a global strategy and operational excellence executive at Amazon Advertising. 

Sahar, a first generation American, grew up in New York after her parents emigrated from Iran to further their education. The time she spent watching her mom work in finance on Wall Street and help run her uncle’s photo business had a significant impact on Sahar’s career path. 

She and host Sean Li chat about Sahar’s experience moving from brick and mortar to the e-commerce world, the importance of taking risks, and how Haas provided her with her own personal board of directors. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

How her family’s photo business shaped her early on

“That was the first of my hard lessons to be learned as a child, to really learn what it takes to drive a business. And I'm talking about all the tasks that you can think of and having to earn my way to that spot where I could actually start working on developing photos for customers…and it started with grabbing that Windex bottle and wiping the windows outside of the studio.  And really learning really early on that it takes hard work to get to where you want to go.”

Why it feels like she gained a personal board of directors from Haas

“There's something about putting yourself in a room with a bunch of strangers who all of a sudden over time become family… And you get to know people and you share your stories, and you have this unbiased group of people who are just looking to help you unblock yourself oftentimes. And so maybe during the program things would come up that were work related and then you find yourself just having these go-to individuals that really help you think things through and hold you accountable to the things that you think of doing for yourself and the things that you haven't even thought of doing for yourself and for others.”

What keeps her engaged and motivated to stay connected to the Haas network

“I want to be able to create that same feeling of being in school and back in the program, even though we're not in the program anymore. I always want to feel that optimism that I felt in the classroom, that not only can I do anything and lead through anything and be anything, but I want others to feel the same thing. And so I want to create these opportunities in the forum for people to stay connected and be able to share what they've been thinking about that's inspiring to them and, you know, have a sandbox of network members to collaborate with to nurture and debate those kinds of thoughts.”

On what’s next for Sahar

“I'm just always out there thirsting for the next big challenge. Ideally, I want to share my knowledge and help lead the next generation to solve big problems and make a big impact. And even better if those next generation leaders come from Haas.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile

This month, OneHaas is honored to welcome Noor Gaith to the podcast. Noor is the co-founder of Jaffa Coffee Roasters, named after the city, and specializes in artisanal coffee experiences.

Noor and his brothers grew up in the Bay Area but come from a big Palestinian family. Raised by immigrant parents from Palestine and Jerusalem, Noor learned the importance of education and following your heart and passions at an early age. By 16, he was already running his own business selling iPhones. 

Noor brought that entrepreneurial spirit to Haas where he honed his talents for marketing and brand positioning. After graduating, he found himself at Square and it was through this job he found a new passion: coffee. 

Host Sean Li chatted with Noor about his journey from iPhones to coffee, how the creation of Jaffa is rooted in his family’s culture, and what sets their coffee apart from all the other artisanal coffees on the market. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On his dad’s decision to leave Palestine and head West

“My dad left Palestine in the ‘80s after the Oslo Accords. And, basically not seeing any potential for us to have any opportunity for, you know, like a life of education and career in Palestine. He was the, I wouldn't say odd one out in his family, but he's the only one who didn't see himself staying, because he was the educated one. He was the one who wanted to study engineering and like he made that happen by finally getting a visa and leaving Palestine.”

The early beginnings of his entrepreneurial spirit 

“In high school, I was buying candy bars from Costco and I would sell them, resell them at school. And then I started selling iPhone cases. And people would just buy them from me. They just knew that I was like the jacket guy. I was like, what do you want? And I didn't do it for vanity or like even really for money. I just kind of thought, I'm like, why isn't everyone doing this? Why isn't everyone turning a profit or making arbitrage? And my brain just understood buy low, sell high and provide value. People want candy. People want lemonade.”

The specialness of Jaffa Coffee

“Coffee roasters in San Francisco are the vanguards. They bring some of the best. As you go up North, you'll find that in Oregon and Seattle, they lack color. It's a very white world in coffee roasting. There hasn't been really one like coffee roaster that has been Palestinian in the Ivy League status of like Ritual, Blue Bottle, Stumptown. That doesn't exist. What we're doing is like the Michelin star equivalent of coffee.”

On his passion for coffee

“I would do this as a hobby. It was like my library. I would go and I'd order a latte and I'd order a cortado and I'd sit there and I would just think about coffee because it was fun to me.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Jaffa Coffee Roasters

Our guest on this episode is Nick Wobbrock, Co-Founder and COO at Blue Forest Conservation, a mission-driven, non-profit organization, leveraging financial innovation to create sustainable investment solutions to environmental challenges. Their flagship financial product, the Forest Resilience Bond (FRB), deploys private capital to finance forest restoration projects on private and public lands to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. We are also joined by Brandi Pearce, faculty in Management of Organizations, and the Faculty Director of Teams@Haas. She is also a leading expert on High Impact Teaming.

Nick is a licensed civil engineer who developed drinking water and sanitation infrastructure in the US and internationally in Honduras and Malawi. Prior to joining Blue Forest, he worked as a consulting engineer for Brown & Caldwell, for the U.S. Peace Corps, and for Doctors Without Borders. Nick presently sits on the Board of EOS International where he continues to support communities in Honduras from his days in the Peace Corps.

In this episode. Nick tells us a little bit about his background, his professional career in the water space, the reasons he pivoted into forest conservation, and how he did it by going to business school and founding a startup.

He also talks about Blue Forest Conservation, its mission and goals, how people can help support their organization's visions, and some of the greatest successes and challenges in developing their team with a sustainability mission. 

Episode Quotes: 

Why Nick decided to go to business school and chose Haas

"I realized my heart was a little less with the pipes and the pumps and the engineering design and more wanting to think about the overall problems and root of those problems that we were trying to solve. And I thought, where might I be able to advance my passion for sustainability and technology and systems that can help drive that sustainability? And business school seemed like a logical next step for me, whether it was going to be grounded in technology development or sustainability in some fashion. I saw that Berkeley and the Haas program, especially with the Berkeley Energy Resources Collaborative (BERC) and a lot of the collaboration across the university, had a lot of opportunities around sustainability, energy, water, and technology."

How people can help support Blue Forest Conversation

"Pretty familiar, but voting is one. Elevating the opportunity with your elected officials that represent your utility board about the need for resilience of the watershed that supports your utility."

Challenges and joys in working with the Blue Forest team

"I'm so grateful for where the team is now. We're 16 people, with quite a few PhDs, some in geospatial science, some in forest hydrology modeling, communications experts, finance experts. Foresters are crucial, and we have a couple. And some of the challenges is that we come with a different set of language around how to make this very necessarily interdisciplinary solution work. It's a challenge internally unless we recognize that in credit culture for slowing downtime together. No question too simple. Because finance and forestry and hydrology have a lot of different backgrounds and domains of knowledge.

But when you recognize that interdisciplinary nature, I think, actually, it's turned into one of the joys at Blue Forest, is there's something that everyone on our team can teach everybody else that person uniquely has knowledge about. And working on a culture that celebrates that is, I think, something we're doing well, but something we want to make sure we continue to emphasize."

What Nick admires in a leader

"I love seeing a leader that waits to speak, especially, if, in their leading role, people might want to defer to their thoughts first. But if that leader instead pauses, makes sure there is room for everyone else's voice, largely because you're going to learn a lot of things, but also, because that is inclusive and makes space for people. And I probably admire that, in part, because it's something I work on, too. When I get excited about a topic, it's hard not to want to share your thoughts and your passion for that and your excitement for that, and to balance that with space and room for collaboration and contributions from new and experienced and everyone in between is the type of leader I would like to be and aspire towards."

Show Links:

• Nick Wobbrock LinkedIn
• Blue Forest Conservation
• Professor Severin Borenstein
• Sheldon Kimber

In today's episode, Kenny Vaughn had a chat with Elisse Douglass, co-founder of the Oakland Black Business Fund. She is an established real estate professional and has extensive experience in private equity impact investing. While at Haas, Elisse served as co-president of the Black Business Student Association together with Kenny.

Elisse talked a little about growing up in Philadelphia, what made her take architecture in college, and then going into real estate development. She also shared the story of why she ended up at Haas and what she loves about Oakland.

Elisse also opened up about how the pandemic has taught her to re-evaluate her decisions. You're also going to love the story of how Elisse made it an opportunity to support local black businesses.

Episode Quotes:

Her biggest takeaway having gone through the pandemic:

"I think we've all just had to face our realities in a way that can be uncomfortable. It makes us reevaluate every decision we've made. For me, I've had to reevaluate why I live where I live and where I work and who was in my life, and the different relationships that I had. So, my takeaway from that is just being more selective about those things and being more appreciative and gracious to what I have, where I am, who I have in my life, what I'm doing. It's just been a real eye-opener."

On her experience as co-president of the Black Business Student Association:

"I think it showed me that there's a place in the world for people who are thinking about that whole idea of doing well and doing good. There's a place to be impactful, to think about innovation, and not just for innovation's sake but innovation for all our sakes. That was the greatest thing coming out of that experience."

On raising funds, especially from the Haas community:

"If someone is willing to do it, let's get it done. And what I think people were really responding to is the problem was bigger than just broken windows. We all know that it's a systemic problem, and let's put real dollars and energy and impact into that."

Why black businesses matter:

"When we talk about why black businesses matter and why it's important to apply resources to this, one of the most important things is about innovation and resilience. So, black people sort of lead culture and innovation in a lot of different ways that often aren't monetized, and they're not appreciated.

On the other hand, when you talk about resilience, if you look at the structural issues that black people face as entrepreneurs in terms of access to capital, in terms of credit, in terms of all these different things, it's incredible that we have any black businesses at all. Yet we do. And many of them thrive, and they grow despite all of the changes. They're still finding a way."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Oakland Black Business Fund

Today, we have Brandon White on the podcast. He's a full-time MBA, class of 2018. Brandon was assigned to the second infantry division in South Korea and served as a platoon leader and communications officer. He has also served the 11th signal brigade at Fort Hood, Texas, including two deployments to Afghanistan as an Executive Officer, Logistics Officer, and Company Commander. 

Brandon talks about his time in the army and all the leadership positions he had when he was there, what led him to Haas, and the impact of all the current global issues on his family and how they deal with it.

He also talks about the core values he shares with his children and how the pandemic didn't stop him from venturing into entrepreneurship. Lastly, he shares some parting words to the Haas community on fighting racism and other -isms and leaving this world a better place.

Episode Quotes:

"You're not going to love everyone you meet. You're not going to love everyone you work with. Obviously, there are going to be challenges, but generally, this is an environment where people want to see what your limit is, what's the sky for you, and try to support you in getting there with wherever you struggle."

"I like to try to help people see a different perspective or think about their lives in the future. When I feel like I can provide insights, I can always try. I like to think about it, and I think it's challenging."

"Everything is founded on honesty and truth. If you want to be someone that provides value, is respected, is looked up to, is thought of in a positive light, it starts with honesty and truth." 

"Whatever you do, you have to sow a good seed to reap the harvest. And if you're not willing to do that, then don't expect it."

"If you're at Haas or you're associated with Haas, you have lots of privileges that others do not. And I feel like if we don't continue to try to use that privilege for good, to fight racism, to fight - there's a million -isms I could throw out there - find the -ism that you're passionate about and do use your privilege to fight that, to leave this world a better place."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

Our guest, Carmen Palafox, is a seasoned venture capitalist. She is a Founding Partner at 2045 Ventures in Los Angeles and Venture Partner at How Women Invest. She is also a Partner at MiLA Capital.

Carmen was awarded the Rising Star Award from the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce. She was spotlighted by the NVCA as a Rising Star in VC and featured by LA Magazine as 1 of 13 of LA’s Powerful Women. 

Coming out of USC, Carmen was fortunate to land her first job at Dimensional Fund Advisors, where she scaled operations into LATAM, Canada, and Europe, going from $75 Billion AUM to $300 Billion AUM.

In this episode, Carmen shared her journey into venture capital, launching a fund, the challenges of women and underrepresented founders in the VC world, and what people can expect in the coming years despite the uncertainties in the industry.

Episode Quotes:

How Haas led her to venture capital

I went to Haas thinking that I'd get into social impact investing, and that was in 2011, when impact investing was a little earlier than it is today. At that time, there's a lot of talk around social impact bonds and pay for success, and that's where I was thinking my career would be headed. But, you know, one of the advantages of going to Haas was the career development group and just the support I got there and the freedom to really explore. And that exploration led me to venture.

The challenges that women and underrepresented founders face in the VC industry

As women, we don't want to think that our gender will hold us back. But there are systemic issues. There's bias that people may or may not be aware of. And I think one of the reasons women are successful when they do get funding is because they are capital constrained and do have to be more efficient. I mean, the same is true for underrepresented founders. You just don't know if there will be capital around the corner, so you are more judicious with what you have. And on the flip side, I think there need to be more capital allocators that are focused on outcomes, meaning, we want to see more women founders, we want to meet more women funders. And so, being focused on that as a primary driver to change the status quo. I think it's important to create more balance in an ecosystem. I think that should be our objective. It should be about balance. And I think we would solve a lot of these unintended consequences that we see as a result of the technology that's out there today if we were to bring more balance to the industry.

Opportunities for early-stage founders 

I think it's an epic time, both because of the reset but also the fact that we're coming out of Covid, and during Covid, people had a lot of time to evaluate how they were spending their time, where they were spending their time. And so, I think a lot of people, if they're able to, are prioritizing differently and potentially looking for areas where they can have the most impact in their careers, and where they can shift priorities to their families. I've seen or talked to a lot of startups that are able to attract talent because they have flexibility in how they're going to manage building their company. If you can offer someone with technical talent the ability to work off hours or work remotely from wherever they want, then I think you have an opportunity there as an early-stage founder.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• 2045 Capital
• How Women Invest
• MiLA Capital (Make in LA)

Our spotlight on first-generation alumni continues with a conversation with Cassidy Nolan, the co-founder and managing member of Mach 1 Hot Sauce. 

Growing up, Cassidy struggled in school. But joining the Marine Corps after high school helped him find his drive and discipline that ultimately led him to Haas.  

Cassidy and host Sean Li discuss his family roots in the kitchen, his military intelligence work for the Marines, how his education at Haas helped shape the idea for Mach 1 Hot Sauce, and why it’s the hot sauce that pairs well with anything. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

How his time in the military helped with school

Post-Marine Corps, I never found trouble in school. I learned how to study, I learned how to be disciplined. There weren't any distractions like what I used to have when I was younger. It was like, here's the work, and 50% of the job is just showing up, right? 30% of the job after that is participating in class, and then 20% is actually doing the homework and the test and the quizzes because if you do, if you show up and you ask questions, you're gonna learn and retain so much of it.

One of the things he loved most about Haas

If you made it to Haas, chances are you're curious, you're not afraid to ask questions. You're not afraid to go out on a limb and say, ‘Well, I think it's this.’ There weren't a lot of politics that got in the way. Like a lot of the time, we're just looking at brass tax…and I felt like the dumbest one in the room, and I loved it because it meant I had the most to gain, you know?

The push he gave himself towards Mach 1 Hot Sauce

Look, if you don't jump off on this hot sauce thing, you're never gonna do it. Because you've always been scared to do it. You know what I mean? Because you're married, you have kids, and if not now, when? And that's such a hard thing, I think, for a lot of entrepreneurs or people who wanna be entrepreneurs is that fear of failing. But I think I just got to a point in time where the fear of not trying was greater than the fear of failing.

What makes his hot sauce stand out

There's a dichotomy that exists between either it has flavor, but there's no heat, or it's just complete dry heat, and there's no flavor. And I really believe that we created a hot sauce that can pair with your food because it has a lot of flavor upfront. And then the heat rolls on in the back so you can still have your food and not have it be overpowered by the hot sauce.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Mach 1 Hot Sauce
• Steve Jobs’ 2005 Commencement Speech at Stanford University

In today’s episode, we chat with award-winning lecturer Holly Schroth who leads classes in Negotiations, Influence, and Communications.

Holly tells us a little about her history and what brought her to Haas nearly three decades ago to teach Negotiations.

She also speaks about what makes a good negotiator, her research on Gen Z negotiations, and leaves listeners with some parting wisdom.

Episode Quotes:

What makes a good negotiation?

"What makes a good negotiation is that both sides walk away satisfied."

Holly's definition of negotiation

"My definition is sharing information in order to problem-solve to reach mutually satisfying agreements. I'm not here to talk you into anything, but I'm here to help you think a different way and come to the conclusion yourself that this direction may or may not be best for you."

How to influence someone in a positive way

"The best way to influence someone positively is to ask good questions to get them to think differently. You have to understand their thinking so that you can work with that and understand if that's not based on factual information or there's some other information that could be helpful for the person to understand, and then you can work through it. But if you never find out what someone is thinking or why they hold the position they do, then you really cannot influence the person."

Show Links:

• Website
• Haas Website
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

People working in a culture with a balance of boundaries and empathy are more motivated to perform well. That's what Laila Tarraf realized in her decades of experience as a recruitment and business leader. She carried this realization and successfully developed a work culture that effectively combines high-performance growth and caring culture.

Laila is the Chief People Officer at Allbirds, where she is responsible for guiding and strengthening the company's unique, mission-based culture. She wrote Strong Like Water: How I Found the Courage to Lead with Love in Business and in Life at a time when she experienced the grief of losing loved ones yet gained powerful realizations as a mother and business leader. In her view, connecting to our common humanity and bringing hearts to the workplace is the key to creating exceptional organizations.

Listen to this episode as Sean and Laila exchange inspiring thoughts on recruitment and its changes from the industrial to the information age, holistic leadership, and emotional resilience.

Episode quotes

On creating the post-pandemic hybrid workplace

[00:15:05] I think a post-pandemic hybrid workplace and meeting greater flexibility in work is all about a very integrated holistic leadership style that can balance being empathetic and caring— compassionate while at the same time focusing on growing the business and holding people accountable. And while the two might seem like they're on opposite ends of the spectrum, they're really not. They're more like the DNA strands of a helix that are intertwined. I'm always drawing these two intersecting circles where I have business on one side and people on the other, and so there's an overlap, and that's the sweet spot. And for all of us, it's finding that mix, that alchemy that works for us, given our personal style, we all have it. It's just figuring out how to play in the middle. 

On treating employees as a team, rather than as a family

[00:18:24] While you may have made great friends that you think of as family, we're not a family because you can't quit your family. You can't leave your family. We're really a team, and not to denigrate the connections and relationships because being a high-performing team, when you ask people, what are the most inspirational times in their life where they have the greatest connections, it's usually when they're part of a team where they're trying to tackle a really tough challenge, whether it's in sports or business, and they came together and were able to overcome whatever this thing was. And that's beautiful.

On creating a balance between caring for people and communicating their areas for improvement

[00:19:46] The challenge is the counterbalance to being empathetic and being able to hold your boundaries. Because if you don't, then you're merging. I think there is a way that you can care for the person and keep your connection to the person while at the same time delivering a message that they're not meeting expectations or that something needs to improve. It really is as much an art as it is a science to drop into connection and show that you care.

On how she picked the title for her book

[00:24:43] I chose the title Strong Like Water after Lao Tzu's The Tao Te Ching it's verse 78, right? Be like water. Be like water is really about how water is actually very powerful, but in a gentle way. And in it, he says water is fluid, soft, and yielding, but water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, water is fluid, soft, and yielding, which will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. And he said that this is a paradox that what is soft is strong. And when I read that, I thought that's it. And I realized that really life, in general, is all about reconciling these dualities, where we fall into these false paradoxes where we think I'm either weak or I'm strong. But the reality is like the yin yang symbol; there is no hard, there is no soft. It just depends on your viewpoint. We are all both. 

Show Links:

• Laila Tarraf on LinkedIn
• Laila Tarraf Official Website
• Strong Like Water™ How I Found the Courage to Lead with Love in Business and in Life

Lisa Morris Jones joins us in celebration of Black History Month. Lisa is an alumna of the undergraduate program here at Haas. She is a CFA Chartholder and a Master of Business Administration - MBA focused on Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, she is the president of the LMJ Group, a real estate management and development of commercial and residential properties throughout California.

In this episode, Lisa shared a little about her origin story, her interest in finance and entrepreneurship, and her extensive career. She is a strong professional with a demonstrated history of working in real estate development and management, investment management, and community development finance. 

She also talked about what it was like being a Black female in finance back in the 80s when she started working and what inspired her to push forward even with some roadblocks. Currently, she is supporting the Haas MBA fellowships program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Another passion for Lisa is helping underserved and distressed communities. She is working on how to provide the needed capital to be able to help these communities thrive.

Episode Quotes:

How Haas helped her make her way through Wharton

So much of what I learned at Haas, especially in marketing, accounting, and finance, those fundamentals were just absolutely essential in helping me go to Wharton, to be able to do other things while I was there and to really enjoy that experience.

On her experience as a Black woman in finance in the 80s

There were definitely people that discouraged me and many, many roadblocks. Lots of people telling me, "Maybe, you should focus on another discipline. This would be too challenging, too hard." 

You can't really control how people think about you. It's what you think about yourself that's really important. You have ways to really reinforce who you are and build yourself up. I always said that if I'm prepared, I know the opportunities will come. And then, I can be able to walk through them. And I know that change in time is on your side. It may take a little time, but things are changing and moving in the right direction. And you have to keep that level of optimism because there's always going to be someone to tell you, you can't do it.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

On our third episode of the OneHaas Alumni High Impact Teaming (HIT) Series with Dr. Brandi Pearce, we have a conversation with Haas alumni Amy Fan. Amy completed the dual degree program with an MBA and MPH in 2019.

During her time at Haas, she also launched her start-up, TwentyEight Health, a women’s health platform to provide reproductive and sexual health care, with a focus on providing access to underserved communities.  

Amy’s experience growing up in Canada with public healthcare and her professional experience years working as a management consultant and for a start-up team providing direct consumer skincare, fostered a client centered and equity lens that she has brought to the design of TwentyEight Health.  

Listen to how she has leveraged her experiences to design and build her team with intention and lead during this challenging time.

Disclaimer: The views shared in this episode are Amy’s personal opinions and reflections and not necessarily those of her employer.

Episode Quotes:

"Haas has created this ecosystem where there's a lot of a sense of psychological safety, even from a relationship perspective."

"We want to make sure that everyone feels supported and even though we might be working on different things, at the end of the day, we're working towards a bigger goal."

"Giving people that sense of ownership over their projects makes it a lot easier for them to also think through."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• TwentyEight Health
• Forbes article about TwentyEight Health 

Episode #52: Today, we chat with Jake Wamala, full-time MBA class of 2019, Certified USCF Chess Expert, and Public Equities Global Research Analyst at Aristotle Capital.

He shared with us why he's drawn to public markets, his ideas for diversity and inclusion in organizations, and his love of chess. He also talks about his passion for giving back not just to Haas and fellow alumni but also to the community at large.

Episode Quotes:

On self-confidence - "I think it's immensely important for children of color to believe that they can do and achieve anything."

About putting in the proverbial 10,000 hours - "They say that’s a myth but I think there's truth to it in some ways. Practice makes perfect.”

On self-teaching - "It helps if you just put in a little bit of discipline and a lot in believing in yourself."

Show Link:

LinkedIn Profile

Today, we chat with Marco Gottini, a Berkeley Columbia Executive MBA class of 2011. He is an IT executive with more than years of international experience in IT strategy, IT operations, and management consulting. He is currently a Managing Partner at Bizal, portmanteau for Business (Biz) Alignment. He is also a board member of the Berkeley Haas Los Angeles chapter.

In this episode, Marco shares his younger years growing up in an Italian family who owns a winery, packing his belongings and moving to LA, his career in the IT industry, and deciding to go to business school as a challenge.

He also narrates starting Bizal, explains what business alignment is all about, and the importance of having a business framework and clear business goals.

Episode Quotes:

On alumni engagement - "It was just so amazing to see happy people having great experiences. So, it wasn't just about the school. It wasn't just about allegiance. It was about having a good time with people that are technically your family."

On having clear business goals - "When you know where you're going, you can figure it out better, and you can put KPIs in place that are significant and meaningful."

The importance of human factor in technology and business - "People forget about people more than anybody else. They think that technology solves everything. There are phenomenal technologies out there. And then where everything fails most of the time is people using them. People not following the rules, people doing other things, people breaking what technology was. So, you also have to consider the human factor. It's absolutely important. It's probably the most important enabler out of all of that in a company."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Bizal
• Berkeley Haas Los Angeles

In celebration with the Hispanic Heritage Month, we have Chris Cindy Cordova on the podcast today. She is a full-time MBA, class of 2020, fresh graduate, and alumni. Before Haas, she studied aeronautical aeronautical and astronautical engineering at Stanford and worked several years with Honeywell in various roles. She's currently a Sr. Product Manager at Amazon Web Services aside from being an awesome mother.

Chris talks about her struggles and successes growing up from an immigrant family from El Salvador. She shares her experience of going to a school that was 1-5 hrs away from her home so she could join a gifted program, the people in her life that made it possible for her to get the best education she could have given her circumstances, and how much her mother's sacrifices for her and her siblings gave her the motivation to succeed and accomplish her dreams.

She also talks about her career as an astronautical engineer, why she's passionate about it, and how it was to be the only woman or Latina in an industry that's dominated by white men.

Chris is also passionate about increasing the representation of women and minorities in tech and entrepreneurship. She aims to provide more funding and create more opportunities for people of color.

Lastly, she shares her experience being a mother of three daughters and balancing her time between that and being a career woman.

Episode Quotes:

"One of the main things that I have learned and I try to teach my kids is not to be afraid, to stand up for yourself, and to pursue the passions that you have regardless of who's around you or who's not, what people are saying or what they're not."

"Find the mentors and the champions that will help you, even if they don't look like you, even if they can't relate. The people who don't look like you can also be champions for you and not being afraid to reach out to them and not being afraid to ask for help when you need it, I think that's been crucial for me."

"I want them to see the example that I saw in my mom of this hardworking woman who did not let any limitations hold her back. I want my kids to be able to see that and to see that there are no limitations for them, especially because they have so many more opportunities and advantages that I didn't have when I was growing up."

"We want them to recognize their privilege because despite being a minority, they are also privileged with having parents that are educated and having opportunities. And we want them to use that privilege for good and to be the voice for those who can't speak for themselves."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Berekely MBA Blog

On this episode of OneHaas Undergrad series, we chat with Yifei Ding, a product manager at Instagram. She officially started her career at Deloitte and then transitioned to Facebook.

Yifei shares why she's passionate about product development and narrates her experience and the support system at a company like Facebook, the challenges of having multiple roles, and how to navigate and work with different teams.

In today's episode of OneHaas Undergrad series, we chat with Trae Guinn, Financial Planning and Analysis Manager at Sandler Partners. He is also the Chief Financial Officer at Shortstop Management, an organization geared towards professional baseball and fitness instruction. While here at Haas, he served as the VP of Human Resources and the president of the Haas Undergrad Black Business Association.

Trae talks about his family, which is heavily involved in sports, how he developed his interest in finance and his career path after Haas, and some of the defining moments that impacted his life.

He also shares his experience of being frequently stereotyped as an athlete and how he addressed stereotype issues when he became the Haas Undergrad Black Business Association president.

Lastly, he shares his professional experiences and some of the valuable skills and qualities to move up in an organization, his passion for music, and his favorite thing about Haas/Berkeley.

Episode Quotes:

On breaking stereotypes - "Be present and be unapologetically you to show versatility and that you can be confident in your interest. You can pursue whatever you want to pursue. You don't have to conform to the standards that have been set for you."

On innovating within a company or organization - "You want to make sure that you can set yourself apart from your peers. Everyone's going to try to produce high-quality work, and it's really important. But the ability to innovate and bring something new to the table will set you apart and help you establish yourself from the rest."

What Trae likes about Haas/Berkeley - "There's more of a free speech mentality at Berkeley than there are at some other schools. And people are encouraged to express themselves in a lot of different ways. It was cool to be a part of that type of environment."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Shortstop Management, LLC

In this episode of OneHaas, meet alumna Tricia Tran, Senior Field Marketing Manager of the financial services and Fintech group at ServiceNow. She’s also the founding co-President of the Berkeley Haas Women in a leadership Alumnae network.

A child of Vietnamese immigrant parents, Tricia grew up in the Bay Area with her heart set on one day attending UC Berkeley. Her family instilled strong values of education and hard work in her from a young age. 

Host Sean Li chatted with Tricia during Women’s History Month. The pair discuss Tricia’s amazing story of emigrating to the U.S. from Vietnam as a baby and the challenges her family faced along the way. They also chat about her experiences working as an Asian American woman in Asia vs. the U.S. and the alumnae group she started for Haas women called Women in Leadership (WILA).

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On the challenges her parents faced when trying to leave Vietnam

“It was one of those moments where the decisions you make will alter your life. My dad had the choice to either keep waiting and risk the months of planning to get caught, and not be able to escape or leave for freedom and risk never seeing his wife and his daughter possibly ever again.”

How her parents adapted to their new life in the U.S. 

“She learned how to cook and she learned it by memory. She remembered the flavors of the dishes that she had in Vietnam and she recreated those from memory. They both had several careers in restaurants, in condiments, in the steel business, in jewelry. There were several businesses that they had and I saw them pivot and try new things, and have success and sometimes failures, but they always learned from that.”

Her experience working in Asia vs. the U.S.

“Even though I was working in a key hub for Asia, like Hong Kong, you looked around and there were a lot of people of Asian ethnicity working there, but none in leadership. And in fact, when I interviewed with the head of our group, who was a Westerner from the UK, she remarked in awe, she said, ‘You speak beautiful English.’ When you feel that you are Asian, but you're also American, there's all these facets of you. You're a woman, and you go to a different country with a different background and people have these biases and they have these assumptions and it's important, I think, but hard to call those out, right?”

On the creation of WILA

“I was struggling professionally and personally, and I wanted a space where I could seek out other Haas women who I knew could understand and provide some perspective. I knew I wasn't alone in feeling this. And today, WILA is thriving and we continue to serve our mission.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Women in Leadership Alumnae

Episode #53: Lisha Bell joins us today to discuss her career in the tech industry that span 20 years. She talks about her experiences in building mobile payments, digital money movement, and her passion for AI and how it could break various fraud patterns.

She also shares her initiative to launch a fund to provide capital to the underserved communities. She also provides some parting wisdom on how we can teach our children and expose them to different cultures and to love not only people but everything that we're given.

Episode Quotes:

"If people had something, if you gave people a piece of the pie a little bit, if you gave people access to home ownership, they would have a stake. They would have equity. They would be rooted in and more confident about what they can do and who they could be."

"We have this kind of society that values your social economic status more than your actual talent and capabilities. And, how do we shift that?"

"Let's raise our children to be empathetic and have understanding and not be presumptive in who or what they think people are, their capabilities, because of what they look like.... And, just teach our children to love not only people, animals, our gardens nature, like love everything that we're given."

Show Notes: 

LinkedIn Profile

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lishabell/

Episode #49: Anna Roumiantseva, FTMBA '17, joins us on the podcast to share her journey after Haas. Having had successful careers in multiple disciplines and now applying those experiences at startups in stealth mode under Google's famous X Moonshot Factory, she shares us the importance of questioning the status quo on a daily basis.

Today we're joined by Elena Gomez, Chief Financial Officer of Toast, a cloud-based, end-to-end technology platform purpose-built for the entire restaurant community. Before Toast, she served as the Chief Financial Officer at Zendesk, where she helped scale the company to over 1 billion in annual revenues. Currently, she serves on the board at Haas School of Business and The Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco.

Elena talks about her origin story, rich culture, what inspired her to go into finance and accounting, and her vast career experience in different tech companies. She also shares why she is deeply passionate about and committed to advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace. 

Episode Quotes:

One reason why being a Latina and a female is important to her in her career

“I was always looking up trying to see if there was someone that looked like me. And then I realized how important it was that, in fact, I had a responsibility to kick butt in the job, because I wanted to show them that, not only am I Latina and I'm a female, but I'm going to crush the job. I want to do really well for the next generation, so people can see that. Give us an opportunity and you'll see we're going to crush it.”

On getting a job that is aligned with your values

“It really helps you every day, because you're going to spend all this time working 14-hour days, 12-hour days, etc. And so, for me, the fact that we (Toast) could be in communities and, really, our mission-driven company to help small businesses really resonated with me. So, that alignment of your values with where you work, I think, is really powerful if you can find it.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

Marie Thompson is a Principal Investor at Powerhouse Ventures, an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Despite her struggle with health, she's made valuable contributions at Powerhouse Ventures, where she was offered her dream role right after her internship.

Marie's perseverance shines because of the mindset she cultivated through athletics. In this episode, Marie shares her story of pursuing an MBA and choosing Haas, the relationships she formed along the way, and overcoming a life-threatening illness. She also talks about helping industries pivot to clean energy and address today's climate crisis.

Episode Quotes:

Marie’s reasons for pursuing an MBA

[00:06:42] I had two north stars that really made it clear that business school is the right step for me. One was just that personal development. I stalled out where I was. I wasn't going to get an opportunity to practice leadership or management skills or be able to connect to people in a real way. I knew I couldn't get that in my current corporate environment. The other one was very practical and functional. I was done with oil and gas. I strongly wanted to pivot industries into kind of clean energy or climate tech. 

On choosing Haas

[08:40.97] Once I finally started interacting with Haas students and learning more about the school environment and how amazing everybody is in an inspiring way and not an intimidating way, that was huge. Being in a place where I felt like I could learn from people and collaborate was so much more important than some prestige or some specific class. I got a little lucky that the Bay Area is home to where the industry I wanted to be and Haas happened to be right there.

On creating and preserving meaningful connections through BERC (Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative)

[00:14:23] The number one thing I got out of BERC was that experience of leadership and connecting with so many people in the industry. That facilitation, especially across different majors and departments, was really special and important and something that I think BERC did a really good job of. I'm still in touch with most of that executive team. 

Recovering from cancer with the help of her athlete mentality

[00:25:54] The athlete mentality was really helpful in some ways of just getting through it, pushing through, enduring. It really was just endurance. I thought recovery might be like a path of a mountain; as long as you walk the path and follow the rules, things will get better and easier. But it's really more like you're staring into this giant void, and nobody has some answers for you. People my age and gender typically don't get this type of cancer. There's no guidance, and you're just off in the wild to rebuild your body and rebuild your mind. That lack of structure and detachment from the athlete lifestyle that was a part of my twenties and my athletic career has been a journey every day to choose to be nice to myself and proud of myself and keep moving forward with my teeny little baby steps.

Show Links:

• Marie Thompson on LinkedIn
• Powerhouse Fund Official Website
• Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC) Official Website
• The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management
• Watt It Takes podcast

As part Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, we're featuring Jaime Raul Zepeda, a graduate of EWMBA 2019. Through grit and hard work, he moved alone to America at 17, took classes during the day, and mopped floors in the evening. His family in Mexico developed his passion for business and civic leadership. His dad runs a small business, while his mom actively serves the community by feeding the prisoners, giving free haircuts to the homeless, and teaching adults to read and write. Jaime continues helping others by mentoring first-generation college students, youth starting their careers, and social impact entrepreneurs.

Jaime served as VP of Partnership and Programs in Great Place to Work and Customer Success Regional Manager at LinkedIn. He currently helps fresh graduates land career opportunities as SVP of Customer and People Success at Hive Diversity, a virtual recruitment platform. 

Listen to this episode to know what inspired Jaime to serve the community as he runs for State Senate in California's 10th District.

Episode Quotes:

Your family has a small business in Mexico, why did you choose a very uncomfortable life as a teenager in America?

 [00:02:26] "My dad set this example for me to just always dream, always chase what you want. Hustle for what you're looking for, like work hard. And my mom, very same way, same things. But she also added this layer of always serving the community."

On the role of the community as he pursued education and career independently

[00:05:45] "I'd relied a lot on the people that were there once I got there. I relied on the family. I was going to high school during the day because I was on my own. I had a full-time job after that. So, I had a very different experience. But teachers at high school knew about that. Eventually, they knew that I was my own guardian. They would just come in and say, you know, 'Do you need some help, Jaime? I know that you got a lot. You can do that homework tomorrow.'

And it was just awesome because it was like those little moments that just taught me to appreciate the community that I had around me at all times. And I still bring that to this day. I still believe educators are amazing nation builders. My wife is an educator, and I think they're amazing, but I had some community that helped me out."

Having a lot of experience in business, what led you to enter politics?

[00:24:54] "Politics and business have always just been super fascinating for me because in politics, if you do it really well, and if you do it for the right intentions, it is to empower people. It is to move the levers of government through laws, policies, and movements so that more people get more power. To get elected is not to get power, but to give power, as I always think about it.

Business is very similar in many ways too. If business is done really well, it is to create a sustainable positive agent of change in society. And that's largely why I've only worked at organizations where I believe in what they do. Not just because it's a good paycheck, but because I believe they're actually doing good to society and are able to sustain that because of the business model they have."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Zepeda for Senate Official Website

Today we have John Bolaji, MBA, Master of Engineering candidate at UC Berkeley. Aside from being a Consortium Fellow, he is also Co-President of The Black Business Student Association here at Haas. 

John comes from a Nigerian family. He is good at Math and Science, and coupled with his passion for science fiction and technology, he went to MIT and studied Mechanical Engineering. However, John wanted to explore other industries other than tech and engineering. He worked as a Consulting Analyst in Accenture and then a Project Manager at McMaster-Carr, where he got to experience real management and leadership experience.

In this episode, John shares his reasons for pursuing the new joint master’s degree in business and engineering, joining different resources inside and outside of Haas, and taking on leadership roles to promote positive changes in the world, especially for people of color.

Episode Quotes:

On being exposed to management and leadership experience early in his career

"It offered me some really interesting and unique leadership opportunities that I was really happy to get and confirmed for me that the leadership and management aspect is where I want to be in terms of my career, in terms of how I'm contributing to the world. I think that's where my natural abilities and skills lie."

The role of MLT (Management Leadership for Tomorrow) in his business school application

“I definitely have to give a shout out here to MLT. That's another organization that helps prepare black and brown students to transition to business school. What I did was MLT MBA Prep. It's essentially a large group of people kind of going through the MBA application process. So, a lot of people have MBA application consultants. This is like a similar version of that but it's a much larger community and it's focused on uplifting black and brown students and indigenous students. And that was 100% the most impactful part of my preparation and application process. MLT was really the first intro to this world and I can't thank them enough for how the preparation process, the coaches that they give you, access to the networking with schools that they give you, is all very impactful. And on top of all of that, it just creates such an amazing community of people who are going through the same process at the same time.”

On choosing business schools

“Every business school admissions process is different for everybody. And I think, more so than any other professional school, there is a strong emphasis on prestige, rank, business school, name brand, and all those different things, and that definitely influenced my thinking a lot. But I'd say my advice to people is that everyone's business school application journey will be unique. The prestige and name brand definitely have some effect in certain areas, but you can think of other things like the school, culture, fits, geographic location, student size; all those different things will have a much larger impact on your experience.”

Why he joined different programs inside and outside of Haas

“I did this intentionally, but I really overloaded myself. I was trying to hone in my focus and my prioritization. I was like, I'm going to sample everything and put as much on my plate as I can. And then I'm going to see what sticks essentially. Because you only have so much time, and at the end of the day, you end up prioritizing the things that you find important, and the things that you don't find important will fall off the wayside.”

A piece of advice from John

“It's going to be tough, but don't be afraid to push your boundaries and get outside your comfort zone. I feel like that's a very cliche piece of advice, but the way I'd frame it is, it's a lot easier to get comfortable and stay inside your comfort zone without even realizing that you're in your comfort zone. You might think you are pushing your boundaries when in reality, you're just slightly turning to the left or slightly turning to the right. And when I say completely change everything that you thought your boundary was, if you can go to the opposite end of the spectrum and test it out to see how far you can go and how far you think the spectrum even is, you might realize there's way more in the middle than you thought or it's not as far as you thought that this thing that you thought was super radical really is not that radical. And maybe you can even go further and get closer to finding something even better for you than you thought could be possible on this side of whatever spectrum you're thinking of.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Management Leadership for Tomorrow - MBA Prep Program
• Black Business Student Association
• Haas Consortium Fellowship
• UC Berkeley's MBA/MEng program
• Haas Tech Club

What does it take to be an effective leader? Haas School of Business Alumnus and Founder of Group Sixty, Darren Reinke talked with host Sean Li about his book The Savage Leader: 13 Principles to Become a Better Leader Inside Out. Their conversation covered how leaders can form a better bond with their tribe by being humble, showing their curiosity and eagerness to learn. 

Darren tackled and shared his learnings over the years and how the willingness to put in hard work will eventually pay off. And his definition of perseverance means getting out of your comfort zone, even if you need to face your own fears. 

But does facing your fears mean saying yes to everything? Tune in until the end of the show as they talk about how his experience taught him that great leaders are authentic and how reaching deep inside to know your values will help you prioritize which things to say yes to.

Find nuggets of wisdom in this episode as they talk about self-limiting beliefs and encouraging your team to face their fears and take risks with you.

Episode Quotes:

How do you connect with your tribe better?

"People generally think of communication as voice inflection, how you frame a conversation, project, vision, but I think there's something actually more fundamental than that. It's about humility, curiosity, empathy, and being present. Accepting that other people have value to any conversation. You don't know everything. You don't know the answer to every question. There's something that can be gained from even the rank and file in your organization. I think the same thing holds true for curiosity. The intrinsic curiosity that leaders should have about the world, around them, about the people around them. I think that connects back to humility."

How do you become a great leader?

"The willingness to be introspective. So that gets to the points of being humble, being curious, being more self-aware of yourself and the people around you. You have to be willing to put in the hard work because growing and changing is definitely not easy. It requires two things, which is that desire to be great, which creates that North Star for yourself. The introspection, which allows people to get to who they are as a person. What they need to do to get better. Then they have to put in the work because we can't just think about change."

Thoughts on Surfing and Facing Fears:

"I think to me, the upside for surfing is just too valuable. It makes me think about life. We're so anchored on things we can and can't control. I think I started to have this moment, I don't know if it was lucid or the opposite of that. I realized if I can just truly let go of the things that I can't control, it's like a superpower. In the same thing, it's like when you're surfing. All you can control is what's above the surface."

Show Links:

• Darren on LinkedIn
• His Book: The Savage Leader
• His Company: Group Sixty
• Their Podcast: The Savage Leader Podcast

Today's guest is Dr. Jenny Woo, Founder and CEO of Mind Brain Emotion, a company that creates cleverly simple and immediately actionable skills-building games and tools to help people become happier, calmer, and wiser.

As a former president of the Women in Leadership Club at Haas, Jenny shares her journey from a little girl moving to the US to be reunited with her parents, to a female consultant working with global companies, to a mother entrepreneur-student juggling family, PhD, and startup.

Jenny is passionate about helping people reach their potential - from classrooms to boardrooms. She has worked as a human capital consultant at Deloitte, a Talent & Strategy Manager at Cisco, a Montessori school director, a cognitive science researcher, and a lecturer in Emotional Intelligence.

Having taught in grade schools and colleges, she saw a lack of resources and opportunities to help students develop what we call "soft skills" in the real world. This is how she started her company which was incubated out of Harvard Innovation Labs. She developed and launched the 52 Essential card series which is used in 50+ countries in homes, schools, and workplaces.

Episode Quotes:

Advice for people who want to pursue an MBA

You have to be crystal clear in terms of what you want to get out of it and what are your purposes. What are your passions?

On why she decided to go into a Ph.D. program

Sometimes the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. And I wanted to really become an expert, in this case, in emotional intelligence, helping kids, and even adults, develop what we call soft skills in the real world. 

The biggest barrier she sees in undergraduate and graduate students and how to overcome it

I see this need to feel prepared and somehow never feeling quite prepared enough and needing to be doing other things in order to pursue what ultimately we are interested in. I think that also is related to the imposter syndrome, why should I do this? Who am I to do this? What would people say? And would I fail? Those little negative voices in our head. Honestly, just do it. Just start. We can start baby steps. You don't have to get it all right. But even one little habit you implement, one little hour you spend will make a difference.

In order to live your next thing or the thing that you've been putting off and on your wish list, is to not go into this all-or-nothing mentality. 

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Mind Brain Emotion
• 52 Essential Life Skills
• 52 Essential Critical Thinking Skills
• 52 Essential Coping Skills

OneHaas Undergrad Series Episode #2: In this episode, we chat with Michelle Christina Hong about her identity as a Cambodian American figure skater and how her background prompted her to create the very first platform (coachmichellehong.com) dedicated to making skating accessible to everyone. She also talks about not following the ABCs of Haas, sticking with her true passion and making a career out of it as a savvy entrepreneur.

OneHaas’ commemoration of Latinx Heritage Month continues with an interview with Adrien Lopez Lanusse, the former vice president of consumer insights at Netflix. 

Adrien’s intersectionality between being Latinx and gay gave him a certain kind of insight into the culture within corporations and the impact of those companies’ products on the consumer. 

He and host Sean Li delve into the art of consumer insights, how Adrien’s upbringing shaped his work ethic, and what it was like to watch Netflix grow into the behemoth company it is today. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Why he was drawn to a business career from an early age 

I was very curious. And in our household, being in a multicultural household, we consumed products and services very differently than my friends. And I was always curious as to why or how does culture drive or influence us as consumers?

On how to ensure consumer insights work is inclusive 

I think finding the level of granularity is part of what leads to some of the insightful ideas. So, for example, oftentimes, a company will talk about their consumer in a monolithic way. And by not looking at some of the nuances of the different segments, the different types of consumers, you're balancing things out and missing some of the opportunities.

How the Haas Thrive Fellows program is empowering future Latinx business leaders

Latinx representation in business, particularly in the executive ranks, is a challenge…They've created this program to help educate, prepare, and motivate folks from underrepresented groups to apply and succeed in business schools, hopefully, Haas. And we want to reverse the trend in declining applications from underrepresented ethnic and racial groups. So programs and efforts like these, I think, are really important to increase representation in the executive ranks.

On what his promotions have meant to him in his career 

The fact that someone recognized my value and decided to promote me was something I wouldn't have imagined earlier in my career. Growing up in a Latino household where we're taught to be humble, to be grateful for what we're given, I think, leads to a lot of us not being good at self-advocacy. And it's something we need to work on to increase our representation in the executive ranks. So, all the promotions that I've gotten, I never take them for granted, and I'm incredibly grateful for them.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Haas Thrive Fellows
• The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick Lencioni

In celebration of Black History Month, our guest for today is Eric T. McKissack. Eric is a graduate of the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA program. Currently, he is an Investment Executive and Independent Board Director at different companies and nonprofits, including FlexShares Funds and Morgan Stanley Pathway Funds. He is also a Board Member of McKissack & McKissack, a privately-held, family business that is a national architectural, engineering, and program and construction management firm.

Even though he is an only child, Eric grew up in a large extended family of business leaders and entrepreneurs who had a strong family identity. In fact, his grandfather and great uncle were the first Black registered architects in the US. 

Because of the influence of the family business, Eric went to MIT for architecture but ended up in Sloan to pursue his own interests in business. He started in banking but then worked many years in investment management before starting Channing with his partners. He shares his journey from that pivotal moment, getting his executive MBA while founding an investment firm, how they overcame the challenges along the way, and how one can succeed in this space. 

This episode is valuable for people who aspire to start their own investment firms or join the board of directors as Eric shares his wealth of experiences and motivations to be in the boardroom of successful organizations.

Episode Quotes:

On starting his own investment firm

“Another pivotal moment in my career, I got to a point where I felt that either I would stay where I was indefinitely, and that would be the duration of my career and be my experiences, or I could have the experience of starting a firm of my own. While I had joined Ariel early on, I was not a founder. And so, it was like a fork in the road kind of opportunity in my mind, and I took it.”

On Channing, his investment firm, surviving the great recession

“Certainly, starting a firm is challenging at any time and place. But also, the industry had changed a lot from early in my career. It wasn't long before the Great Recession hit, so there were a lot of challenges. Nevertheless, we were able to survive those. I always say that we got through that period, and Lehman and Bear Stearns didn't. So, we felt we had something to be proud of, to get through the great recession. And the firm continues on with my partners.”

On investment markets being all about human nature

“Sometimes, periods of overvaluation and undervaluation can last very long, longer than the patience of your clients. Clients may not be patient enough to recognize that there's a bubble brewing and want to go where they think the grass is greener, to another manager, or do a reallocation. Ultimately, markets are still about human nature no matter how much technology is introduced into the process. And human nature can sometimes lead to business outcomes that are not favorable even for the most talented investment managers.”

On raising capital for their first fund as a minority-owned firm

“There are always challenges raising money in any business or any investment entity. And I can't say that the challenges were strictly based on pure discrimination. But I think what often happens is that certain types of resumes get more of a path or more of a benefit of the doubt than others. That's not to say that doesn't happen for some diverse candidates, that they have the same kind of resumes, but that wasn't the background that I had.

I came out of a minority-owned firm to launch another minority firm. And while that firm had a great track or reputation, I don't think we necessarily got the same benefit of the doubt. It was more like, "Okay, well, let's see what you can do in this new environment. And then we'll give you money if we like what we see."

Who succeeds in founding their own investment firm and why

“The people who are most successful at it are those that have been able to develop track records through prior experience and have the kind of blue-chip backgrounds. But very often too, it takes a certain person to decide they want to do that because if you're at a successful firm and you have a great track record, then a lot of people are very comfortable staying there because they are very often making very high compensation. There may be golden handcuffs. There are all kinds of reasons why starting a business is something you have to be highly motivated about.”

Show Links:

• Eric on LinkedIn
• Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead 
• Isabel Wilkerson

Episode #41: Today, we're joined by Claire Veuthey, of the Executive MBA class of 2019. She shares with us her multinational background and influences that led her to pursue a career helping investors better integrate environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors into their decisions.

Episode highlights:

• Studied international relations in Geneva
• Went on to King's College in London for her Master's in War Studies and Conflict
• Transitioned into a career in Environmental, Social, and Governance consulting and investing in the private sector
• Shares why she came to Haas to move from corporate impact investing to venture impact investing
• She looks back at her favorite moment with her Executive MBA class

"Identities are not exclusive, there's a lot of and's and not necessarily a lot of or's." - Claire Veuthey

Episode #51: Nora Silver and my cohost, Bree Jenkins, joins us on the podcast today to have a conversation around building bridges for racial equity in our workplaces and organizations. Nora is the Founder, Faculty Director, and Adjunct Professor of the Center for Social Sector Leadership at Haas. She teaches Social Sector Solutions, Impact Investing Practicum, and Large Scale Social Change: Social Movements, for which she is an Aspen Pioneer Faculty Award winner.

Our guest for this episode is Valentyn Zadorin. He is a private equity investor at Siguler Guff and is responsible for deal evaluation and execution for Siguler Guff’s Global Emerging Markets platform. Prior to joining Siguler Guff in 2022, he was an Investment Banker at Barclays Investment Bank covering the technology ecosystem. Previously, he was a Co-founder and Partner at a full-service 3PL provider in Ukraine and an investor in emerging markets.

We get to know more about Val as he talks about his background, growing up in Ukraine, and his reasons for coming to Haas to pursue an MBA. 

Val was also recently featured in Poets&Quants about his views and experience on the Russian aggression in Ukraine. In this episode, he shares a little bit about what started the war, what's currently going on, and the actions people can take to help Ukraine win.

Episode Quotes:

Why Haas?

"I didn't have an emotional connection to Berkeley, to be entirely honest. But I knew two things. The first one is that I felt big potential in technology, so I wanted to start in the right field, in the right market. And what's the best place to do that other than the Bay area? And the second thing, I actually could relate to the four defining principles. It's funny because, usually, you think it's just a marketing tool of some sort. But in reality, some of those are indeed what I have been trying to be as a person. My favorite one is confidence without attitude. And to me, it fits my personality really well. I believe, after my experience of working with different graduates from different schools, Berkeley and Haas is really distinguished by incredibly smart and hardworking people who are modest and have the confidence without attitude at the same time.

When I got to the school, it turned out that it was actually an amazing fit. I realized only after being at Haas how lucky I got, essentially. It was challenging, but the environment is just incredibly supportive, and starting from my classmates to the faculty, I got a lot of support in the school. And I'm glad I ended up in Berkeley and I made the right choice in the end."

On what could be the end result of the war for Ukraine

"So, by starting this war, Russia not only just blew up their economy. They not only united all the Ukrainians together. I believe, really, after the war ends, Ukraine is going to be more united than ever. And it's going to be an incredibly prosperous country because this aggression just changed our moral compass inside the country. And at the same time, it brought the attention of international organizations to the issues. I think, with international support, after the war ends, the best way to actually change something within Russia is to show that Ukraine is going to be prosperous and successful. And hopefully, after Russian people see that, they will realize that they have to do something on their own within their country."

Action items for people to help support Ukraine

"I think it's really important to talk about it. And we probably are at the point where people are just getting tired of negative news and the war. They're trying to move on. But in reality, it's important for all of us, as I mentioned. It's really a war against freedom and the war against Western values. 

There are a few action items. So, first of all, it's probably most important. Please, use your rights as citizens and appeal to elected representatives. Just move this top on their agenda, essentially. Let them know that it's important for you and let them know that, if they want to be elected for the next term, they should be helping Ukraine. I think that's a really important thing.

Secondly, Ukraine needs weapons. We have been winning. The problem is there are five Russian soldiers and one Ukrainian, and there are three tanks on one Ukrainian missile launcher. So, to really fight back, Ukraine needs weapons.

The third thing, and it's really important. I recommend donating. I've received so many donations for the Ukrainian cause. And it's like tens of thousands of dollars that were channeled through me to NGOs who are helping victims of war, who are helping soldiers now. I really appreciate that."

How can businesspeople and entrepreneurs help the cause?

"As businessmen, as graduates of Haas, we are making purchasing decisions, all of us. At some point, we either will be or we are. Don't buy Russian products, because by buying Russian products, you are paying companies who are going to pay taxes in Russia that, in turn, going to be used to finance the war. And it's a vote that we are making with our wallets. So, be mindful of that. And please, check your channels."

Show Links:

• Valentyn Zadorin LinkedIn
• Razom for Ukraine
• Lost Kingdom by Serhii Plokhy

Doug Galen is the Co-Founder and CEO of RippleWorks. Founded in 2015, RippleWorks connects leading expertise from Silicon Valley and the larger US tech sector with rapidly scaling ventures for short-term, high-impact projects that unlock the ventures' capacity for growth. To help social enterprises scale faster, Doug Galen works with CEOs to figure out their toughest challenges and connect them to leading Silicon Valley experts to gain startup and leadership skills.

In this episode, our guest discusses how entrepreneurs can make a difference in people's lives and the world as a whole.

Episode quotes:

On what prompted him to start RippleWorks

00:00:42] RippleWorks started seven years ago. I had one of those moments in life. I was having a conversation with my daughter, who was turning 13, and we talked about how to make the world a better place. And I was building a mobile shopping app, which didn't feel consistent with my purpose in life. So I made a big career change and started to explore how I might better use my time. And that's how I founded RippleWorks.

How do you help social entrepreneurs scale their companies?

[00:2:42] How we do it is that we at RippleWorks, vet for the best ventures in the world. We work with the CEO to figure out their top three challenges so we know whatever we do will have an impact on them. We staff all the project managers called Venture Growth Managers who will sweat all the details. Then we bring in a Silicon Valley expert who has solved that problem before that the CEO is facing, with scrappy resources in their career, who will volunteer two to five hours a week for the next month to four months, working on this problem. You, as the expert, get that amazing feeling of leveraging your skillset to give back. You, as a venture, have that problem solved and you probably formed a new friendship and advisor for life.

On why he decided to get an MBA

[00:08:07] I had a moment in the mirror when I was staring at myself and talking with my daughter. I did not like the path I was on. I didn't want to be a real estate broker. I didn't feel like I was adding value. So business school was a chance for me to reevaluate if I am on the right path? And that's a hundred percent why I went back. Didn't matter that I was building a career. I was heading down a path that was not gonna make me feel good. And either I subconsciously, or maybe a little consciously, knew that. And I don't believe in pursuing paths that aren't consistent with what gets you excited.

On how RippleWorks select social ventures to work with

[00:24:01] We look at the impact of a venture and there's three elements to the impact of a venture to pick who we're gonna work with. The first is the depth of impact on a human being. If we're helping a farmer in Northern Nigeria, how much are we increasing their income so they can move out of extreme poverty to poverty or poverty to lower middle class? So first is the depth of impact. The second is the breadth of impact. How many people are we impacting with that depth? And then the third is the target population. We are interested in helping people who are struggling with life. 

Show Links:

• Doug Galen on LinkedIn
• RippleWorks Official Website
• CNN Climate Change Quiz

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we chat with Alka Tandan, Senior Vice President of Finance & Strategic Programs at Gainsight. She is a Haas MBA alum with over 20 years in corporate finance, operations, and mergers and acquisitions. 

In this episode, Alka talks about how she fell in love with technology while growing up in Silicon Valley. We also discuss her career experiences, especially her transition from a big organization like Yahoo to IGN, and her reasons for pursuing an MBA. Alka also shares how she became an investor, limited partner, and advisor for the venture fund Operator Collective.

You will also hear about how to thrive and chart your own path as a female leader in a male-dominated industry and get advice on how to move up the ladder from a member of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women community. 

Episode Quotes:

On growing up in Silicon Valley and falling in love with technology

My father came here with my mom for the American dream. There were a lot of hopes and dreams on our shoulders, but it was a great place to grow up in Silicon Valley. And that's really how I fell in love with technology. I feel like I was born in it and it's in my blood. 

On experiencing firsthand how the tech industry bloomed over the years

The attention being paid to Silicon Valley now all around the world and the true respect and appreciation of what technology can do and how it not only changes lives but is actually the bread and butter of our economy worldwide is gratifying. I just don't think people quite got it back then. 

On her decision to get an MBA

Higher education was definitely always very important in my family. It was something that I thought I was going to do, however, also having the rebellious side, I was never going to just do something. I was at a point where I was just done with banking and really decided that the next step for me was to be part of a company and its journey.

What she gained from her MBA experience

I was really looking to get a more well-rounded education around marketing, around sales, around operations, and so, that's really kind of what my goal was. I think what was interesting about it, though, is I ended up getting expertise that was equally valuable - the soft skills, the presentation skills, the ability to debate with like-minded people, which really I hadn't done as much when you were a more junior person in banking. And the chance to really sit there and really analyze different business scenarios critically and get just the varied experience from everybody in the class, especially with international students, was huge.

On the process of transitioning from a big firm to a smaller one

You have to just re-sit and really get honest with yourself. I had to get really honest about the types of things I wanted to do on a daily basis, the pace that I wanted to go, the opportunities that I wanted to do. It's just a lot of self-awareness - think about what you want to do and what you're really good at. Know what makes you light up, and really at the end of the day, I feel like everything we're doing is really just trying to figure out how to light ourselves up. And I would even say it's probably our duty to get lit up for the world. 

On moving up the corporate ladder

It's a journey. I have so many friends and family members all around the world and there's always this Silicon Valley myth that everybody comes here and then three years later they're worth a hundred million dollars. And we know that is just not the reality. I'm sure the odds are better here than in other places, a hundred percent, but the reality of it is for most people, it takes time. It takes time to really hone your craft and that's exactly what I discovered. Everyone has had ups and downs in their careers. I definitely did.

Advice for women who are advancing in their careers

I would encourage all women that are moving up the ladder to, first of all, really talk to other women. And again, know yourself. Advocate for yourself. Find your mentors, people with whom you can have that conversation, do things in an authentic way, and get advice and bounce things off of people. It's the most powerful thing you can do. Sometimes, it's ok to need help. I certainly do that for and with several people, of all genders.

Advice on finding your passion

At the end of the day, I feel like everything we're doing is really to figure out how to light ourselves up. And I would say it's our duty to get lit up for the world.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile

Episode #42: We speak with Soh Kim, a PhD '13 alumna who did her research on Open Innovation Ecosystem: Chez Panisse Case which encompassed Food Innovation. She was guided under Henry Chesbrough through the Berkeley Haas Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation.

We brought Lance Barnard to the show today to talk about his unique journey into entrepreneurship. Lance is CEO at Ward Road Pharmacy, a pharmaceuticals company that provides the convenience of a "one-stop-shop" for prescriptions and homecare supplies, expert advice, friendly service, and individualized solutions. He acquired it through a self-funded search, where an entrepreneur embarks on the journey of searching for a company without funding or an installed base of investors, opting instead to secure their funding once they've found their company.

Lance grew up in New Jersey but wanted something different when it was time to go to college. So, he went to Southern Methodist University in Texas for his undergrad and studied business, which had always been his interest.

In this episode, Lance shared his career experiences at Goldman-Sachs and Samsung Electronics, how he adapted to different company cultures, and coming to the Bay area to pursue his MBA at Haas, which has its own set of cultures.

Lance also talked about how he was introduced to search funds, why self-funded search appeals to him more than traditional search, and his journey into acquiring Ward Road Pharmacy.

Episode Quotes:

On the time he spent in Texas

“Overall, I enjoyed my time there. I think I got a really good education, learned a lot more just about the energy industry, which I never would have if I had gone elsewhere, got to experience a different perspective, and live in a different part of the country. I think that it did a good job exposing me to a lot of new things.”

On starting with a finance career as a young professional

“I was straddling between do I want to go do a career in finance, maybe go into banking and go into private equity, or did I want to do something more entrepreneurial? In the back of my mind, I probably knew the answer to that, but I thought, at the very least, starting my career in finance would be the best way to gain the core set of skills to be successful in business later in life.”

Why he got into search funds

“It's a bigger version of what I had previously done, buying my Amazon business, but stepping in. And it resonated with me because I don't think I've ever—unfortunately, just never had that spark to bring something from zero to one. I like to tell people I think I'm better suited to bring something from one to 10 than zero to one. I'm just really good at optimizing processes, improving things, efficiency, and having the resources to do big implementations or take some risks. And that's not something I necessarily get to do if I was starting from the ground up with limited resources. So, that model just resonated with me.”

One piece of advice that had a positive impact on his life

“Just not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. And always be comfortable being uncomfortable. I think that's probably a borrowed phrase. I don't know who to attribute it to, but my previous manager told me that. It's something that stuck with me. If you're totally comfortable, you're probably not pushing yourself harder enough.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Ward Road Pharmacy

When Alan Lock unexpectedly lost his sight due to macular degeneration, he knew his military career was over. What he didn’t know was how many adventures were about to begin. In this episode of The Crossroad Series, Alan tells us about how he took control of his life by setting four extreme goals: to run the Marathon Des Sables, to row the Atlantic Ocean, to ski to the South Pole, and to swim the English Channel. He shares his wisdom on the power of goal setting, how to benefit others through your own accomplishments, and not limiting yourself in life.  

Episode Quotes:

On how people can get the most out of their lives:

"Get out there and hopefully create opportunities for yourself and align those to your goals. If you can, you can. Make that a positive experience for those around you as well. Be a good thing."

Alan's thoughts on having his sight back:

"I think, of course, obviously if I could have my sight, I'm going to have this completely different career. I'd love to be able to just do basic things, like ride a bike and read a book again. In some ways, I can honestly say probably if I was offered that choice now I'd probably say, “You know what, I'm going to stick with what I've done”. Because having had that experience quite early in my life, it was almost being slightly hyperbolic. I guess the worst thing that could have happened, happened. So at that point, a lot of the fear and apprehension fell away."

On eating the elephant:

“And so day by day. I know that if I can just mentally, just take it a day at a time. Which again is an overused phrase, but it's really true. Then eventually all these days are going to add up and I'll get to the other end.”

Show Links:

• Alan Lock on LinkedIn
• Icarus Originals 
• BlowLeaf 
• Sense 
• Guide Dogs for the Blind 
• Sightsavers International 

Paul Rice, the CEO and founder of Fair Trade USA, has spent his career making a huge difference in the lives of farmers and growers. In this episode, he sits down with Bree Jenkins to share his learning journey dedicated to social change, which includes buying a one-way ticket to Nicaragua, where he started and led the country’s first fair trade co-op and ended up staying for 11 years. He discusses how sustainability and social responsibility are the real drivers of success, and he calls us to find any and all creative ways to bring purpose into business, what some call conscious capitalism.

Episode Quotes:

On Fair Trade:

“And here's the secret sauce of fair trade. We require that brands and retailers pay more money back to the farm owner or the factory owner. We're not saying be more sustainable y'all, and the cost of that is your problem. That's not what we're saying. We're saying more sustainable. Treat your workers right. And take care of your environment, and the consumer is going to help pay for that through the retailers.”

On his experience with projects funded by international aid:

“I worked on a lot of really well-intentioned projects that were funded by international aid. And I'll tell you, I got really disillusioned with it. It wasn't really very effective, in my experience, in helping farmers develop their own capacity to solve their own problems and helping them to think about markets.”

On Social Change:

“I think about social change, not in terms of years, but in terms of decades. We're definitely playing the long game.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

• Fair Trade Certified

From her early days at Accenture to her current position at Amazon, Caroline Lee has centered her career around people. In this premiere episode of The Crossroads Series, she sits down with Sophie Hoyt to guide us through her life and imparts lessons we can all learn from. With a background in recruiting, Caroline shares with us the mantra that helped her unlock her own strengths, tells us how to ensure everyone knows about our own “superpowers,” and teaches us about the importance of setting up clear boundaries between professional and personal life. She even takes us through her journey to become *drum roll please* an American Ninja Warrior.

Episode Quotes:

On Recruitment: "When you get the hire in, you're changing a life. I don't know if recruiters realize it or not because sometimes, you're just turning numbers. You've got requisitions, and it's not ever fast enough for the poor hiring manager, but at the end of the day, you're changing the life of someone. And I think that's very important and special."

One of Caroline's strengths: "I've come up with my list of three to four strengths, and one of them is creating order out of chaos. Taking the large complex problems, listening to all those, bringing it in, understanding it, and then breaking it down to what guiding principles are we going to follow. And then breaking it into manageable shades of tasks that just become defined deliverables."

What's next for Caroline: "I want to continue to inspire other people to be their best. So, if someone hears my story and says, ‘Hey, that motivated me to work out’, I'm happy. If I inspired someone to switch their jobs and gain confidence to negotiate a salary, I'm happy."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• How to Shape What People Say About You When You’re Not in the Room

In this episode of the OneHaas Undergrad Series, Soo Song, 2017 Haas School of Business undergrad alumna, shares her experiences after graduating from the program. She talks about lessons she wished she had known in the early stages of her career, how she is embracing her Asian American heritage, and how she moved from becoming a Business Administration student to building a career in growth marketing.

During her conversation with host Ellen Chan, Soo discusses Twitter's newest projects and developments. Make sure to tune in until the end because she’ll be sharing her experiences from studying abroad, her advice for current undergrad students, and her relatable experiences on campus!

Episode Quotes:

Do you have regrets in your career?

“When I look at my career, I don't necessarily have regrets. I do think that there are lessons that I wish I'd learned earlier. One of the biggest lessons I've learned in my career is that at the end of the day, it really comes down to relationships and building strong connections with people.”

Her advice for undergrad students on what to expect after graduation and in building their careers:

“I also think that's the beauty of a career. More so than when you're a student, because obviously, when you're a student, you're still trying to figure yourself out. In a career, as you switch teams, companies, or roles, you continue to build it and continue to change it. That's one of the best things about working.”

On how to handle big and small changes that happened during and after the pandemic?

“Celebrate the change. Don't feel tied to anything that necessarily happened during the pandemic that you don't want to take back. But if you have changes that you didn't expect, it's great to celebrate them.”

Show Links:

• Soo Song’s Profile on LinkedIn
• Twitter’s ERG Program
• Blueprint, Technology for Non-Profits

The OneHaas alumni podcast is thrilled to welcome Eileen Kwei, the Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer of Artisan Partners, a global investment management firm that offers a wide range of high-value-added investment strategies. 

Eileen was born in the U.S. and spent the first six years of her life in New York where her parents furthered their studies at American universities. When they decided it was time to move back to Taiwan, young Eileen quickly realized she was not going to fit in with her classmates who all spoke and read in Mandarin while she only knew English. But she was determined to assimilate into the culture of her new home. A determination that would come in handy again when Eileen moved back to the U.S. for high school and had to re-assimilate into another culture. 

Eileen chats with host Sean Li about how those cultural experiences have influenced the way she builds relationships with people in her career, her family’s rich cultural history as mainlanders in Taiwan, and her approach to mentoring and networking. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Her experience assimilating to Taiwanese culture

“Having spent the first six years of my life in the U.S., English was my first language. I didn't speak or write Mandarin. I think thinking back to that period of time, despite how I looked on the outside, I was different, and being different was hard, and I learned that firsthand. But in hindsight, that period of time was also a very valuable life lesson for me to learn about perspectives. Don't make assumptions. Give others the benefit of the doubt. Walk in other people's shoes.”

The importance of preserving Chinese culture in her family

“My family fled from mainland China to Taiwan, but so did I think a million other people.

And my grandparents on both sides had this strong sense of responsibility to provide for those who came along with them and to uphold that culture and those values that they were accustomed to when they lived in mainland China.”

A major takeaway from her first job

“There are many ways to invest. Alpha generation or generating returns above the benchmark is possible in any market environment and to be a good investor does not just require skill, but it requires tremendous judgment.”

Her approach to networking

“I really care about people, I want to understand where they come from. I want to be able to appreciate their perspective, whether it's the same or even better or different than mine, gives me maybe a more genuine starting point and hopefully that sincerity and authenticity comes across and is reciprocated, as not just a launch pad to have that connection off the bat, but to really serve as a foundation to foster meaningful, long-standing, hopefully lifelong relationships.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile

Christine Tao, Haas undergrad alumna, co-founder, and CEO of Sounding Board shares her insight with host Sean Li. She talks about how coaching and development led to her rapid career advancement in Silicon Valley's media, mobile, and tech sectors. Discover what inspired her to create Sounding Board with her co-founder Lori Mazan. 

Learn why leadership development creates a direct impact on business outcomes in the episode and how she made leadership development coaching accessible to all levels of an organization.

Episode Quotes:

Her inspiration for building Sounding Board:

“I ended up seeing just the impact that coaching had on my own development. I brought coaching to the people on my team as well. I was able to build a team that was high-performing... The more people that got exposed to coaching, the better that they would operate. It's great for companies to have a well-equipped leader.”

How can start-ups have access to coaching?

“When you graduated and your start-up needs coaching, check in with your alumni office. They often have a deep network of coaches, facilitators, and folks that can help support alumni around their coaching needs”

Why do people of color and women get overlooked for opportunities?

“You get overlooked sometimes because you don't look and sound like the patterns that other people recognize as leadership, like the prototype...It also becomes easier if you have diverse people that are in leadership positions. There also need to be more women. There need to be more people of color on the other side writing checks. It starts there. Then from there what happens is you attract and impact the other people around in the ecosystem.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Christine Tao’s Profile at Sounding Board
• Lori Mazan, Co-founder and Chief Coaching Officer at Sounding Board
• Maha Ibrahim, General Partner at Canaan
• Sounding Board, Coaching Leaders for Business Impact

Episode #48: Dr. Lisa Rawlings, EMBA '19, joins us on our podcast today to talk about her vision and goals as the new President and CEO of the National Urban Fellows (NUF) Organization.

National Urban Fellows is a rigorous, full-time graduate program comprised of two semesters of academic course work and a nine month mentorship, leading to a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the City University of New York's Bernard M. Baruch College, School of Public Affairs.

In this episode, Bree and Sean chat with Om Chitale, full-time MBA '18. Om is currently the Director of Diversity Admissions at Haas. He is also the founder of Teachers of Oakland, a non-profit storytelling organization that amplifies teacher voice in the Oakland community.

Om shares with us his definition of self-permission and how it plays into people's professional journey. He talks about the concept of substitution that is critical to the idea of permitting yourself.

He also shares his passion for education and diversity inclusion, his current role at Haas, and Teachers of Oakland.

Episode Quotes:

"Give yourself the permission to analyze. Are you still happy? Are you still on the path to the thing you want to do? And if you're not, give yourself permission to let go of that thing too."

On the concept of subsititution - "We can let go of something, but it's really hard to let go of something unless we have something else to then latch onto."

"We owe it to society to be the best version of ourselves and to be happy because then we can do the other things we want to do."

Show Notes:

• LinkedIn
• Teachers of Oakland

Bruce is a US executive with broad international experience in managing businesses, sourcing and making investments, and providing investment banking services, executive coaching, and leadership development services. His 17 years of experience working in Shanghai gave him an in-depth understanding of the business environment in China and developing Asia. 

Currently, Bruce is a Managing Director at Stout Bluepeak Asia Limited and a Partner at Rui Dian Management Consulting /The Resilience Institute.

In this episode, Bruce shared his origin story, going to UC Berkeley and studying business, and eventually going into investment banking. He also went to Harvard Business School to get his MBA and entered venture capital.

Bruce also talked about his amazing experiences in Shanghai, how the pandemic shifted the international scene, how he navigated through these changes, and how he can help companies venture into the international markets successfully.

Episode Quotes:

On his experience in investment banking early on

I really enjoyed the deals, working on transactions that you read about in the journal, having access to CEOs and CFOs of companies, and helping provide them strategic advice about how to manage their businesses in regards to raising capital or mergers and acquisitions.

How the Chinese economy has changed throughout the years

China has produced a lot of wealth, taken a lot of people out of poverty. But there's now a sense of them needing international technical skills, capital, and technology, and they're starting to have that on their own. They've got people who've trained at the best universities, they have a lot of capital, and they are starting to generate some unique technologies. So, I would say there's less of a need, in their minds, for so many foreigners and so much international influence. There's a big push for localization of talent.

On venturing into management consulting

After I left the firm that brought me to China in 2012, I decided to leverage the experience of living and managing in Asia, primarily China, in helping other executives who came to the area understand what it's like to manage in a developing market and giving them that perspective.

I found a big demand for coaching services, essentially that cross-border nexus of people coming into China or Chinese managers having to go out needing coaching services. So, I've maintained that for 10 years and actually really enjoy helping people see the light, adjusting their management style, and achieving their career objectives.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

In celebration of Women's History Month, we had the pleasure of chatting with Nanxi Liu. She is Co-CEO & Co-Founder at Blaze and former CEO and Co-founder at Enplug (acquired). She serves on the Board of Directors for CarParts.com (NASDAQ: PRTS) and is one of the youngest women on a public company board. Nanxi also holds a spot on Forbes's 30 Under 30 list of innovative young tech leaders.

Although Nanxi is part of class 2012, it wasn't until 2020 that she graduated after completing the American Cultures course during the pandemic. Her early exposure to entrepreneurship and founding her own businesses became her priority, and those experiences made her the leader she is today. 

In this episode, Nanxi also talked about the different companies she founded, how she built up the confidence and skills to become an amazing CEO at such a young age, and why she didn't let imposter syndrome bring her down.

Listen until the end to hear Nanxi's advice for female leaders, why it is important to be surrounded by other successful women, and how to prevent CEO burnout.

Episode Quotes:

The role of providing and accepting feedback in becoming a great CEO

“I don't know if I was a very good CEO in the early days. I definitely think I got better. My Co-founders made me a better CEO. They were always very honest and transparent; gave me a lot of feedback. I think feedback from people and being willing to accept feedback definitely helps. From a young age, I was involved in a lot of activities where you constantly had feedback, and you constantly knew if you were doing well or not.

Feedback and interactions with different people help me recognize strengths and weaknesses that I have and easily identify other people's strengths and weaknesses and how to bring them together.”

Thoughts on imposter syndrome when building a company

“I didn't really think about it. I always just focused on my strengths and advantages that I could bring to the table whenever I went into a meeting, either with somebody I was trying to hire or an investor or a potential customer. I was never afraid to make the ask. When it comes to building a company, making the ask, not being shy about it, showing what you're capable of and what your strengths are will help a lot.”

Advice to female leaders 

“As women leaders, I'm super grateful for always supporting one another and having a group of awesome other women who are rallying around you, and you're rallying around them. It makes it so much easier. And so, I'm grateful that I am always surrounded by amazing other women. It's important to find that support system.

And I think the way to do that is always stepping up to wanting to help somebody. Whenever I meet somebody new, I just want to see how I can help them be more successful and achieve what they want to do and have zero expectations from there. That approach has really helped me a lot and has been really helpful in introducing me to people that I otherwise wouldn't meet.

And so, the big piece is to find that community. And if that community is just one other awesome woman, founder, or leader, or maybe it's a whole tribe of them, it makes a huge difference and makes a lot more fun in the journey.”

How to avoid feeling burned out when giving so much of yourself in building a company and helping people

“A big part of it is not feeling guilty when you just need to take time off. I actually have a really good work-life balance. I was always like, if I need to take a day just to play piano, read, go running, go hiking, I just do it. In the early days, I felt really guilty about it, but overall, it made me much more efficient, happy, and productive. 

And even now, I do a bunch of trips, I go to places, even though I'm launching this new company. I understand the rigor of starting a new company, but at the same time, I also know if I'm not taking care of myself, it's going to hurt overall. That's how I approach it when it comes to giving and helping, not burning out. I think it's all connected to how we treat our life, time, health, and body.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Blaze
• Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
• Almanack of Naval Ravikant
• What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

Our conversations celebrating Earth Day continue with Adriana Penuela-Useche, a chemical engineer, startup consultant, and future investor who’s passionate about the intersection between entrepreneurship and VC  as a way to create Climate Action and protect the planet for future generations.

Adriana grew up literally hugging trees in Bogota, Colombia, and wanted to find a way to combine her love of nature with her passion for engineering. With her  11 years in the chemical engineering field, her passion to go beyond herself volunteering for  Engineers Without Borders and creating her new path supporting deeptech startups in the Climate tech sector.

In this episode, Adriana discusses how her family’s upbringing, immigration story, and experience at Haas shaped her, what she thinks are the biggest climate change challenges today, and the exciting technological innovations that could help with some of those challenges.

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On how she has developed her love for nature and community

You can describe me as a tree hugger, backpacker, camper, because I love all of those. What I love the most is that my parents developed me in a sense of holistic sustainability viewing it as:”we don't have to only care about nature, but also care about the community that surrounds us.” And to explore that through economics. So with my dad being a mechanical engineer, tinkering of many things and my mom being an economist  drove those two components in our lives and created these building blocks that I have lived throughout my life, which are  “community, not competition and a continuous love for nature and those in need.”

On creating a better ecosystem for entrepreneurs 

There has to be a better way to create an economic system. And then from there, knowing that, for example, in Colombia or other places like what I saw in Ethiopia with Engineers Without Borders, there is so much innovation happening in the day to day that triggers and aligns with good capital to build astrong entrepreneurial ecosystem globally, like a real ecosystem of entrepreneurs, but also develop economies as a path.

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Berkeley Haas Sustainability Alumni Group
• The Sustainable Development Goals Wedding Cake

On our second episode of the OneHaas Alumni High Impact Teaming (HIT) Series with Dr. Brandi Pearce, we chat with Haas alumni Nandita Batra. She is a Strategy & Operations member of the ChromeOS Chief of Staff team, supporting Product leadership to define strategy, translate strategy into C-level narratives for internal & external audiences, and run business operations while aligning Product & GTM organizations. Prior to that, she was at Shutterfly and the Boston Consulting Group.

We first hear about Nandita's unique background growing up in Australia and the US. And how having lived and worked in different places around the world have impacted her internal leadership and collaborative capabilities to build high impact cross-functional teams around the world.

Disclaimer: The views shared in this episode are Nandita's personal opinions and reflections and not necessarily those of her employer.

Episode Quotes:

On growing up in two different countries – “Having spent my childhood between two countries shaped who I am as a person, how I see the world and my passion for other cultures.”

On her professional experience in Paris – “I grew a lot working in another country, in a system where you don’t have much of a support network. It helps you build grit and resilience. And it was also fun.”

On being an introverted leader – “It’s the ability to listen and truly listen, not just to what a person is saying, but to those conversations between people. Being an introvert also allows you to empathize with other introverts and help them find space to find their voice in their comfort zone.”

Her experience navigating a variety of cultures – “I learned so much about how to negotiate across cultures. Understanding how different cultures approach business sets you up to be more effective as a leader in a global business economy. It invites openness and curiosity about other people’s stories and other people’s journeys.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

Today, we have Robert Chatwani on our show. Robert was EWMBA student at Haas, class of '07. He was chief executive at eBay and Teespring before becoming the CMO of Atlassian, a collaboration software company that aims to unleash teams' power.

Robert started his career in management consulting before going into performance marketing and consumer branding. He is passionate about international trade economics and for building early-stage and large-scale consumer platforms.

He shares with us how he started Monkey Bin, an online marketplace that became a multi-party trading system for B2B barter, and how he eventually landed an entrepreneurial role at eBay where he stayed for 12 years.

Roberts narrates his time at Haas, including his personal story with his best friend and co-founder, Sameer Bhatia, who was diagnosed with leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. It paved the way for them to launch a national marrow registration drive. He also shares the impact of this project on his life and how it brought him clarity around the power of purpose and discovering his true North.

Finally, Robert tells us how to build more resilience into our lives, especially during these turbulent times that we're all in right now.

Episode Quotes:

"I'm a big believer that the first few years of your career, or really anytime you make a pivot, it's really important to treat those as learning years because you're still in discovery mode of trying to understand what path you might go down or how you might harness your personal interests and connect that to things that you care about."

"I believe that the greatest careers are discovered, not planned. So, buckle up and embrace some of the uncertainty that comes with that. Open yourself up to the most growth opportunity."

"When I'm stuck in a decision, I catch myself to say, hold on, is this aligned with my why? There's no separation between your why and who you are and why you do it, what you do after a certain point. And I think that's when it becomes really powerful."

"Doing what you love, surrounding yourself with the right people and the right energy, and staying in good health, physically, mentally, and spiritually, help build resilience."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• The Golden Circle by Simon Sinek
• True North by Bill George
• The Pause Principle by Kevin Cashman
• Alchemist by Paulo Paolo

Today's guest is another Double Bear! John Dio is a product manager and business professional with experience helping scale venture-backed EV and ed-tech startups. At Haas, John has been part of the Consortium for Graduate Study of Management, The Graduate Assembly, Haas Consulting Club, and Q@Haas. 

John is originally from the Philippines. When he immigrated to the US, he faced plenty of challenges, including culture shock, bullying, and coping with being an undocumented student. It wasn't an easy journey, but he overcame them all.

In this episode, John shared his early beginnings, experiences as an undocumented immigrant, and attending college and pursuing an MBA. He also talked about his career in recruitment and pivoting into product management post-MBA. Finally, he shared insights on a couple of things he is passionate about - childcare shortage and women's reproductive rights.

Episode Quotes:

On standing up to bullies

"Every time they'd retort, I'd be like, so what? Whatever. And that took the power away from it. Once I didn't care, they no longer thought it was fun. If you take away the bully's power to affect you in that way, it's no longer fun for them."

On pivoting into product management

"Product management stood out to me because there is the aspect of delighting customers when solving their problems."

His biggest takeaway at Haas

"It's all about how you want to set your journey at Haas because you could do a lot of things and everything. However, it's really up to you to manage your time and what you want to get the most out of it. I wanted to work and apply what I'm learning in the startup setting and then build a community where I can focus on the few people, if not some people, that were going to add a lot of value to my Haas experience versus trying to meet everyone. And there has to be that intentionality that needs to be there to make it all work."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Q@Haas

Today, we have Dr. Maura O'Neill on our podcast. She is a lecturer and distinguished teaching fellow at the Haas school of business. In 2009, she was appointed by President Obama to be the first chief innovation officer of the US agency for international development, serving until 2013. She was responsible for inspiring and leading breakthrough innovations in foreign assistance and development worldwide. Above all, she is a Haas alum.

In this episode, Maura talks about her research on the notion of narrow-mindedness, her passion for living a life with no regrets and how others can do the same thing, and practicing deliberateness or intentionality.

She shares the importance of knowing what you want in life - your purpose and your passion and leaving a legacy behind.

She also has some excellent advice for students graduating during this time of uncertainty about seizing and creating opportunities until ultimately finding your passion.

Episode Quotes:

"Ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things, and they're only capable of extraordinary things if they go in the direction of their unique gifts."

"Living a life of no mistakes, no regrets, is not no mistakes. We can make mistakes. The things that we regret in life, I think, are the things we do for other people. If we do it out of compassion and empathy, that's fabulous, but if we do it because we should, even though we don't want to, it isn't who we are, then that's probably the wrong reason."

"I've learned if I want to live a no regrets life to not only be generous with others, but to actually be generous with myself."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile

Today’s guest on the OneHaas alumni podcast is Jeff Wang, the head of business at Codeium and co-founder of RocketFuel Education. 

Jeff grew up in Chicago with a passion for experimenting with the latest cutting edge technology. After some unfilling corporate jobs, Jeff got his MBA at Haas and jumped head first into the startup world. From there, he found a new passion for crypto and AI and started writing his own newsletter filled with keen market analysis. 

Jeff and host Sean Li chat about his unique view o  n the crypto and AI markets, what Jeff views as the best uses of AI currently, how those uses could shift in the near future, and if the overall impact of AI on our world is net positive or negative. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

What he got from his time at Haas

“Open doors is probably the biggest kind of value that [Haas] can bring and meeting people that also were in the spirit. And I think at least like two or three of the opportunities after just came from other classmates who were trying to build something. And I think that's saying something that, yeah, opening doors is not because of going to a class. It really is like people that you interact with and have common values or common alignments of what you want to build.”

On what RocketFuel Education is

“We converted that into kind of like lessons on the crypto markets. And now it's more like crypto macro and AI markets and just like really understanding what's going on. And then again, being predictive.

And if I'm accurate, sometimes that's great. And sometimes I'll be wrong, but I think over time, just having the understanding. And really understanding how markets work on RocketFuel Education, that is why people stick to it.”

How he got the idea for RocketFuel

“If you join these crypto communities, you actually get some really good insights as to what is upcoming that nobody else is going to be joining. If you go to these crypto conferences, you meet people that are actually the CEOs of these projects. And you can see if they're like for real or not. Or you could even meet the CEOs of projects that had not even been released yet. And you could actually invest in those companies as well. So you can get an edge by just being very early. And a lot of those interactions like kind of compelled me to be like, ‘Hey, spending all this time doing all this research, at least I should put a brain dump of that somewhere.’”

On how AI is going to help humans

“Everywhere that we are stuck in right now, like even if it's due to physics or if it's due to just manpower, right? Anywhere that humanity has slowed down. I think AI is just going to speed it back up again. I mean just think about like, if I could add more, headcount to any problem that humanity is facing. I think AI is kind of that solution, right?”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Jeff's education platform: https://rocketfueledu.com/
• Jeff's AI blog: https://jeffwang.substack.com/
• Codeium: https://codeium.com/
• Twitter: @jeffwangcrypto