Career Conversations

Andrew Messick '91 is the CEO of IRONMAN Group which runs the iconic IRONMAN® series of events, the largest participation sports platform in the world. IRONMAN Group is part of Wanda Sports Group, a leading global sports events, media, and marketing platform. He is interviewed by Reeve Harde '20.

Michael Barker '10 is the managing director of the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, CT. He is interviewed by Emily Kling '20

Prior to the Westport Country Playhouse he was the managing director of Marin Theatre Company, the general manager of Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach, CA, and managing director for the Los Angeles classical theater ensemble, The Antaeus Company. Before moving to California, Barker was associate managing director at Yale Repertory Theatre and managing director of Yale Summer Cabaret, and produced the first annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays. He was Seattle Repertory Theatre's 2008 Managing Director Fellow.

Barker holds an MFA in theater management from Yale School of Drama and an MBA from Yale School of Management. At Yale, he was the recipient of the Daniel and Helene Sheehan Scholarship for theater management and a Kosciusko Scholarship for outstanding students of Polish descent. He served on the Yale School of Management Alumni Advisory Board, and is a current Association of Yale Alumni delegate.

He is a member of the inaugural class of artEquity diversity, equity and inclusion facilitators as well as a member of the vestry at St. Timothy's on the Hill Episcopal Church in Fairfield. Prior to graduate school, he was associate director of marketing for Court Theatre in Chicago, and also worked with Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, Sansculottes Theater Company, and The Playground Theater.

Kerwin K. Charles is the Indra K. Nooyi Dean & Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at Yale SOM. He joined the school as its dean in 2019. He is interviewed by Reeve Harde '20.

Laura Walker was the founding President and CEO of New York Public Radio and held that position for 23 years until earlier this year. She is now an Executive Fellow in Residence at the Yale School of Management and an advisor to New York Public Radio, Common Sense Media and a range of startups.

New York Public Radio is an independent non profit that owns the nation's largest public radio station group and is one of the world's preeminent producers of podcasts and national radio stations and reaches 26 million people each month, including Radiolab, On the Media, and The New Yorker Radio Hour.

Under her leadership, NYPR increased its annual budget from $8 million to $95 million, its employees from 55 to 425 and its monthly audience from one million to 26 million and led the acquisitions of The Gothamist, 4 stations of New Jersey Public Radio and of WQXR Radio from The New York Times. Since 2000, NYPR has been honored with 10 George Foster Peabody Awards and five Alfred I. DuPont Columbia Awards. A pioneer in podcasting, she was responsible for the creation of WNYC Studios which was one of the top 3 podcast studios in the world, with 32 million downloads a month.

Ms. Walker was honored with an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporate for Public Broadcasting. In 2009 and again in 2017, she was named by Crain's as one of New York City's 50 Most Powerful Women. Ms. Walker began her professional career as a print journalist. She later moved to National Public Radio where she worked as a producer. At Carnegie Hall, where she launched the award-winning series, AT&T Presents Carnegie Hall Tonight. After business school, she joined Sesame Workshop as the Vice President of Development. Ms. Walker sits on the boards of The Commonwealth Fund, Yale Center for Customer Insights, Tribune Media Company, and the Eagle Picher Trust.

She was recognized in May with the honorable Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award by the Municipal Arts Society for her notable contribution to the public media landscape.

Ms. Walker holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BA in History magna cum laude, from Wesleyan University, where she was an Olin Scholar.

Radha Kuppalli '06 is Managing Director of Investor Services at New Forests, a sustainable forestry investment management firm founded in 2005. Her oversight includes client relations, funds marketing, and integration of responsible investment and ESG innovations into investment strategy. She is an executive director of the board of New Forests Pty Ltd; a member of the company's Executive Committee; and a member of the Investment Committee. Radha has been with New Forests since 2006 and is motivated by bringing capital, ideas, and people together to scale climate change solutions and protect biodiversity. Radha has a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Economic Theory from American University in Washington, D.C., and an MBA and master's degree in Environmental Management from Yale University's School of Management and School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is on the Advisory Board of the Center for Business and Environment at Yale University and is an associate of the Yale World Fellows Program. She is also an alumna of the Junior Fellows Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

A. J. Wasserstein is the Eugene F. Williams, Jr. Lecturer in the Practice of Management at Yale SOM. He teaches Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, the popular SOM elective course on search funds, as well as Leading Small and Medium Enterprises, and Rollups, and Consolidations and Serial Acquisitions. He is interviewed by Max Dworin '20, a first-year MBA student and former U.S. Senate staffer transitioning to a career on the innovation side of the consumer packaged goods industry.

Jamila Abston '17 is a partner at Ernst & Young in the wealth and asset management practice, focusing on compliance, regulatory and risk matters for wealth and asset management clients. Prior to this role, she worked at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where she served as the Assistant Regional Director for the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.

Jamila is interviewed by Laurie Cameron Craighead '16. Laurie has worked in the financial markets since 1986, helping individuals, corporations and other institutions manage foreign exchange, interest rate and volatility risk. Laurie is passionately dedicated to helping foundations further their social impact by using Program Related Investments to help women and children gain access to education and employment.

Micah Remley '05 is CEO of MineralTree, a market-leading Accounts Payable and Payment Automation solution provider. Micah previously served as MineralTree's chief operating officer. He has over 20 years of technology and financial industry experience, including numerous executive roles at Boston-based EnerNOC. In 2013, Remley was recognized on the Boston Business Journal's 40 under 40 list for his contributions to disrupting an outdated and inefficient industry.

Micah is interviewed by Noora AlSharhan '19, a recent graduate of the Master of Advanced Management program at SOM. Prior to SOM, Noora worked at one of the top banks in the Middle East in Kuwait and at the International Monetary Fund prior to getting her MBA at IE Business School in Madrid, Spain.

Humam Sakhnini '01 is president at King Digital Entertainment, an interactive entertainment company and the maker of the popular game Candy Crush. Humam is interviewed by Reeve Harde '20, an MBA student at Yale School of Management.

Show Notes

Dan Ciporin '86 is general partner at Canaan Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. He is interviewed by Michelle Kwon '20, a second-year MBA student at Yale School of Management. Show Notes.

Dan Ciporin '86 is a general partner at Canaan, an early-stage venture capital firm. He partners with startups to deliver innovation particularly in the areas of financial technology, e-commerce, and marketplaces. Dan joined Canaan after serving as Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com, where he took the company public after leading it from zero to over $100 million in revenue in five years and then sold it to Ebay. Prior to that he was Senior VP of MasterCard International running their global debit program. Dan earned an A.B. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management in 1986.

Michelle Kwon '20 is a second-year student in Yale SOM's full-time MBA program. Before enrolling at Yale SOM, she worked as a Business Affairs Project Manager supporting the launch of Airbnb Experiences in San Francisco. Before Airbnb, she worked at Soros Fund Management in New York City supporting equity capital markets, securitized products, and growth equity investments. Michelle graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in Government and conducted research in South Korea as a Fulbright Scholar. She is from Orange County, CA by way of Cincinnati, OH.