Here at Haas

H@H: Ep. 66 – On this week’s episode, professor Heather Whiteman joins host Ray Guan to talk about all things people analytics (PA). Heather talks about how she became interested in working with data and how she’s spent her career marrying analytics with human capital. We discuss the evolution of data and its effects on PA, including why some data scientists who succeed in the hard sciences fail at PA. Finally, we wrap with why PA is important for all business leaders, and why you should strongly consider adding the PA elective this fall.

Episode Quotes:

On the uses of PA today: “People analytics has become a necessary approach to [measuring] squishy things like knowledge, collaboration, ideas, and goodwill.”

On the danger of not using human judgment in decision-making: “If you build these models, but you don't think about their consequences...they can have ripple effects and [...] affect people's lives, their livelihoods, their families, opportunities and outcomes.”

On her PA class: “It is a class that you have to be comfortable being uncertain. People, analytics is not like physics. It's not like finance. There aren't right answers. There is data, there is information, and then there's a lot of understanding context and situation and outcomes.”

Show Links:

• Heather Whiteman: | LinkedIn | Website
• 5 V’s of Data Science
• Book rec’s: Weapons of Math Destruction | Data Feminism
• People Analytics Class Syllabus (login w/ Haas email)

H@H: Ep 65 – Abhishek Saraf joins host, Adam Ward on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Abhishek, a Co-President of Q@Haas - the organization for LGBTQ+ MBA students, partners, and allies at Berkeley Haas - speaks about what Pride means to him. From growing up in India to living in Singapore and now America, Abhishek provides an important global perspective on the fight for equality and how we must remember that Pride is a protest.

Why Abhishek moved to Singapore from India: 

“That was a massive transition I had to make personally, because I had lived in the closet for over 10 years since I was 12 years old... And by living in India, I couldn't really figure out how to change things. So I had to physically move to another place. That transition was really transformational for me personally. When I moved to Singapore, even though Singapore has the exact same British laws as India had at that time with Section 377, making homosexuality illegal, it was just a very different culture.”

What Pride means to Abhishek: 

“Pride reminds me to be authentic every single day. It reminds me that I do not have to hide myself. It reminds me that shame is not something I need to have in myself for who I am and it also reminds me of how important it is to have a community… It gives you something to feel affiliated with, to feel part of. And that is what pride reminds me of. It reminds me that I have a big role since I have had so much privilege that I can now be myself.”

His reflection on allyship: 

“I always struggle with telling people how to be good allies because there's no one way to look at it. There's so many different ways and so many different circumstances that you can be an ally. But one of the major things I can think of is coming in with the mindset of empathy, because everyone has their own lived experiences. There's a non Oxford dictionary word called sonder: S-O-N-D-E-R. It talks about how complex everyone's lives are around us. We think our lives are complex. Imagine there's 7.5 billion people whose lives are as complex as yours.”

Resources

• Q@Haas
• Dean's Speaker Series | Pascal Millaire, CEO, CyberCube
• A Guide for Trekking Mount Bromo

H@H: Ep 64 – Luis Liang joins host Adam Ward on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Luis fell in love with Berkeley when he first visited the campus as a 19 year old. The people and the courses were great, and the university’s proximity to San Francisco was certainly a draw - especially as Luis was coming to terms with being gay. But being undocumented, Luis lack of a social security number prevented him from being able to accept the necessary scholarship to attend. In this interview, Luis speaks about the lessons he’s learned in overcoming adversity to get back into Berkeley, not just once more for undergrad, but for a second time to pursue a MBA.

Why working in social impact is so important for Luis: 

“Statistically as a person of color, also being gay and being undocumented, the chances of me going to school were minimal…I consider myself really lucky to be at school, to be working and to be advocating for other undocumented students and people of color. So I think that that's part of my mission and the reason why I take education and everything that I'm doing with social impact very seriously.” 

On his journey to coming out as LGBTQ: 

“I knew that I was gay since I was a little kid. I was half Chinese. I'm half Mexican. I became undocumented and at the time, I just couldn't understand why I also had to be gay. There are so many coming outs.”

His advice on being proudly yourself: 

“Think about new perspectives [you provide] and take ownership and pride of who you are and how you are different.”

Remembering where Luis was when DACA was passed: 

“I got out of an interview and then I went to a coffee shop and I was on Facebook when I saw it - an announcement about Obama passing the DACA. So I was at this coffee shop and I remember I started crying… and then I just called my mom. I was trying to get some resources of what was the next step. To be honest, there was still a fear of sending all the documentation because it's a long process and you need so many resources to submit the application.”

Resources

• Haas Voices: Luis Alejandro Liang on being “paperless, not powerless”
• Proudly Me
• East Bay Running Trails

H@H: Ep 63 – Ghita Soulimani joins host, Adam Ward on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Throughout her life, Ghita has held a passion for research. From attempting to learn more about the medical conditions that her father suffered when she was growing up in Morocco, to finding out everything she could about Haas during the admission process, Ghita is certainly someone who appreciates diving into the details. 

During this interview, Ghita shares what she has learned on the journey. She provides advice to those wanting to pivot into healthcare from her perspective as a Strategic Partnerships Manager at Color, and offers ideas for those considering Haas, as a VP of Admissions in the EWMBA Association. Recorded at the end of Ramandan, Ghita explains why it’s her favorite time of the year. 

Ghita shares how her father’s sickness drove her interest in healthcare:

“You don't know a lot when you're young. And my family was not the type of family that would sit me down and tell me everything. I had so many questions, but I didn't have answers. So I took it upon myself many times to actually do my own research and look things up.”

Advice she has for MBA students hoping to pivot into healthcare:  

“Healthcare is one of those industries where it's actually a melting pot of different backgrounds. Really the number one thing you need to have is that mission driven purpose. If you care about some segment within healthcare and want to advance it, that's half the job already done.”

Why pursuing an MBA is important for Ghita as a mother: 

“I also want to set that example to my daughter, where it doesn't matter what stage in life you are in. You can still go ahead and pursue your dreams.”

Why Ramadan is Ghita’s favorite time of the year:

“I love it because of the sense of community it reinforces. It's just a joyful period but also a month to take time out of your day-to-day to focus on your inner peace and your community. It's a beautiful, serene time that I look forward to every year.”

Resources

• Color
• Haas Healthcare Association

H@H: Ep 62 – Tiffany Shumate joins host, Adam Ward on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Tiffany shares why education is the battleground for equity, and more about her role as Executive Director at Hack the Hood, an organization which connects low-income young people of color and local, small businesses through technology in order to create opportunities for all the people who live in the Bay area and beyond.

The importance of education for Tiffany: 

“Education for me is the battleground of equity. And so when I think about my identity as an educator and how I started my career, it really started off thinking about how we make equitable learning spaces so that marginalized communities can really have access to different opportunities.”

Defining moments in Tiffany’s career:

“I was able to meet with five young men who were in a juvenile justice center in DC... I remember one of them said to me, my teachers could have helped me. And that phrase will always stick with me. They were between the ages of 15 and 17 years old. And they were also foster youth. I thought about this intersection of juvenile justice and child welfare reform, how can schools come into support because schools are community centers. And from there I really started to research and got into education policy.”

Speaking about Hack the Hood’s mission:

“So often I meet young people who hear the word tech and think of Mark Zuckerberg and not themselves. And so that's the mission of Hack the Hood. Bringing students and community members together and offering them technology fundamentals that are really going to support them today, but really ensure that they're prepared for the future of work.”

The role of Admission Officers on her journey to Haas: 

“Two years ago I actually had coffee with one of the admission officers and it meant so much to me because I wanted to talk about how nervous I was, and he sat with me for an hour. That was supposed to be a 20 minute coffee and he sat with me for an hour.”

Resources

• Hack the Hood
• On Air: On creating safe spaces for diverse teams
• San Francisco Business Times’ 40 Under 40

H@H: Ep 61 - Professor Gregory La Blanc chats with host, Paulina Lee on his journey to be a lecturer and distinguished teaching fellow at Haas. From attending Montessori school as boy to studying in multiple subject areas on his way to Haas, Professor La Blanc is a specialist in being a generalist. Hear about his life and teaching philosophies and how MBAs can help change the world. Listen to the end to hear La Blanc’s three mistakes that MBA students most often make! 

On staying curious:

“I think that curiosity is a natural human instinct, which is almost exterminated as you get older...we forget how to learn. And as we get older, we become routinized and so forth. And I think I've just been fighting that specialization; fighting that, urge to rinse wash, repeat, for my entire life.”

On MBAs as generalists:

“I like of teaching MBAs. Cause what MBAs want is to be like generalists. They want to be the PhDs of common sense. They want to be the integrators. They want to be the people who have the experts working for them. So that they can translate that expertise into something useful and practical. And I think you have to have curiosity if you're going to be that type of person.”

Sharing some life philosophy:

“Are you living the way you want to live or are you kind of just living? You know, moment to moment without a plan. Are you making your decisions consciously or are you making them unconsciously? And how do you bring those decisions out into the surface and evaluate them in a responsible way.”

Resource Links:

• La Blanc’s podcast: Unsiloed
• Beginners by Tom Vanderbilt
• Sensehacking by Charles Spence
• Gastrophysics by Charles Spence
• Adaptive Space by Michael Arena
• Software Engineering Education Company: Qwasar

H@H: Ep 60 - Today’s episode is a significant call for action against the ongoing genocidal war declared on Tigray and its people. This war has left more than 50,000 civilians killed in over 150 massacres, an estimated 10,000 cases of rape and sexual violence committed by federal soldiers against girls as young as four, 2.3 million children needing assistance, 4.5 million people in need of emergency food, more than 60,000 refugees and 2.2 million people internally displaced.

We speak with Almaz Ali, Sami Tamyalew, and Lula Desta. Their families have been directly affected, as they describe the horrors through the stories of victims and survivors—stories that have received very little news coverage. With humanitarian aid being blocked, we discuss the ways we can help.

On the need to help:

“Some stories are coming out and they're horrific. I think the worst part is this is just the tip of the iceberg. 80% of Tigray is inaccessible, so every story we hear, we know that there are thousands that we're not [...] I feel called to use these unearned privileges to go beyond myself—compassion is active and so it calls for us to alleviate the suffering of others. And that's kind of what I've been really holding on to because it helps me feel like I have a sense of agency.” – Almaz Ali

On the ways to help:

 “There are a few ways to get involved. The first would be to just donate to organizations that are on the ground and doing good work and to find a vetted list of set organizations, you go to omnatigray.org. The second thing you do is just attend and amplify protests [...] The third would be to reach out to your elected officials and to just put pressure onto a national government. The fourth would be to stay informed and engage in individual outreach to raise awareness in the communities you occupy [...] And then the fifth would be to form solidarity teams and reach out to Tigray advocacy organizations like Omna and ask them how you can assist.” – Sami Tamyalew

On the cry for help:

“War and genocide have become so normalized when it happens in developing countries, specifically countries made up of black and brown bodies, that when it occurs, we don't get the same attention and sympathy we would expect if this would have happened here in the United States or in a place like England. And it's frustrating because U.N and aid agencies constantly say never again, but here we are—2021—and there's a genocide happening in Tigray and no one has intervened and no one has done anything to help the people.” – Lula Desta

• Omna Tigray
• Two-day National Protest in San Francisco on May 21-22,2021

• LinkedIn - Almaz Ali
• LinkedIn - Sami Tamyalew
• LinkedIn - Lula Desta

H@H: Ep 59 - Claudia Natasia joins host, Sean Li on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Growing up on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, her penchant for the unknown unknowns led her to Berkeley where she further explored her interest in behavioral economics, data science, and business.

Now the Director of Research and Analytics at Fivestars and Co-president of Berkeley Female Founders + Funders (BFFF) while concurrently pursuing her MBA, Claudia shares her journey of finding a community of like-minded people as well as the challenges faced by female leaders and investors.

On her passion for User Experience (UX) research:

“That's the whole foundation of user experience research. You want to make sure that the people deciding on the products that humans will use aren’t just the people in the conference room. It's actually bringing these voices from the community into the conference room to make sure that we're designing products that actually matter, that actually help build communities.”

On joining Berkeley Female Founders + Funders (BFFF):

“The main purpose of Berkeley Female Founders + Funders is to be a platform that connects founders and funders in a way that is beneficial towards their growth. Being a female leader in tech, I realized that it can be an extremely lonely experience, let alone if you're a female founder or a female investor trying to look for an exciting startup with maybe not the same amount of resources at your disposal as someone else. I realized this need from my own experience in tech and I realized that I wanted to make a difference.”

• Women Who Launch - BFFF Summit Registration
• Fivestars
• Just Like Butterflies

H@H: Ep 58 - Manny Smith chats with host, Paulina Lee to share his journey from the US Air Force Academy to being called to be an entrepreneur at Haas, now as the CEO & Co-founder at EdVisorly Education.

On becoming an entrepreneur:

“There's a quote by Steve jobs, he said ‘as with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.’ My heart was calling me to do something a little bit different, not necessarily better, but different in the world....The truth of the matter is I believe that entrepreneurship has to be a sense of destiny. Where you can't not. And when I say that, a lot of people say, I don't have an idea and I have a lot of ideas, but which one's the right one, the right idea is the one you can't not do.”

On the entrepreneurial mindset:

I think as an entrepreneur, we have to really have this sense of awareness and mindfulness as to what we are and who we are; and our perspective, because that keeps us true to our journey.”

On transitioning from the military to civilian life:

“My first year was a little bit challenging. I found that I had to essentially reset my perspective, be very patient with myself and be mindful of maybe my sentiment toward things. But the military gave me tremendous perspective and capacity to be able to do what I'm doing now.”

Manny’s 30-sec Pitch on “Why Haas?”

“Haas is a place where dreams come true. I truly believe that by leaning on the Berkeley network and exercising the resources that are here, any student who has a dream can bring that dream to fruition using a step-by-step process. Between being one of the best research universities in the world and having a tremendous amount of savvy successful and proven battle-tested business people around you.

If you have something you want to do, Berkeley is the place to come. And I truly believe that our ecosystem is not just helpful, but we push each other to be a little bit better. And finally, the core defining values of our school, I think create an energy and an ethos that's unmatched at business schools anywhere in the world.”

Resource Links

• EdVisorly Education
• Berkeley Haas Veterans Club
• UC Launch Accelerator
• H@H: Geoff Easterling

H@H: Ep 57 – Cat Ziac joins host, Raymond Guan on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Cat's career journey began in New York on Wall Street before pivoting to a startup and then back to finance at AllianceBernstein's responsible investing group. We also learn about her supporting Haas students in both the Academic Cohort Representative and Graduate Student Instructor roles, and why she has such an affinity for economics.

Episode Quotes

On why she chose to attend Berkeley-Haas: “I view businesses as being able to have a positive, societal impact, and I think it's important if you're in a place of privilege [...] to consider all sorts of people in the world and try to better everyone's lives.”

Why Macroeconomics is important, regardless of industry: “Macro matters to you because that economic backdrop determines what the environment is for raising money through a VC. If you're in healthcare, macro might tell you certain things about the business cycle or how different economies are performing relative to each other..."

Show Links

• H@H Ross Levine Episode
• Pod Save America
• Solow Growth Model
• Haas Defending Leadership Principles