Here at Haas

H@H: Ep 46 – On this episode of Here@Haas, Chloe Kauffman joins host Ray Guan to share her story of settling into the Bay Area. After spending her entire life in the Midwest, Chloe moved to Santa Clara county upon accepting a job at CISCO, and has been active with community events through mentoring students and working in foster care. Chloe has already extended her community leadership to Haas by becoming a social cohort rep & the upcoming EWMBAA EVP of Finance. She and the rest of the executive team hope to aid in a safe & smooth transition back to in-person learning.

Quotes on staying connected during the pandemic:

“I try every week to connect with someone who I haven't had a one-on-one with before.”

“A way to combat (feeling disconnected) is reaching out to the network you have, whether that’s through work, friends, family…and also keeping in mind to do what works best for you.”

Show Links

• Bloomberg Businessweek
• Grace Hopper Convention
• Child Advocates
• Citizen Schools

H@H: Ep 45 – Alan Duong joins host, Paulina Lee on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Alan, a US Army Veteran and Sr. Financial Analyst at LinkedIn, leverages his passions for photography, the outdoors and much more to give back to the community and causes that mean the most to him. Recently elected as the Executive Vice President of the EWMBA Association, he hopes over the next year to lead EWMBA students in a smooth transition back to an in-person Haas experience. 

Fueling his passion to get involved with the community he founded Greenfoot Hiking, an equitable outdoors community, “I recognized that when I was growing up, I had a community center that helped me not fall into the wrong crowds. And I recognized that a lot of people […] don't have the right social construct to support them.” 

On why Alan pursued student leadership at Haas: “I’ve always been a proponent of getting yourself involved because if I only have one opportunity at a school that I always dreamt about going to, I better take full opportunity and go all in […] And I'd like to think that by the time I graduate, I'd like to be able to say, yes, I did.”

Resources

• Greenfoot Hiking
• Alan’s Photography: Website, Instagram and Ansel Adams Wilderness Montage
• Reel Asian Podcast: Subscribe & listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts 
• Organizations Alan Supports: Wonder Warrior, Sierra Club, Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley and Citizen Schools
• Professor Panos Patatoukas
• Professor Peter Goodson
• Eagle Peak Loop
• Whitney Houston’s Soundtrack of GMAT Inspiration

H@H: Ep 44 - Adam Ward joins host Paulina Lee on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. After studying politics in the UK, Adam came to the States on a scholarship to study the 2012 election. His fascination with people, messaging, and better understanding what persuades actions has translated seamlessly into a career in sales and marketing at MuleSoft. Adam is also the newly elected EVP of Marketing for the EWMBA class, eager to bring his passion for communication with his desire to represent and help his fellow classmates.

Episode Quotes

A lifelong passion for politics: “One of the things I’ve always loved growing up was elections… I love understanding why people think in a certain way and what are the messages that persuade them to vote in a particular way.”

Looking forward to the spring semester: “[The Leadership Communications course] is all about storytelling, presence, leadership, and I think communication is so critical to any successful leader. I’m really excited about that and also how to be vulnerable in an authentic way.

Joining the EWMBAA as the EVP, Marketing: “What I wanted to do was to use my skills to help in the need [following Covid-19]... I have good skills around how you put information together, how you present in a clear and compelling way, how you engage people in novel formats. That’s why I really want to step up and be counted.”

H@H: Ep 43 - On this week’s edition of the Here@Haas podcast, Ryan Scott, joins host Ray Guan to talk about his passion for design and business. Ryan explores the world of design, and his journey through working in various roles at different startups Palantir, DoorDash, and now AirBnB. Ryan’s journey began when he discovered design in high school and when he accidentally found product-market-fit for his freelancing design work. Ryan also discusses how design is rooted in business problems and how studying business concepts helps him get to genesis of the issues.  

Definition of Design - “People have a misconception that design is like art. And I think there's a very strong distinction between the two: art is really about creation and self-expression; design is all about problem solving for a business."

On advice on competition - “I think it's good to ignore the competition in some instances and instead say, look, there are a lot of people that do design. But they're not talking to this person right now. I'm talking to this person and just focus on the relationship with the clients and focus on your pitch with that person.”

Prioritizing human-centric work culture: "I think that when companies look at the big picture and prioritize your people, that's very similar to prioritizing your customers. It's a longer term, more sustainable way of thinking about strategy that is very effective."

H@H: Ep 42 – Kevin Chang joins host, Ray Guan on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Kevin, an entrepreneur with a background in investment banking, shares his experience and learnings from past ventures and how Haas served as a spark for new opportunities. Kevin is the recently elected co-President of the EWMBA Association and is looking to encourage fellow students to take charge of their experience and get the most out of what Haas has to offer.

Kevin, on his deep-rooted interest in entrepreneurship - “I've always been fairly entrepreneurial. I spent a lot of high school days in my buddy's garage, where we would just think about the different kinds of businesses that we could start or what we could do to grow up and not have to work in a nine to five job.”

On how he makes the most of his time and Haas and encourages peers to do the same - “When we come into the program, I think there's some preconception that things will be handed to us [...] or things will just work out. I've encouraged incoming students and even current students show up and really make the program yours.”

• Professor Kurt Beyer
• Deepak Gupta of Career Management Group
• StEP
• CITRIS Foundry
• Promised Land by Barack Obama

H@H: Ep 41 - Dawa Ardiles joins host Ray Guan on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Currently the head of marketing for Brightflow AI, and serving as President of the Haas FinTech Club, Dawa hails from Argentina and is passionate about the intersection of finance and technology. Dawa talks to us about the exciting opportunities that FinTech holds for Latin America, especially in its ability to give people access to financial instruments many Americans take for granted.  

Episode Quotes

On industries within FinTech: “...we have many industries within the FinTech industry. So you have payments, you have Venmo, PayPal. You'll have digital loans. There's a really cool one in Latin America called Nubank [that’s] entirely digital. Then you have blockchain. [There] are so many different industries within FinTech and that's I think what makes it very, very interesting."

Democratization of finance: “FinTech gives people [in countries like Argentina] access to saving money, to investing their money, and to… being able to have a credit card or a debit card. [It gives] people access to something that we usually take for granted.”

Advice for international prospective students: “We come from diverse backgrounds, from many different countries, but I think that there's some underlying similarities within all of that. Make sure you like the school’s culture and then figure out what your goals are.”

Resources

Haas FinTech Club

Mercado Libre

H@H: Ep 40 – Maram Alikaj joins host, Aravind Mamidanna on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. In this episode, Maram talks about her schooling in Syria, her life as a Management consultant, how she made the transition to Tech, careers in social impact and much more.

Episode Quotes

On Social Impact:

"Social impact is not an industry. it's actually a lens and that lens can be applied to many different industries in any different way."

"I think that's another kind of misconception of what social impact is - a lot of people think that it automatically means nonprofit."

On Shift from Consultant to Program Manager:

"Program manager means different things at different companies. The way that I saw it, there were a lot of similarities between the skill sets that I had as a consultant [and the skill sets of a Program Manager]. "

On Giving good feedback:

"Feedback style and how to adapt your management technique to give meaningful feedback in a way that's going to actually inspire people to act on that feedback versus telling them what to do, which is less effective."

Show References

The Daily

Radical Candor

H@H: Ep 39 – On this month’s edition of monthly musings, we talk Paulina’s birthday shenanigans, adding more folks to the Haas Podcasts team, and recent podcast episodes. We also have some pitches for popular clubs amongst Berkeley Haas students. Check out the links below and feel free to reach out to club presidents for more info:

Women in Leadership (10:38) - Blair Evans (club co-president): H@H episode | Email

Haas Data Science Club (11:24) – Daniil Pushkin (club co-president): H@H episode | Email

Berkeley Cannabis Industry Club (12:01) – Nick Bellamy (club co-president): H@H episode | Email

Haas Tech Club (12:56) – Shotaro Ishizuka

Haas Marketing Club (13:48) – Ana Alanis (co-president): H@H episode | Email

Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (14:21) – Steven Brisley (co-president): H@H episode | Email

H@H: Ep 38 – Blair Evans joins host, Paulina Lee on this week’s episode of Here@Haas. Blair, a CPA who has made her career in real estate, is the president of Women in Leadership (WIL) at Haas. A Californian through and through, Blair knows the importance of a supportive community and is passionate about cultivating this community to empower and elevate women at Haas. 

On the mission and function of WIL: “[WIL] is really anyone in the Haas network who strives for a more gender equitable business world.” Where Haasies “Come together to not only share our stories and maybe normalize some of our experiences, but also empower each other with the tools and resources to achieve success.”

Making a pitch to prospective new Haas students “Everyone here is flawsome. And by that, I mean, they embrace their flaws and they know they're awesome because of that.” And to potential new members of WIL: “Please reach out to us. Even if you think you don't have enough time, because nobody has enough time. I think that you should make time for us.”

Resources

Women in Leadership

Berkeley Real Estate Club

Bridge Partners

Starwood Capital and CEO Barry Sternlicht

Haas Gender Equality Initiative

81 Cents

Educated (book)

H@H: Ep 37 – On this week’s edition of the Here@Haas podcast, Daniil Pushkin joins host Ray Guan to talk about his passion for data. Daniil shares his journey from Russia to USA in pursuit of a full-time MBA and a career in technology.

Daniil also talks about his involvement as President of the Haas Data Science Club, including workshops and club events. Daniil also shares his summer internship experience at Intuit and how he used data science techniques in his interview. Finally, we wrap up with some elective recommendations, culture shocks he experienced, and his favorite defining principle.

Episode Quotes:

On why Daniil & his wife pursued a US MBA: "We were really considering several options because there are some good business schools in Europe, much closer to Russia, but eventually we wanted to get a two year degree because we heard from everybody that the MBA is one of the best times of people's lives."

On his learnings from the 1st year: "I clearly understood during my first year how important it is to network with people and build warm connections."

On the difference between consulting and product management: "In consulting you do some analysis for two weeks and then present it for one hour. As a product manager, you do analysis for two hours and then align it for two weeks with others."

Links & References:

Daniil Pushkin: Email | Linkedin

Data Science Club