OneHaas

Episode #23: Dilip Patel EWMBA ’20 immigrated from Mumbai (Bombay), India five years ago as a Fractal Analytics Data Science Engineer. He started his career working in the financial industry for big banks like Citi and Credit Suisse. We hear how Dilip transitioned from data science to product management during his time at Salesforce. We learn about product management in the perspective of what you’re building, and most importantly why you’re building it, and whether there’s a real business case. We uncover that entrepreneurship was his driving motivation toward a career in Product Management. He shares with us some advice on how to best transition internally into a product management role, pre-MBA, for engineers currently working in tech companies. Dilip embodies our student always motto as he sought out courses while working, such as Pragmatic Marketing through the Pragmatic Institute. We learn about what brings Dilip to Haas even after having secured a Product Management role at Groupon. Dilip talks a little about how he’s already leveraging the core courses he’s taking in his first year to advance in his roles at Groupon.

Episode #22: We are joined by Adam Brudnick of the FTMBA ’19 program. In this episode, he shares with us what initially drew him to a career in consulting at McKinsey and ultimately to Berkeley Haas. Back in high school, He was inspired to work at the intersection of science and business after watching An Inconvenient Truth which led him to apply to Wesleyan University, well known for its emphasis in arts and sciences. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, Economics, and Music and joined McKinsey after a summer internship at the firm. Adam went on to join the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to further his career in learning how to accelerate the deployment of technologies to solve rising climate challenges. We hear a brief history of the New York Power Authority, how the public-benefit corporation is run by the state, and how Adam helped NYPA focus on initiatives with multiplier effects that pay economic dividends. We delve into how the multiplier effect works and how we should think about creating initiatives that spur additional, interdependent economic activity. He “got the bug” in creating things of value at NYPA, and came to the Bay Area to create and help others create more things of value. While at Haas, Adam is serving as a Venture Partner of the Dorm Room Fund, a seven-person student-run VC firm that invests $20,000 in pre-seed student ventures across the country.

Episode #21: Sommelier and Entrepreneur, Andres Martell EWMBA '19, started off in the United States Marine Corps. Before launching his Vin Ambassador business in the Bay Area, he recounts his over-the-phone wine tasting tradition with his father, which inspired him to recognize a gap in the hospitality industry for wines. Andres shares the journey to becoming a sommelier, the connoisseur of wines, and the challenges he faced launching his business. He walks us through some knowledge of wine regions, sub-regions, and finally shares with us his favorite region. Andres is artful at storytelling which is a talent he leverages for his wine experiences business. We go in-depth on what some of these experiences are like, and the places he gets to travel for his business. If you are on a budget, Andres even shares with us where he finds exceptional wine in California to start learning about wine without breaking the bank. He further guides us on how to approach a glass of wine which I never learned to appreciate until now. We then discuss the economics and the business side of the wine industry. Part of that is related to his education at Haas through his MBA classes. Check out Vin Ambassador here, and feel free to reach out to Andres through the Haas Student Directory!

Episode #20: We start the story of Mike Devlin FTMBA 2019 from a humble background with an Indian tiger mom and an American father. Mike initially walks us through his background in investment banking, private equity, and his passion for tackling our health and healthcare using his unique background and set of skills. Then we learn how Mike was forged from a kiln at the peak of Mount Everest… just kidding. I initially heard about Mike running across the country in 90 days from his fellow classmates. I was just as curious as you are to what drives an individual to run across the country for a great cause, such as for ALS, and the kind of physical and, more importantly, mental fortitude required to tackle such an endeavor. Haasies are known to have tackled great feats in one form or another and Mike’s story is one that reminds us that it only takes the ordinary (just a man, a will, a brother, and a van) to achieve the extraordinary. Moreover, the journey of a thousand miles (or almost three thousand) begins with one step (in front of the other)… and Confucius forgot to mention, a LOT of mindless pop music.

Episode #19: Today we’re joined by Jaslyn Law of the EWMBA 2020 program and we start off discussing her undergraduate and Master’s degree at Stanford in Environmental and Earth Sciences. We learn about her work on geographic information systems (GIS) in the Bay Area and then pivoting to data-driven analytical marketing roles. We continue to discuss how far biddable online marketing has come and the traceability of paid marketing results for large corporations versus small players. We then hear about why she is at her current position as Digital Marketing Manager at LinkedIn. We finally get to hear about Jaslyn’s family’s organic mushroom farm in Sonoma County called Gourmet Mushrooms, which just celebrated their 40th year! You can find their brand of organic mushrooms under the brand name Mycopia at stores like Whole Foods, Costco, and Safeway. We discuss her thoughts on her future career either with the family farm or elsewhere. And, lastly, we get more into mushrooms, because who doesn't love mushrooms!

Episode #18: Lou Amayo of the FTMBA 2019 program joins us on this episode to discuss her passion for leveraging Fintech to drive impact into emerging markets and economies. She comes from an industrial engineering background in Peru, where she worked to improve operations for manufacturing processes for a pharmaceutical company. She later joined a Fintech company focused on generating credit scores for people in developing countries without credit history by using alternative data such as psychometrics to better understand and gauge a person’s ability to repay a loan. Her work brought her all over Central and South America, and her internship this summer expands her horizon to multiple countries in Africa. Lou also shares her experiences at Haas thus far and how Haas has helped shape her to become more entrepreneurial-minded and encouraged her to engage with Haas startups.

Episode #17: Double Bear Brett Li EWMBA ’20 joins us on this episode to provide us poets with some insights into the world of Product Marketing Management (PMM). We discuss how he went from a technical sales role at Hewlett-Packard to the role of a PMM, which works closely with and sometimes blends into the role of a Product Manager (PM). Brett discusses with us in detail about what interests him in the PMM role and its impact on product and, ultimately, the organization. He continues to break down the three typical paths to Product Management that he’s seen throughout his experiences. We forge on to discuss why Brett chose an MBA, especially with his interest and passion in startups and entrepreneurship, and how the MBA is helping him build the confidence to fail quick, and fail often (the Entrepreneur's mantra).

Episode #16: Today we speak with Julia Nechaieva FTMBA ’18 who graduated this summer and will be headed to Google for Product Management. We start off with her background from Ukraine and the beginnings of her career at Innova, the top gaming company in Russia, and then to Yandex, the Google of Russia, before deciding to make the move to Berkeley. We discuss what it was like growing up in what the outside world classifies as the “Russian-side” of Ukraine so that we can learn more about what it was like for her growing up in a post-soviet European country. Additionally, we talk about how the Haas Culture Preservation project has helped shape her views on the Defining Leadership Principles, and provide us with some insights on their research thus far on how students can embrace the Haas culture differently, at different points in time, and how to deal with the anxiety of not knowing who you are or your place during your MBA at Haas.

Episode #15: Special Guest Dean Lyons BS ‘82 joins my cohosts Julia Nechaieva FTMBA ’18, Steve Lee EWMBA ’20, and I on the Haas podcast to discuss leadership, intentionality, and culture amongst many things. We discuss why recruiters hire Haas students, how the latent Berkeley Haas Defining Leadership Principles were codified and how they are used to guide the initiatives at Haas. We continue to discuss the macro-implications of codifying culture and the chemistry it creates within an ecosystem, leading to students being invested in one another’s success. We also discuss the challenges inherent in the interpretation of the defining leadership principles amongst the student body. Julia continues on to ask Dean Lyons for advice for graduating Haasies, and Steve explores where Dean Lyons foresees Haas in the next five years.

Episode #14: Maurizio Asperti of the FTMBA 2019 program joins us for a fun chat about his career at one of the Big Three credit rating agencies, Moody’s. We go on to chat about his reservations about getting an MBA while preemptively taking on an investment banking internship before coming to Haas. Then, we hear why Maurizio chose the Haas FTMBA over other top-ranking MBA programs and provides us further insights into the full-time MBA experience. Maurizio also shares advice on how to get the most out of the FTMBA program. With his brutally honest story-telling style, he gives us a good perspective on the value of the MBA.