OneHaas

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.*

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.”

• 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 

• 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 

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.*

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.’”

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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.*

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.”

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This month on the OneHaas podcast, we’re celebrating Filipino Heritage Month with Cassandra Salcedo, a Product Marketing Senior Lead at Salesforce. 

Cassandra is a first-generation Filipina American whose parents emigrated from the Philippines in search of the American dream. It was this story that propelled Cassandra's adventurous career path and ultimately led her to Haas. 

She and host Sean Li discuss what it was like growing up in a traditional Filipino household and her trips back to the Philippines, her diverse career path from accounting to commercial banking to social enterprise to tech product marketing, and how she made it her mission to meet and spend time with nearly every single one of her Haas classmates before graduation.  

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

When she took the first big career transition 

“During my social impact fellowship, I had the opportunity to travel to the remote parts that most people in the world have not heard of in Ecuador and Peru and meet people from these regions and hear their stories about what they're using their loans for and how they're using it to propel them forward and got to tell those stories through different blogs, through different interviews that the organization I was working for could do.”

What it was like to visit the Philippines and reconnect with her family heritage

“They built up this whole community… It doesn't exist anymore today, but there's a family gas station that was called the Salcedo gas station. To see so many people in my family that I had never met before not really having a lot of things and enjoying life and just laughing with each other. That's when I think it sparked for me my appreciation for all the sacrifices that my parents had made.”

Why she was drawn to Haas over other business schools

“I remember very vividly at the first Haas info session I went to and there was a slide there that showed the career paths that people at Haas go into post graduation. And of course there was, you know, the traditional paths of banking, tech, but it was actually quite a linear graph across different industries. I felt like a lot of the other schools, it was primarily one, but that graph actually really stood out to me because I wanted a school that did that and I also wanted a school that was small enough to build a community.”

On her initial introduction to the Haas community

“I actually received a hundred percent response rate from all of the Haas alumni that I cold messaged on LinkedIn, which I thought was a telling sign of the community and people actually wanting to give back and share their experiences out of the goodness of their heart and just wanting to help.”

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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.*

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.

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

To celebrate Latinx Heritage Month, the OneHaas podcast welcomes Patty Juarez, the executive vice president and head of Hispanic and Latino Affairs at Wells Fargo Bank. 

Patty found her passion for finance and banking at an early age, growing up in Mexicali, Mexico, watching her father run his business. After moving to the U.S. at age 11, education became a top priority for Patty and her siblings. When it came time to apply for colleges, Patty knew Haas was the school for her. 

She and host Sean Li discuss her childhood in Mexico and how her life changed after moving to the U.S., the work she’s done at Wells Fargo to increase capital access for minority business owners, and how she got her nickname of “the people’s banker.” 

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

What it was like to leave Mexico at a young age

As a sixth grader, I felt like it was the end of the world, like moving away from my birth country. Even if it was just across the border, really a few miles away, it just felt like a huge change. Of course, you know, you leave your friends behind and you start a whole new world in the U.S.

Where her passion for finance began

I always knew I wanted to be a banker. It's almost like since I was a kid, I was the bank. Monopoly, I was the bank. If we played like little store, I was always the bank. I always handled the cash. And I always had money. I would save my money from birthdays and things. I would lend my money if my grandmother was short or whatever, and then she would pay me back. And if I'd give her $20, she'd give me back $21 or $22. And she taught me about interest when I was a little girl.

On her idea to diversify commercial banking 

I just wondered how much more business we could get if we did it, right? If we actually came to clients in a culturally relevant way, if we recruited talent that looked like our client base, you know, how much more successful could we be? And that was the basis of me launching diverse segments, which really propelled my career to new heights at Wells Fargo.

How she hopes to make a difference for minority business owners 

My goal is to have no access to capital gap, right? So that any business owner can get the financing they need and there's no bias in the decisioning process that leads to them getting turned down for a loan. And that's not gonna be something that's maybe gonna be solved in my lifetime, but I'm damn gonna try really hard to help it along. 

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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.*

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.

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

This month, the OneHaas podcast is highlighting first-generation alumni like Carolina Picazo. She’s the Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Compliance Officer at Spectrum Equity – a private equity firm focused on growth capital for internet-enabled software and information services companies.

Before Spectrum Equity, Carolina spent 15 years at Deloitte working in tax services. Even as a child growing up in a Mexican immigrant family in San Francisco, she always had an affinity for numbers. That passion only grew in her accounting classes at Haas. 

Carolina and host Sean Li discuss her parents’ immigration story from Mexico, why she initially hid her college applications from her father, and how she went from taxes to now holding a top executive job at Spectrum Equity. 

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

On why she was drawn to a career in accounting 

Math was a strong suit of mine. You know English was harder for people like me whose parents don't speak fluent English or speak conversational fluent, but not super fluent, not a large vocabulary. So it's a lot harder. So, you know, you tend to go towards what you feel you're good at, right?

Her first impression of classes at Haas 

My high school was crazy. It's even crazy now. It's a pressure cooker place. The whole time you feel like you're not good enough. When I went to Berkeley and I took classes, I felt like I belonged. I felt like I was prepared, and it wasn't a crazy pressure cooker situation.

How her mom views her career

What makes her happy is the fact that I am an independent, self-reliant woman who is financially successful.

I think that to her as a woman that grew up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, having a daughter who isn't dependent on someone else is really important to her. The other thing she says she's very proud of is the fact that I have three children who are successful. My youngest daughter is 19. But she's successful. I mean, my mom views her as successful. And she's like the continuation. She's like, ‘You did your career and you did all that, but you were able to balance raising three daughters who in and of themselves can be independent and strong and successful women.’ She said, ‘That's not easy. And that's all you.

The advice she gives her daughters

It's a very long life after you graduate, and you need to feel like you have the tools to do something that satisfies you. Reality is you can't live without earning a paycheck, so find a way to earn a paycheck. And find a way to do it with something that makes you happy and makes you feel like you are intellectually satisfied.

• LinkedIn Profile
• Spectrum Equity Bio

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.*

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.

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

Happy Pride Month! To celebrate, Mark Buchanan joins the podcast to talk about his work in LGBTQ advocacy and community empowerment. 

After graduating from Haas with a degree in finance and accounting, Mark spent 22 years at Apple as a finance and sales executive. But now, he runs Buchanan Advisory, where he helps diverse leaders reach their full potential. 

Mark and host Sean Li discuss Apple’s one-of-a-kind culture, how coming out helped Mark in his professional life, and what people can do to be a better ally this Pride month.

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

Why Mark decided to leave Apple and start Buchanan Advisory 

It was a journey about how to help develop people and help develop leaders and help people find a voice to be better leaders. And so that really inspired me after I left Apple to start another chapter of how can I give back and help others be successful? So that's what led me to starting Buchanan Advisory was, I think I can help other leaders be more successful and focus on diverse leaders, focus on the LGBTQ+ community and really help them be successful, and be a mentor, a confidant, an advisor, and help people reach their full potential. 

On the importance of being your full, authentic self

The more I came out and was comfortable being myself in front of everybody, the more empowered I was and the more happy I was, which actually helped me in my professional career as well.

How to support and be an ally to the LGBTQ community

I think learning and being a student of DEI and belonging is important for all allies. And I think participation, you know, with Pride Month coming up, it's an opportunity for allies to learn, celebrate, be a part of it. And I think the more people are willing to be open minded and learn about the community, the more a better ally they can be, and be self-reflective.

Why an organization like Openhouse SF is so needed 

There's still a lot of adversity for the LGBTQ+ community who become seniors. Some of them feel like they have to go back into the closet because there aren't enough elder care services or communities that are accepting of LGBTQ plus seniors, believe it or not.

• LinkedIn Profile
• Buchanan Advisory
• Openhouse SF
• StartOut
• Gaingels