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20 Sep 2018, 11:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: The keys to shaping culture to foster gender equity |
 Unfortunately, the American workplace has not been making significant progress towards gender and racial equity. According to Catalyst, there are currently only 23 women CEOs leading S&P 500 companies, which makes for 4.6 percent of the total. In addition, women hold just 26.5 percent of executive/senior level management positions in the S&P 500 and 36.9 percent of first/mid-level management positions. Data from Deloitte show that Caucasian women hold 18.3 percent of Fortune 100 board seats—not a particularly enviable number—while minority women hold only 4.6 percent of Fortune 100 board seats. While most of us thought that women would be much closer to 50:50 parity with men in the workplace by now, we have stalled out. It’s become less clear that we will ever reach gender parity. Diversity vs. inclusion One of the big problems is that companies are focusing on diversity which is simply counting heads. They say, “Oh, we hired five more black women as coders last year,” but that’s a wholly insufficient component of gender equity. What’s even more important is inclusion, making those heads count. Most companies today aren’t looking at what’s really happening. Sure, they're hiring more underrepresented minority women (at a really slow pace, by the way), but these women are leaving at faster rates once they get in. Once hired, many aren’t feeling a sense of belonging within their organizations or that they are valued and that their opinions count. So, what can be done? It’s my belief that each of us can play a powerfully positive role in shaping the cultures of the organizations for which we work, persistently nudging them in the direction of gender equity while dismantling policy and organizational obstacles that stand in the way for women in the workplace. There are a variety of ways that women—and men—can accomplish this. As leaders, we need to support one another in the workplace. Emilie Arel, CEO of Fullbeauty Brands and a Haas School alumna, firmly believes that we have to pay it forward and help those who work for us. She makes a point of regularly having coffee and lunch with her people. “Getting to know talent and helping people in their careers is part of your job as a leader. It’s very important that we as women think that way, and also that we encourage people who work with us and for us to say what they want.” says Emilie. We all have a role to play Men can and should play a key role in shaping culture in ways that promote gender equality. At Haas, we have what we call “manbassadors”—a program founded a few years ago by two 2nd-year MBA students. According to Patrick Ford, leadership coach, MBA 17, and one of the program’s founders, the goals of the organization are, “Getting individual men to educate themselves to become more aware of the reality of unconscious gender discrimination and of their own behavior, and bringing that awareness into the workplace to create a level playing field.” Imagine what an organization like this could do to shape the culture of your business. Ultimately, women—and men—must speak up when they see things that aren’t right in their organizations. Too often, all of us have been guilty of letting sexist or racist comments slip by, or have seen sexual harassment happen. We fear the risk of retribution or don’t know exactly what to say or do to challenge it. We have to stand up and say, “That's not okay,” or, "Here's another way in which we might think about this.” I believe many men would welcome that consciousness-raising and feedback would use their power and voices as an advocate of change. Together we do have the power to shape our organization’s culture toward gender equity and away from the discriminatory practices of the past. 
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04 Oct 2018, 06:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Seeking greater impact on the creation of gaming content |
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Even as a child, Laura Teclemariam sought to understand the merging of stories and technology—by pulling apart and examining a VHS tape. Now, as a lead product manager for game publisher Electronic Arts (EA), she works daily at the intersection of play and platforms, content and code. She is motivated by a desire for children and people from around the globe to see themselves in her products. To do this, she wants to play a greater role in shaping content and saw earning her business degree from the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program as the best way to prepare for this. Deciding to commit came down to asking herself, "Am I worth this price? I eventually figured out that I was, that I belonged here, and that the ROI of getting an MBA degree from Berkeley Haas was going to be there," she says. This was confirmed in one of her early classes; "You actually do the financial return on investment calculation in your first finance class, so it gets proven out," she says. Finding balance between product management, parenting, and earning an MBA Laura also had some concerns about how she would balance work, family, and school, ultimately realizing that planning is paramount. "If you really want to have a balanced life, you have to look at your support network and start to lean on it," she says. Prior to starting school, she let people in her professional and personal life know about her goals and plans and asked for help. "I invested in making sure I had infrastructure in place so my family could be supported when I was in class on the weekends and when I was away for the week-long immersions." Laura has three daughters, the youngest of whom she gave birth to while in the program. "It's hectic at times, but we plan together and make sure we spend time with each other, whether it's a meal each day, or on Sundays, which we try to reserve as family time." She's also made her family part of the Berkeley Haas experience. "My kids come to to campus. They hang out with me. They're studying with me. My youngest daughter, she is the 'class baby'. All my classmates think of her as their daughter as well, so it's been a wonderful experience." The EMBA's residency structure let's you focus on school—or weave in family As she researched MBA programs, the EMBA schedule seemed like the most viable to Laura, as a senior executive and working mother. "I needed the flexibility to work around being a traveling manager and also my kids' activities and being at home," she says. "The executive program and its residency element was perfect for me."  Berkeley EMBA students come to campus about every three weeks for a three-day block of classes and stay together in a nearby hotel. With this schedule, Laura either uses the time to focus fully on school or to make her family part of the experience. "My daughters and husband sometimes come on Friday or Saturday to hang out for dinner. They talk with my classmates. They bring hot chocolate. They have movie night in the hotel," she says. "Depending on your preference, you could try both; where you appreciate the focused time away and where you really interweave your family and your classmates together in the residency experience." Making Laura's juggling act possible are her husband, mother, and EMBA classmates. "My classmates and study group really are my family away from family, offering to pick up my lunch for me when I'm headed off to nurse or sharing notes from a club meeting I couldn't attend." Taking what you learn back to work Back at the office, that ROI started to come almost immediately as Laura has been able to apply her learning at work. "I came from an electrical engineering, computer science background, so I had no business finance background, but taking finance classes helped me understand the investment needed in a lot of the projects I was reviewing. It also helped me understand the kinds of key decisions I would need to make in growing a new product line and how those could impact the bottom line." Laura knows going back to school, later in one's career—and perhaps with a family—can seem daunting, but advises: "Think about all the things you didn't do in life, and don't let not applying to Berkeley Haas be one of those. Apply, put your best foot forward, and if you get in—go. It will the best thing you ever did."  
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18 Oct 2018, 08:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: How to get what you need to be a successful leader |
 No matter who you are, if you want someone to do something for you, the best way to achieve your goal is to simply ask. Unfortunately, for many of us, asking for what we want is not an easy thing to do. We may be concerned that someone will think less of us if we express what it is we really want, or that we’ll miss out on an opportunity if we ask for something that might disqualify us from consideration. Or we may just be afraid that the other person will tell us “No.” In my experience, while many leaders have a difficult time asking others for what they need to be successful, this is especially true for women who often balance family and work in a more obvious way than men. Emilie Arel, CEO of Fullbeauty Brands and a Haas School alumna, explains that being a successful leader as a woman requires asking for what we want and what we deserve. When Emilie accepted her current role, she was clear about what she needed to be successful as a leader. With a long commute to and from work, and two children ages three and under who were in bed by 7:00 pm, it was particularly important to Emilie that she communicated that as CEO, she would need to be home before her kids went to bed. Asking for what you need can also be in the company's best interest Says Emilie, “So much of it is deciding what we as women want—since we are often the ones balancing family and work—and then asking for it. The key is not feeling like this is a selfish act, but instead understanding that it’s in the best interest of the company for us to be productive and successful. Once you can phrase it that way, you can get more comfortable with it.” Emilie recently interviewed and hired a woman for a VP position at Fullbeauty. During the course of the interview, the candidate said to Emilie, “I want to walk my kids to school every morning, so I’m not going to get to work until 9:30 am. That’s my nonnegotiable.” Emilie’s response? “Great—that’s fine.” Emilie knew that this minor concession wouldn’t have a negative effect on the office, and her new vice president would be happier, better able to focus on her work, more productive, and she would feel more fulfilled in her career and life over the long run—all great outcomes. Remember: your boss and others with whom you work are not mind readers, so unless you tell them what you need to lead, you’re unlikely to get it. Instead of putting your own requirements on the back burner, be bold, be direct, and ask for exactly what you need to succeed as a leader—whatever it may be. You may be surprised just how often you’ll get it.  
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02 Nov 2018, 13:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: The value of an MBA for women aspiring to leadership |
 Many people think of an MBA simply as another qualification—a piece of paper to frame and hang on your office wall. While a degree from a quality MBA program has inherent value in and of itself—it’s often seen as a necessary credential to be taken seriously in the business world, and the starting salaries of recent MBA grads are generally higher than for those without one—I would argue that the process of earning an MBA is where the true value of the degree lies. In this post: Three ways an MBA offers value to aspiring women leaders:
Says Jamie Breen, Assistant Dean, Berkeley MBA Programs for Working Professionals (including the Evening & Weekend MBA and the MBA for Executives Programs), “An MBA gives you a point of view across all the different functional areas of an organization—finance, marketing, and so forth—whether it’s for profit, nonprofit, or government. An MBA also gives you insight into different kinds of decision-making models and how you can use those levers in different situations. But I’ve seen hundreds of students go through our programs, and I think one of the most valuable things we do is teach them how to hold their own in just about any business conversation; that’s of tremendous value to both women and men.” Emilie Arel, a Haas School alumna, is currently CEO of Fullbeauty Brands, and she previously served as CEO for Amazon’s Quidsi subsidiary and as vice president and general manager for Gap. Emilie can recall the exact moment, while at Gap, that she realized she needed to up her game. “I remember sitting in a meeting and someone was talking about P/E ratios,” says Emilie. “I thought to myself, ‘I don’t really understand what they are saying—I think I need to get my MBA.’” Earning an MBA gave me the confidence to sit at the table." MBA programs bring together people from all sorts of backgrounds and life experiences; some are three years out from their bachelor’s programs while others may be executives with years of business experience under their belts returning to gain new skills and knowledge and to make a career pivot. MBA programs often have significant international populations as well, and meeting and working closely with a broad base of people creates tremendously powerful networking opportunities that can be carried throughout your career. This network can be a rich future source of job opportunities, business partnerships and collaborations, or even just a sounding board for ideas and initiatives. Going through the process of earning your MBA can provide you with one more very important thing toward closing the gender gap at work: the confidence you need to excel, to know your value, to ask for what you want, and to rise up to your company’s top-leadership ranks. “Learning the vocabulary of business and networking with others were both important, but above that earning an MBA gave me the confidence to sit at the table with everyone else because I’ve learned the things I need to run a business,” says Emilie. As you work through an MBA program, you can hold your own in just about any business conversation. Should we do an acquisition? Should we roll out a new product? Should we reorganize? Should we introduce new technology platforms to support our business? Not only will you have more knowledge and more confidence to make decisions, no one can BS you—you can hold your own in any business discussion. Regardless of their reasons for choosing to enter an MBA program, women will find that the benefits are many and that they last a lifetime. 
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02 Nov 2018, 22:07
07 Nov 2018, 10:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Six questions for U.S. Coast Guard veteran and Evening & Weekend MBA student Andrew Price |
 When most of us want adventure, we might visit a new city—or try a different kind of coffee. But when former Coast Guard Lieutenant Andrew Price craved adventure out of high school, he decided to move from his landlocked home state of Arizona to Connecticut and attend the Coast Guard Academy. Andrew spent five years with the Coast Guard serving on three ships: On the first, based in North Carolina, he was the supply department head and law enforcement boarding officer; the second, based in Manama, Bahrain, he was the operations officer and supported the ship's mission to escort US. commercial vessels and conduct training exercises with other countries; and on the third ship, based in Connecticut, he served as the ship's commanding officer. That ship performed search and rescue missions, enforced fishery laws, and offered national security services. Now, in addition to working toward his Berkeley Haas degree in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program, Andrew is a project manager for Flexport, a freight forwarding and software company focused on improving the user experience in global trade. Currently, he’s helping the firm establish a global network of warehouses. How did your military experience develop you as a leader? I didn't shy away from responsibility—in fact, I dove into it head first. It's easy to say, 'It's not my problem,' but the military taught you to be action-oriented, commit to a decision and carry it out. Know which decisions are reversible and which you could continue to iterate upon. When you were overseeing people, you had a duty to provide guidance. I was responsible not only for my own success or failure, but also for my team's. Why did you want to pursue an MBA? I felt that I had developed some great skills in the Coast Guard, but I wasn’t exposed to possible career paths on the outside. It seemed like the leadership, discipline, and judgement I learned in the Coast Guard would combine well with the business-specific knowledge—finance and marketing for example—that Haas had to offer. And I wanted to develop a strategy mindset. All my roles in the Coast Guard were operation oriented, and I wanted to learn to take a long-term strategy view. Why did you choose Berkeley Haas? In part because helping Flexport develop its warehouses was an awesome experience, and the EWMBA program was so close. But I also chose it for the culture and community. The Berkeley Haas community was broad-ranging, and represents every industry. Being here gave me connections with people at companies all across the Bay Area.  What does your military experience contribute to the MBA program? My Coast Guard experience gave me the ability to get to the root cause of an issue quickly and calmly – which was helpful when I worked with classmates on an assignment. I was good at getting the best out of teams, and I could offer structure to the study teams I was part of: If we were losing direction on a group project, I could provide some guidance to get us back on track. What would you tell other veterans or active duty members who are considering business school? I would tell them that it helps us combine the leadership, discipline, and judgment skills we learn in the military with fundamental business concepts, career exploration, and a strong alumni network. All that made transitioning from military to civilian life much smoother and offered us the opportunity to "pressure test" different career options before committing. How does the Berkeley MBA program make your goals more possible? I gained skills from my time at Berkeley Haas that I wouldn't have just by working at Flexport. I knew that my ability to go down to Los Angeles, set initial strategy, develop and team, and then hand the project off to another colleague is due in part to what I learned at Haas. And being in the MBA program allowed me to demonstrate to Flexport that I'm committed to my own career development. I have gotten a better understanding of how financial factors drive business. In the public sector or in the Coast Guard, a budget is set and you carry out the job within that budget. But at Flexport, you need to be able to persuade people internally to support a project. I learned how to do that at Haas. What could you learn at Berkeley Haas? We invite you to learn more about the military veteran experience in the Evening & Weekend Berkeley MBA Program.  
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08 Nov 2018, 15:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Six Questions for U.S. Army veteran and MBA student Jennifer Nixon |
 Earning an MBA after serving in the U.S. military may seem like an unlikely career choice, but it actually makes a lot of sense: “Veterans tend to have leadership skills that can translate well from the battlefield to the boardroom, particularly when it comes to managing others,” says former U.S. Army captain and full-time Berkeley MBA student Jennifer Nixon. She served for eight years as a helicopter pilot. By the end of her tenure, she had achieved the rank of captain. "In the military, you're thrown quickly into formal leadership positions, even if you don't yet have the experience," she says. "As an officer, I was put in charge of 20 pilots and mechanics and four helicopters right away, so I definitely learned through doing." What brought Jennifer to Berkeley Haas? She shared her journey with the Berkeley MBA Blog. How did your military experience develop you as a leader? I had some fantastic bosses who taught me that it wasn't necessarily my experience that made me a valuable contributor to the team, but my leadership potential. The Army has a strict hierarchy, with an enlisted level, a warrant officer level, and an officer level. I started at the enlisted level and by the end of my career was a captain at the officer level. I definitely learned on the job, leaning on warrant officers for help while I grew my own expertise. Why did you want to pursue an MBA? After eight years of active duty I accomplished what I set out to do – serve as a company commander – and I was excited by the idea of moving into the corporate world. There were many great things about my job in the Army – flying helicopters is pretty exhilarating – but I found the best part for me was leading teams and in-the-moment problem solving. I suspected that an MBA could help me translate the analytical and management skills I learned in the Army to the business world. Why did you choose Berkeley Haas? I chose Haas not only for its prestige and its track record for job placement after graduation but also because when I came to Berkeley for my admissions interview, I fell in love with the culture of the school. Berkeley Haas has a very collaborative, supportive environment. The admissions office connected me to the Veteran's Club and I talked to a member about everything from how the GI Bill works for graduate programs to what it's like to live in "hippie" Berkeley. After I was accepted, I got outreach calls from alumni, current students, even some of the faculty. It felt like the school was a good fit for me and that I was a good fit for it. What does your military experience contribute to the MBA program? During my time in the Army, I learned how to cope calmly with stressful situations, and I bring that perspective to the Berkeley Haas MBA program. I'm finding that many of the concepts I learn in class are familiar to me, but that the language is different. A recent class, Leading People, was all about how to motivate and assess people, and those are skills I used throughout my years in the Army. As a veteran, when faced with a problem I take the approach, “Okay, we're in this situation, let's figure it out, and I think that works in the business arena, too.” What would you tell other veterans or active duty members who are considering business school? Go for it. Business school is a great way to find how you fit in the corporate world. And at the end of the day, business skills are good to have, no matter what line of work you go into. How does the Berkeley MBA program make your goals more possible? Berkeley Haas has so many resources, like the career management group, interview prep sessions, and job listings. And the networking aspect of the program is far more important than I expected. I get to network with classmates who come from industries I might be interested in, and also with companies and their representatives at informal and formal events the school hosts. It makes the prospect of finding a job much less intimidating.  
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08 Nov 2018, 17:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Six questions for U.S. Army veteran and MBA student Jennifer Nixon |
 Earning an MBA after serving in the U.S. military may seem like an unlikely career choice, but it actually makes a lot of sense: “Veterans tend to have leadership skills that can translate well from the battlefield to the boardroom, particularly when it comes to managing others,” says former U.S. Army captain and full-time Berkeley MBA student Jennifer Nixon. She served for eight years as a helicopter pilot. By the end of her tenure, she had achieved the rank of captain. "In the military, you're thrown quickly into formal leadership positions, even if you don't yet have the experience," she says. "As an officer, I was put in charge of 20 pilots and mechanics and four helicopters right away, so I definitely learned through doing." What brought Jennifer to Berkeley Haas? She shared her journey with the Berkeley MBA Blog. How did your military experience develop you as a leader? I had some fantastic bosses who taught me that it wasn't necessarily my experience that made me a valuable contributor to the team, but my leadership potential. The Army has a strict hierarchy, with an enlisted level, a warrant officer level, and an officer level. I started at the enlisted level and by the end of my career was a captain at the officer level. I definitely learned on the job, leaning on warrant officers for help while I grew my own expertise. Why did you want to pursue an MBA? After eight years of active duty I accomplished what I set out to do – serve as a company commander – and I was excited by the idea of moving into the corporate world. There were many great things about my job in the Army – flying helicopters is pretty exhilarating – but I found the best part for me was leading teams and in-the-moment problem solving. I suspected that an MBA could help me translate the analytical and management skills I learned in the Army to the business world. Why did you choose Berkeley Haas? I chose Haas not only for its prestige and its track record for job placement after graduation but also because when I came to Berkeley for my admissions interview, I fell in love with the culture of the school. Berkeley Haas has a very collaborative, supportive environment. The admissions office connected me to the Veteran's Club and I talked to a member about everything from how the GI Bill works for graduate programs to what it's like to live in "hippie" Berkeley. After I was accepted, I got outreach calls from alumni, current students, even some of the faculty. It felt like the school was a good fit for me and that I was a good fit for it. What does your military experience contribute to the MBA program? During my time in the Army, I learned how to cope calmly with stressful situations, and I bring that perspective to the Berkeley Haas MBA program. I'm finding that many of the concepts I learn in class are familiar to me, but that the language is different. A recent class, Leading People, was all about how to motivate and assess people, and those are skills I used throughout my years in the Army. As a veteran, when faced with a problem I take the approach, “Okay, we're in this situation, let's figure it out, and I think that works in the business arena, too.” What would you tell other veterans or active duty members who are considering business school? Go for it. Business school is a great way to find how you fit in the corporate world. And at the end of the day, business skills are good to have, no matter what line of work you go into. How does the Berkeley MBA program make your goals more possible? Berkeley Haas has so many resources, like the career management group, interview prep sessions, and job listings. And the networking aspect of the program is far more important than I expected. I get to network with classmates who come from industries I might be interested in, and also with companies and their representatives at informal and formal events the school hosts. It makes the prospect of finding a job much less intimidating.
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09 Nov 2018, 11:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Six questions for U.S. Army veteran and EMBA student Kevin Nguyen |
 What do you do after you've served over eight years in the U.S. Army, from deployment in Iraq as a platoon leader to conducting training missions as a counterintelligence officer? If you're Kevin Nguyen, you enroll in the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program, of course. Nguyen joined the Army out of high school prompted in part by the events of September 11, 2001. He served as an enlisted soldier for three years before enrolling at West Point in 2005 and earning a bachelor's degree. His last Army post was as a deputy brigade intelligence officer conducting NATO training missions in Germany and Poland. Nguyen holds a Master's degree in Learning Design and Technology from Stanford University. He was Director of Product Management at Education.com but very recently switched to being a product manager at Intuit while attending the Berkeley EMBA program. How did your military experience develop you as a leader? The military taught me how to focus my time on the team in ways that allow them to best prepare, train, and execute without micromanaging. When operating in dynamic and ambiguous settings, you learn to communicate both effectively and efficiently with people from all sorts of backgrounds - you figure out how to explain things to different people in the best way for them. The other thing you learn is that a good leader knows how to be a good follower. I think that's a concept people don't often discuss when they talk about leadership. A leader isn't just someone who gives speeches and does the big stuff, but also someone who has humility, can recognize when they're not the expert, and be willing to give up control/follow instructions for the betterment of the mission and team. Why did you want to pursue an MBA? Why does it matter to you? When I left the Army, I studied learning design and cognitive science at Stanford and then became a product manager in the educational technology industry. I spent three years in a startup and learned a lot, but it seemed to me that my peers who went into the field right out of college had much more experience. I thought an MBA would give me the technical product management and business skills I needed to "catch up." Professor Toby Stuart's Silicon Valley Immersion and Professor Maura O'Neill's New Venture Finance courses were incredibly powerful classes for me. I gained a better understanding of the startup world and perspective on how entrepreneurs and venture capitalists work together to create a new company, from raising money to sticking with the plan through the long haul. Drew Isaacs' Opportunity Recognition is another terrific class; it's addressed a lot of my curiosity on how innovation really works. Why did you choose Berkeley Haas? I thought about enrolling in a full time MBA program right out of the Army, and I visited quite a few campuses. But all of them felt a little artificial, and I tabled the idea for a while. When I started to investigate business school again, Berkeley Haas just felt different: The students I met showed genuine interest in me and even followed up months after I met them to see how I was doing. I saw that the Defining Leadership Principles weren't just a marketing ploy, but a true reflection of the culture of the school.  What does your military experience contribute to the MBA program? Military experience made us think about the big picture first. That has helped me contribute to class discussions, particularly for case studies. We’re able to level set conversations, bring some diverse perspectives and ensure we learn from the larger, key points instead of going to the granular level first or being pedantic to frivolous details. We’re also able to effectively participate in group work. Having worked with people from around the world, this translates one-to-one with my classmates at Haas who are from all over, both geographically and industry-wise. What would you tell other veterans or active duty members who are considering business school? Generally speaking, do your research and have at least an opinion of what you want to do with an MBA. Many vets automatically turn to an MBA as the logical next step out of the military and hope they figure out what they want to do while in school. While that’s certainly a possibility, you’ll get a better return on investment if you know beforehand and pick a school that has a strong background in that. How has Berkeley Haas made your goals more possible? For one thing I was able to transition to a new job at Intuit! More importantly, Haas has opened my world to different opportunities to make an impact. Through the Center for Social Sector Leadership, I volunteered for a year as a board member for Stellar Academy for Dyslexics in Newark, CA, and saw how much I could help in the education space in meaningful ways other than teaching and building product. 
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20 Nov 2018, 13:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Berkeley Haas leadership digest |
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In our Berkeley MBA programs, we believe in developing leaders who champion bold ideas while taking intelligent risks and who lead with confidence and without arrogance. We've seen a lot of this kind of leadership across campus this fall: VIDEO: Student vets reflect One of our Defining Leadership Principles is Beyond Yourself, certainly embodied by our students who are also military veterans or on active duty. This year, we have one of our largest classes of veterans studying at Haas. Here, four veterans who have chosen to further their leadership skills at Berkeley Haas reflect on what Beyond Yourself means to them:
“The social problems of the country are not just for the government to solve," said Margo, "and corporations have the levers…they can make that decision to improve [society]." Social impact internships—supported by fellow students  This past summer, Berkeley MBA students interested in social impact devoted their internships to everything from equipping off-the-grid homes in Tanzania with solar power to analyzing the impact of increased guest numbers on visitor safety at Yellowstone to refreshing an arts education plan for San Francisco public schools. Thirteen students engaged in social impact internships and received stipends from the Haas Social Impact Fund (HSIF), an effort made possible by their peers—who donate one day of pay that they'd expect at a corporate internship. Students raised about $25,000 this past spring. The MBA, women, and leadership Finally, in case you missed it, Kellie McElhaney, founding director of the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership explored three ways an MBA offers value to aspiring women leaders:
 
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29 Nov 2018, 17:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Using an MBA to drive digital strategy at Nike |
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Sports have always been a big part of Jamie Lee's life, so landing a position as global director of eCommerce at Nike was a dream job. Challenging herself both mentally and physically has been a habit as well for Jamie, a student in the Evening & Weekend Program at Berkeley Haas. That's why she runs obstacle course races, half marathons, and triathlons. And that's why she decided to pursue her MBA. "I came to Haas to develop a new way of thinking," says Jamie. "Knowing that Berkeley really prides itself on diversity, I knew there would be folks from different backgrounds—from medicine, from music, from law. I think that diversity of thinking and the way they solve problems or approach different scenarios is super valuable." Jamie launched her career at Sony Electronics, where a leadership development program sparked her interest in understanding how to run a business holistically. A focus on innovation led her to explore ways to take larger organizations to the next frontier; At Electronic Arts, she helped develop their direct to consumer platform, and at Walmart Labs, she was part of pioneering new initiatives from launching online grocery pickup and delivery to building more traditional brands’ business strategy through eCommerce. Partway through her studies in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program, she had the opportunity to join Nike, leading global cross-category digital commerce strategy. Nike sought her out for the position. "I think the timing, my Berkeley MBA, and my skills painted a perfect picture of experience and opportunity linking together," says Jamie. She found the Berkeley Haas network to be helpful as well. "During the interview process, there were quite a few folks that were Berkeley alums. I think the power of the network enabled us to connect on an even deeper level and played a role in integrating me as part of that Nike community."  Jamie chose Berkeley Haas to gain broad general management skills from a premier program, to sharpen her innovation focus, and for its diversity of offerings. "Where some programs might focus more on particular functions, or areas, or industries, I liked that Haas allows you to kind of pick and choose, to say, 'Hey, I want to learn a little bit more about sustainability, or the business of politics, or sports management,'" she says. "I felt that diversity of opportunity was unique to Berkeley Haas." As for her decision to earn her MBA part time, she says, "I already knew I wanted to continue to push forward the new frontier of digital commerce. I felt like the Evening & Weekend Program could really help me refine my skills and develop as I continued growing at work." Jamie says the blend of theory and practice in the program has helped her bring these new skills to work. "We're able to apply a lot of our learning in class and on projects. I think that's what makes it not just theoretical, but something that we can see really come to life day to day." Forging new relationships has also been a key part of the experience. "Being able to see folks maybe once or twice a week, but still develop these friendships that feel like life-long friendships, is powerful. That sense of community, I think, is rare but also super valuable, especially in a program for working professionals," she says. One of the things she most values about the community is the emphasis on diversity and the way women in the program support each other. "We're always looking to bring more women into the program," she says. "Together we're able to support each other in what it means to be a woman at Berkeley, as well as to confront a lot of the challenges we might be facing at work, professionally, or outside of Haas." And she’s had the opportunity togain global insights by taking part in Global Network of Advanced Management courses, in which she met folks from schools across the US, Asia, and Europe. “It’s amazing to be able to hear how differently students think through problems, and it’s challenged the way I approach collaboration and working together with diverse groups.” She values that diversity of thought at work as well. "Being part of a consumer-facing brand that delivers to male and female consumers alike, it's really helpful to have women at the decision-making table when it comes to new product innovations or experiences. They can really champion the voice of that female consumer." As an athlete, Jamie is particularly excited to help foster a new experience for others, "whether it's someone training for a race, a college athlete trying to make it to the pros, or those athletes just starting their physical journeys. This is something I was always aspiring to do," she says of launching initiatives such as accelerating the plus size experience or the Nike Hijab to truly serve all athletes. "I am getting to bring innovation to life at Nike, and Berkeley Haas has really helped me have the confidence, the knowledge, and the expertise to champion these new ways forward." How could the Berkeley MBA help you champion a new way forward? We invite you to learn more about our Evening & Weekend MBA Program.  
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07 Dec 2018, 12:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Video: For these students, an EMBA on campus makes all the difference |
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For David Reile and Moj Payombar, an EMBA program that would let them study on campus was a key factor in choosing the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. While the three-days-every-three-weeks schedule also worked well for each (David appreciated having lots of space around school for work and family, and it made commuting from Orange County manageable for Moj), it was the chance to build close relationships with classmates and to interact with other members of the Berkeley Haas community that really appealed to them. These students have also appreciated the residential aspect of the program: staying together with classmates at the same hotel, just steps from campus during class blocks. "It makes the logistics of everything easier, because you can meet with your study group at any time," says Moj. "Plus, there is a lot of opportunity to overlap with our full-time and evening and weekend program students, letting you leverage the entire Berkeley Haas network while you're on campus."  The caliber and diversity of fellow students made an impression on Moj as well. "People come from a variety of industries at different levels. You get to learn a lot from the background and experience that people have," she says. David was also drawn by the Berkeley Haas community. "Just walking to class, I pass undergrads and other graduate students. To feel the energy of the campus come to life is a huge plus in my mind," he says. "The moment I set foot on campus, it felt like home. When I think about my classmates and the conversations that we have, real people solving real challenges in their daily lives and in their work lives, that is what I was looking for: something that was very collaborative." Looking for an on-campus and collaborative experience? We invite you to learn more about the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. 
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13 Dec 2018, 09:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Globetrotting engineer finds a home at Haas |
 Born in Montréal to Lebanese parents, mechanical engineer and full-time Berkeley MBA student Sandra Tamer was raised in Zahlé, Lebanon. She earned her Bachelor's degree with Distinction in mechanical engineering from the American University of Beirut—but even then was cultivating her interest in the business world with a minor in business administration. After graduation, she landed a job at Petrofac International Limited in Sharjah, UAE. There, she helped oversee projects in Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Going beyond the oil and gas industry She found more and more that it was business development rather than engineering that really excited her, and it was on a project site in Oman that Sandra realized she wanted to expand her horizons beyond the oil and gas industry—and that earning an MBA was just the way to do it. "Oil and gas is a deep but narrow industry," she says. "I learned so much, but I also realized there was more out there besides engineering work. I knew I wanted an MBA; I just didn't know yet which program would be the best fit for me." INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France was on her list as was the London Business School (LBS) in Lebanon. There were also a number of U.S. schools, including Haas. As she gathered information, she found that alumni feedback about Haas was consistently great. "When I asked someone at LBS what her favorite experience during her program had been, she said it was going on the exchange program at Haas," Sandra says. "That was a pretty powerful recommendation. I was so excited when I got my Haas acceptance."  Gaining consulting experience at Haas Since she started her program in 2017, Sandra has consulted for Mumm, an online food delivery service in Cairo and one of the companies served by Berkeley's AMENA (Asia, Middle East, and North Africa) Center for Entrepreneurship and Development. She also interned in tech at Cloudera as part of its Modern Data Warehouse product team. Now, in addition to her own coursework, Sandra is a graduate student instructor and a teaching assistant for the school's Power and Politics in Organizations MBA class. One of her most thrilling opportunities at Haas was the International Business Development (IBD) course, for which she and four fellow students were assigned to a project with Ford Motor Company to help the firm address the pain points of its customers and facilitate ease of mobility around the world. The group worked with Ford for four months from the Bay Area, then spent three weeks in Shanghai in May of this year. "The Ford project was my favorite experience at Haas," Sandra says. "Our team got very close and we worked effectively together—so much so that executives from the Asia Pacific Ford Smart Mobility said our recommendations exceeded their expectations." What's next? Sandra is considering consulting position offers for next year from McKinsey & Company in Dubai and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Strategy& in Chicago. Whichever job she chooses, she knows her time at Haas has prepared her well. "I come from a culture that values speaking first," she says. "But Haas emphasizes the power of the team, of collaboration, and valuing difference—all of which are assets I will carry into my professional work." What might the Berkeley MBA give you to carry into your professional work? We invite you to learn more about the Full-time MBA Program.  
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20 Dec 2018, 09:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Balancing full-time MBA and family |
 “In the aerospace industry, innovation is welcomed – to a point,” says full-time Berkeley MBA student and aerospace engineer Chris Cindy Cordova. Since what's most important is the safety of the aircraft, it can take a while to incorporate new technology. "Aerospace is a highly regulated, traditional industry, and companies tend to be hesitant about technology advances," she says. "Design changes have to undergo significant testing, so they're incorporated pretty slowly." Strengthening leadership skills while balancing school and family A desire to develop her leadership abilities and use them to innovate in her field is what led Chris to pursue an MBA at Berkeley Haas, following a BS in aeronautical engineering at Stanford and nearly ten years with Honeywell in a variety of roles. "I felt I needed to get some training outside of the engineering bubble I was in so I could come back to my industry with some fresh leadership skills," she says. "In particular, startup culture has this built-in agility to it, and I knew I could explore that culture at Haas." Not that agility is a new concept for Chris. As the mother of three daughters 10 and under, she's had to juggle work and home demands throughout her career and now as she earns her MBA. "Raising children and working is tough on many levels, but it's possible, and part of what motivates me is being a role model for my daughters," she says. "It really helps that the Haas community is so supportive. Events like Consumption Function have offered activities and snacks tailored to my kids, and my study group has been willing to schedule meetings between classes during the day rather than in the evenings. These kinds of things mean a lot."  Guiding and mentoring other women Since she started the program, Chris has learned more about what it takes to launch a new company and how entrepreneurs and venture capitalists work together. And this knowledge further motivates her to use her own career experiences not only to raise strong daughters, but also to guide and mentor other women. In fact, already Chris has served as a speaker at events designed to spark engineering interest among girls and inner city youth, and as an engineering recruiting event coordinator for both Stanford and Honeywell. "The way I think about my career has always included other people and its impact on them," she says. "As a woman of color in the aerospace industry, I've had to face a lack of representation at work, and as a mother, I've had to deal with my aerospace colleagues not understanding what it's like to raise children and have a career. That's why it's so important to me to be a role model for younger women in the hopes of making their path a bit easier." And part of being a mentor to others is taking measured risks oneself, Chris says. For her, this means working in the startup/venture capital sphere for a while after graduation before returning to aerospace. "It's not easy going to school full time and parenting," she says. "But what gets me through is that I know it will have a positive impact on the people in my life." Could an MBA help you have positive impact? We invite you to learn more about the Full-time Berkeley MBA Program. 
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10 Jan 2019, 09:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Bringing leadership skills from the U.S. Navy to the business world |
 During his time as an officer in the US Navy, FTMBA Jorge Tellez was no stranger to the demands of leadership and responsibility. Among other tasks, he advised the Secretary of the Navy on the Navy and Marine Corps awards program and provided antiterrorism training to crew on the guided-missile destroyer USS Momsen. As his Navy stint came to an end, he saw getting an MBA as a great way to put those skills to use in the business world. "I was looking for a school that would offer not only outstanding education for my career transition, but also a strong community of students that I could connect with," he says. "Every other school I visited just had me come in, do the interview, and return home. But when I arrived at Haas, the current students had made a human tunnel for all of us candidates to run through as a community-building exercise, and that evening my fellow applicants and I went out with them for dinner and karaoke. I knew Haas was the place for me." Deciding on a career in consulting Before joining the Navy, Tellez earned his undergraduate degree at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington City, during which time he also spent a semester at the University of Oxford's Magdalen College. At Haas, he has interned at SkyAlert, one of U.C. Berkeley's 2018 startup accelerator firms, and at McKinsey & Company in Seattle. Before he began his MBA program in September 2017, Tellez wasn't yet sure what kind of business career he wanted to pursue. That summer, he took part in an Orientation Program in Atlanta offered by the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, an organization that works to foster diversity in business education and leadership. After talking to his classmates and fellow Orientation Program participants from other U.S. business schools as well as to representatives from a variety of firms, he landed on consulting. "I was initially interested in tech, but realized it was an industry I really wasn't familiar with," he says. "As I talked to people at the Orientation Program, I learned that a consulting career would be a better fit by giving me opportunities to engage with many different industries instead of just one. By the time I started at Haas, I was fully committed to consulting."  Gaining global consulting experience This commitment led Tellez to participate in a semester-long consulting project through Haas' International Business Development (IBD) management consulting program—and then serve as a team leader in Dubai for three weeks. "We advised Majid Al Futtaim Holding, a company heavily invested in shopping malls and commercial and mixed real estate. We helped them envision what the 'mall of the future' could look like in Dubai," he says. "There's an advanced mall industry there, much more so than here in the U.S. Our team assumed we'd have lots of cutting edge proposals to offer, coming from Silicon Valley, but this firm was already developing really innovative ideas. So our challenge was to think ahead of what they were already doing." To help him in his pivot from the military to a consulting career, Tellez has made good use of the career management resources the MBA program offers its students, working with consulting specialists and peer advisors to develop his career strategy, craft a resume, and prepare for interviews. Add to the mix the coursework that's given him the tools he needs to move forward and a number of friendships he will continue to enjoy after graduation—and Tellez feels ready for what comes next. "I'm leaving Haas not only with concrete skills in finance, accounting, and data analytics, but also with incredible friendships I know will be some of the closest I'll have in my life," he says. "I feel so fortunate for the support I've gotten here." Could Haas be the place you build your skills? Learn more about the Full-time Berkeley MBA Program. 
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06 Feb 2019, 14:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Coaching Through Corporate Hurdles: Melanie Akwule, MBA 19 |
 Melanie Akwule wouldn’t be who she is—as a person, a leader, or a founding CEO—if it hadn’t been for the hurdles. More than a decade later, Akwule remembers the pressure. As a freshman triple-jumper on her high school track team, she was asked to fill in for an injured senior on the Shuttle Hurdle Relay team. A week before her first race—at a national meet—her coach gave her a crash course on a tall order: five hip-high hurdles, three strides between each, for 55 all-out meters. “There’s a certain level of fearlessness and a certain level of crazy that I think all hurdlers have,” Melanie says with a smile. Today, Melanie still draws on that experience as CEO of MINWO, a start-up she co-founded shortly before beginning her studies in the Evening & Weekend Berkeley MBA program. (The name blends the first syllables of the words “minorities” and “women.”) A community platform for minority and women business owners, MINWO provides affordable consulting services to help members build more financially competitive businesses. In essence, it helps them hurdle corporate obstacles through strategic coaching, pooled resources, and an empowering community. “Forget having a seat at the table,” she says. “We’re making our own table.” The idea for MINWO came in 2015, when Melanie was working for GE as a data analyst and felt called to be part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. In college, she had protested by marching in the streets. Later, as a working professional, she found power in economics. She sought ways to support black-owned businesses believing that financial freedom is the key to true equality. “There were marketplaces starting to pop up, like WeBuyBlack, to support black-owned businesses,” says Melanie. It got her thinking: “What can we do to bring more dollars to those businesses in another way?” During a year of market research, Melanie learned that despite steady growth in the percentage of US businesses owned by women and minorities, their revenue growth was lagging significantly behind that of white- and male-owned firms. She conducted a survey to glean more insight. “We learned that the pain points for shopping with black businesses are business-related,” she says. “While people do want to support them, if the customer service isn’t as great, if the prices are too high, if the quality isn’t as good, people are not going to shop with them.” Those barriers were clearly surmountable, Melanie believed, with the help of good coaching and strategy. That idea evolved into the business model for MINWO, which she launched while working for GE Digital. The opportunity ultimately inspired her to quit her job at GE and fully immerse herself in the entrepreneurial coursework and network at Berkeley's Evening & Weekend MBA to grow her company. One of the deciding factors in her choice of Berkeley was the inclusivity she felt while attending the Diversity Symposium hosted on campus that year. It wasn’t stuffy or pretentious, qualities she had noticed in other programs. “These were people I would actually be able to have conversations with and continue to talk to after three years,” she recalls thinking at the event. “These were my people.” “While Berkeley Haas is working on other areas of diversity, it is very diverse in thought—and that was something I was supremely surprised about, how many people I could relate to mentally.”  Now in her final year of the program, Melanie has tailored her education around classes that she can immediately apply to MINWO, from Venture Finance to Active Communicating, which has honed her stage presence and ability to command an audience when she speaks as a CEO. She also found the Entrepreneurship and Innovation course helpful. “Before, I felt like I was making it up as I went. That class helped put structure around my entrepreneurial journey.” In a way, she’s like that high school coach who gave her a crash course on hurdles a week before her debut at the national meet. At nationals she ran the fastest split, ensuring a strong finish for her senior teammates in the final race of their high school careers. “If you want to go fast, go alone,” Melanie says, quoting her favorite African proverb. “If you want to go far, go together.” 
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08 Feb 2019, 11:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: MBA helps students shift from "they do that" to "I do that": Kim Ayers, MBA 18 |
 Kim Ayers was working in Chile as an account manager for Endeavor, a nonprofit business advisory firm, when she realized that instead of linking entrepreneurs to experts, she wanted to be an entrepreneur. "I'd been helping entrepreneurs strategize how to grow their businesses by connecting them with executive talent, mentorship, and capital for three years before I decided I wanted to widen the scope of what I was doing -- and be the expert advisor myself," she says. "As Dean Lyons has said, I wanted to move from an attitude of 'they do that' to one of 'I do that.'" She'd landed at Endeavor after a two-year gig as a business development advisor with the Peace Corps in Chiclayo, Perú. Before that, she'd served as a project coordinator with the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Washington, D.C. and as an intern at the Center for International Private Enterprise, a nonprofit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. All these work experiences had been supported by her undergraduate degree in foreign affairs and philosophy from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and a postgraduate certificate in business administration at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Santiago, Chile.  But her time at Endeavor made her want to take her career to the next level – starting with an MBA. A Peace Corps colleague suggested Kim check out Haas and the more she learned about the school, the more it appealed to her. "I wanted a program where I'd meet people who shared my sense of the importance of the social impact of business," she says. "I also wanted to have a personal, transformative experience as I learned business skills, and I could see that would be possible at Haas – especially after I encountered the Defining Leadership Principles." Once at Berkeley, Kim immediately focused on consulting as her career goal, joining the Consulting Club and taking advantage of its many student-led resources, like its speaker series – which includes coaching and support from second-year students for pursuing a consulting career – and case workshops, which prepare students for internship interviews by practicing with theoretical consulting situations. Both of these resources proved invaluable to Kim who did more than 30 prep cases before landing an internship with McKinsey and Company in the summer of 2017.  "You have to decide whether to pursue consulting in early October right after you've started your program, and it can be scary to have to make the choice so quickly," she says. "But the speaker series and support from second-year students gave me a kind of road map for success. And without the case workshops, it would have been very difficult to get through the internship interviews." Her internship led to a job offer, and now Kim is an associate at McKinsey. She is involved in multiple consulting projects in the retail and tech arenas. She credits Haas as a key element of her success. "Without an MBA, I had no viable path into consulting," she says. "And the truly collaborative nature of the program at Haas– my classmates and I were able to support each other in a way that 'lifted all the boats' – was a crucial aspect of my MBA experience that has helped me work more effectively with my clients." 
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22 Feb 2019, 11:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Career redesign—from engineer to consultant: Mandar Kulkarni, MBA 19 |
 Before he re-engineered his career, Mandar Kulkarni was creating the blueprints for next-generation technology. Working as a design engineer, he developed chips for implantable medical devices for Cactus Semiconductor in Chandler, Arizona. He designed optical fingerprint sensors and touchpads for mobile devices at Synaptics in San Jose. The hands-on technical work was exciting. But it was also highly specialized and confined by each vertical niche. Kulkarni longed to see the big picture—and redesign it. “I wanted to get into something more strategic,” he says. “The career that best fit what I wanted to do was consulting.” Kulkarni enrolled in the Evening & Weekend Program at Berkeley Haas to accelerate his transition. The program allowed him to tailor his curriculum to broaden the highly technical skill set he had acquired as an engineer. “It’s a shift from a vertical to a horizontal kind of job,” he says. “I wanted to keep my MBA as general as possible, so I tried to take a class in every field.” Mid-way through his MBA program, Kulkarni landed a consulting job through an on-campus job interview arranged by the Career Management Group. After helping him fine-tune his resume, industry specialists on staff helped him prepare for rigorous case interviews — the extemporaneous business riddles that consulting firms use to test a candidate’s critical thinking. “To be good at a case interview, you have to practice,” Kulkarni says. “Most of the time, people practice in pairs. That’s easy if you’re a full-time student — you can be on campus and get together for face-to-face interviews. But that’s not always possible for Evening & Weekend students.” In addition to some face time with fellow MBA students, Mandar practiced in a series of Skype sessions with a Haas advisor who simulated the case interview process. “That was instrumental in preparation,” Kulkarni says. He nailed his case interview with Simon Kucher & Partners, a strategy and marketing consultancy with offices in 25 countries. They hired him before he even completed his MBA. At his new consulting job, he specializes in pricing strategy for Fortune 500 clients. “I’m pretty much using everything I’ve learned in the MBA,” he says, especially the courses he chose to broaden his skill set. “The classes that made the most impact for me were Negotiations and Conflict Resolution, Leading People, and Building Trust-Based Relationships—the soft skills.”  Between Fortune 500 clients, Kulkarni has also had the chance to work with nonprofits. Through an experiential learning elective called Social Sector Solutions, his team worked with the Museum of the African Diaspora, a San Francisco-based Smithsonian affiliate museum in need of a digital strategy. The Berkeley Haas Innovation Lab, a 2,700-square-foot facility designed for collaboration, served as the semester-long project’s base camp. Kulkarni and his team met weekly with the client and visited the museum several times to interview staff members. The team presented the client with specific recommendations for a more engaging website, interactive exhibits, a social media plan, and digital marketing initiatives to boost sales and foot traffic. “It’s like a consulting project for the nonprofit sector,” Mandar says. “I’ve been telling everybody: You should do this to understand what a consulting job looks like. Plus, it’s done in conjunction with McKinsey & Co. If you put that on your resume, it’s going to stand out.” Slated to graduate in 2019, Kulkarni has become active in student leadership as vice president of Academics and executive vice president of the EWMBA Association. In those roles, he has learned to gather feedback from students and relay it to the Program Office, shaping the direction of the program. It’s the kind of big-picture thinking that made him want to be a consultant. Now that he has fully transitioned from the vertical world of design engineering, he says he loves the strategy—and the C-level views. “I went from working with a few engineers to presenting to the executives of $100-million companies.” 
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25 Feb 2019, 11:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Taking the Entrepreneurial Path to Improving Global Healthcare: Lida Kourita, EMBA16 |
 “What is the best way to help?” It’s a question physicians ask often in the course of their careers as they contemplate a patient’s situation. In 2014, Lida Kourita Papadopoulos, MD, DCH, MRCPCH, EMBA 16, then a pediatrician practicing in London as part of Britain’s National Health Service, was questioning how she could do more to help. “As much as I loved my work, my footprint as a physician was limited by geography and time. I could see only so many patients in a week, and I could do nothing to help people elsewhere who are excluded from the healthcare system completely,” she says. Her reflection led her to an unexpected answer: an advanced degree in business. Complementing her medical knowledge with business skills and a strong network of like-minded professionals, she realized, would expand her ability to make a difference. The Berkeley MBA for Executives quickly rose to the top of her list. “The four Defining Leadership Principles resonate with any physician and certainly with my own philosophy. I wanted to question the status quo in how healthcare is provided, and I knew I would use my studies to advance a cause beyond my own career. Physicians are students always in medicine, and I certainly had a lot to learn about business. Finally, I wanted to be among people who were clever, competent but also humble,” she says. At Berkeley, along with a strong foundation in business fundamentals, she “learned a whole new alphabet: ROI, P&L, EBIDTA. More importantly, I learned to look at healthcare not just as a physician but as an entrepreneur.” Her most important lesson was that disruption has to start with knowing what you want to build. “At Berkeley Haas, I learned about building models, identifying key partners, and planning to ensure that a small player can enter a big business eco-system successfully,” Kourita Papadopoulos says. She also notes, “innovation happens when there is cross-pollination between disciplines and no place is better than Berkeley at making that happen. In the classroom, in casual discussions with classmates or alumni, I always found that what I call my ‘Berkeley family’ was devoted to helping all of us thrive.” In addition, the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, the Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator, and the EMBA immersion experiences played important roles in shaping Kourita’s career path. Today, she is the medical innovation lead at neuroFit, Inc., a startup exploring the use of the oculomotor system to measure neural health. “Berkeley was the vital bridge that enabled me to cross over from one-on-one healthcare delivery to contributing to the development of systems with the potential to reach very large populations. neuroFit is capable of building ecumenical tools that go beyond barriers of time, space, and access to address human pain today and to prevent it in the future.” Another example of the power of Kourita’s “Berkeley family” came when Rhonda Shrader, the director of the Lester Center of Entrepreneurship, encouraged her to apply for a National Science Foundation I-Corps grant. “This funding was invaluable to neuroFit as we sought to understand and validate our value proposition,” she explained. “It has given us access to customers nationwide as well as top industry leaders.” Finally Kourita Papadopoulos says the Berkeley MBA for Executives lures you out of your comfort zone, to challenge and ultimately empower yourself. “You will learn how to choose the path of resistance when those around you are demanding you compromise your values.” 
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26 Feb 2019, 11:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Taking the Entrepreneurial Path to Improving Global Healthcare: Lida Kourita, EMBA 16 |
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“What is the best way to help?” It’s a question physicians ask often in the course of their careers as they contemplate a patient’s situation. In 2014, Lida Kourita Papadopoulos, MD, DCH, MRCPCH, EMBA 16, then a pediatrician practicing in London as part of Britain’s National Health Service, was questioning how she could do more to help. “As much as I loved my work, my footprint as a physician was limited by geography and time. I could see only so many patients in a week, and I could do nothing to help people elsewhere who are excluded from the healthcare system completely,” she says. Her reflection led her to an unexpected answer: an advanced degree in business. Complementing her medical knowledge with business skills and a strong network of like-minded professionals, she realized, would expand her ability to make a difference. The Berkeley MBA for Executives quickly rose to the top of her list. “The four Defining Leadership Principles resonate with any physician and certainly with my own philosophy. I wanted to question the status quo in how healthcare is provided, and I knew I would use my studies to advance a cause beyond my own career. Physicians are students always in medicine, and I certainly had a lot to learn about business. Finally, I wanted to be among people who were clever, competent but also humble,” she says. At Berkeley, along with a strong foundation in business fundamentals, she “learned a whole new alphabet: ROI, P&L, EBIDTA. More importantly, I learned to look at healthcare not just as a physician but as an entrepreneur.” Her most important lesson was that disruption has to start with knowing what you want to build. “At Berkeley Haas, I learned about building models, identifying key partners, and planning to ensure that a small player can enter a big business eco-system successfully,” Kourita Papadopoulos says. She also notes, “innovation happens when there is cross-pollination between disciplines and no place is better than Berkeley at making that happen. In the classroom, in casual discussions with classmates or alumni, I always found that what I call my ‘Berkeley family’ was devoted to helping all of us thrive.” In addition, the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship program, the Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator, and the EMBA immersion experiences played important roles in shaping Kourita’s career path. Today, she is the medical innovation lead at neuroFit, Inc., a startup exploring the use of the oculomotor system to measure neural health. “Berkeley was the vital bridge that enabled me to cross over from one-on-one healthcare delivery to contributing to the development of systems with the potential to reach very large populations. neuroFit is capable of building ecumenical tools that go beyond barriers of time, space, and access to address human pain today and to prevent it in the future.” Another example of the power of Kourita’s “Berkeley family” came when Rhonda Shrader, the director of the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship program, encouraged her to apply for a National Science Foundation I-Corps grant. “This funding was invaluable to neuroFit as we sought to understand and validate our value proposition,” she explained. “It has given us access to customers nationwide as well as top industry leaders.” Finally Kourita Papadopoulos says the Berkeley MBA for Executives lures you out of your comfort zone, to challenge and ultimately empower yourself. “You will learn how to choose the path of resistance when those around you are demanding you compromise your values.”
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