Onehaas

On this episode of the OneHaas Podcast, host Sean chats with Andrew MacNeil, Executive MBA class of 2017. Andrew is currently the Global Head of Enablement at Flexport. He is also a Coach, Advisor, and Mentor for the UC Berkeley Executive Education program.Andrew shares his background growing up in a military family and his time as a US Army Special Forces Officer. He also talks about why he ended up at Haas after leaving the military and how his career in the tech space took off after he graduated.Andrew also tells us about his time in Afghanistan, where he met an Afghan Army Special Forces Soldier who eventually became his friend. Amid the current situation in the country, Andrew started a fundraiser to help his friend and his family attempt to escape Taliban persecution and land safely in the United States. Episode Quotes:What a business school acceptance can do to jumpstart your career“It's actually very hard to get someone in technology to hire you out of the military. I struggled very much trying to

Today's episode is all about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Bree had the pleasure to chat with Nicole Sanchez, full-time MBA, class of 2012. She is the founder and CEO of Vaya Consulting, which offers best-in-class DEI, leadership, and culture consulting services for companies shaping the 21st century, primarily in technology and media.Nicole has been doing DEI professionally for more than 20 years. In this episode, she shared her definition of diversity, equity, and inclusion and why creating DEI in the workplace became her passion.This passion ultimately led Nicole to found Vaya Consulting. She started her own consulting company where she could go and do DEI on her terms and rules.Furthermore, Nicole shared the challenges she faced when she began Vaya and gave us insights on how they carefully choose their clients. She also let us in on how they address wellness and mental health in their workplace, which is essential during this time.Episode Quotes:Her definition of DEI in a nutshell"Diversity i

In today’s episode, we chat with award-winning lecturer Holly Schroth who leads classes in Negotiations, Influence, and Communications.Holly tells us a little about her history and what brought her to Haas nearly three decades ago to teach Negotiations.She also speaks about what makes a good negotiator, her research on Gen Z negotiations, and leaves listeners with some parting wisdom.Episode Quotes:What makes a good negotiation?"What makes a good negotiation is that both sides walk away satisfied."Holly's definition of negotiation"My definition is sharing information in order to problem-solve to reach mutually satisfying agreements. I'm not here to talk you into anything, but I'm here to help you think a different way and come to the conclusion yourself that this direction may or may not be best for you."How to influence someone in a positive way"The best way to influence someone positively is to ask good questions to get them to think differently. You have to understand their

What is machine learning, and why does it matter? Sang Lee, co-founder, and CEO of Qeexo, Co., answers this question for us in this latest episode. Qeexo is the first company to automate end-to-end machine learning for edge devices.Sang opens up about his multicultural background - growing up in Australia and then coming back to Korea to attend college in a very elite university before going to the US to get his MBA at Haas and experience the Western culture.Sang also shares his extensive career in the mobile industry. He joined Samsung right after college as a Product Planner, then transferred to SK Telecom and worked as an OEM Partnership Development, eventually moving to HTC to become Technology Program Manager.We also hear about his company, Qeexo. Sang tells us its early beginnings, how they scaled the business and explains what machine learning is all about.Finally, Sang tells us the good and bad in managing a company and the challenges and things he learned as a CEO. We also get a tip on how you can te

In today's episode, Kenny Vaughn had a chat with Elisse Douglass, co-founder of the Oakland Black Business Fund. She is an established real estate professional and has extensive experience in private equity impact investing. While at Haas, Elisse served as co-president of the Black Business Student Association together with Kenny.Elisse talked a little about growing up in Philadelphia, what made her take architecture in college, and then going into real estate development. She also shared the story of why she ended up at Haas and what she loves about Oakland.Elisse also opened up about how the pandemic has taught her to re-evaluate her decisions. You're also going to love the story of how Elisse made it an opportunity to support local black businesses.Episode Quotes:Her biggest takeaway having gone through the pandemic:"I think we've all just had to face our realities in a way that can be uncomfortable. It makes us reevaluate every decision we've made. For me, I've had to reevaluate wh

Allie Foote (she/her) likes to say she has both a day job and a “gay job.” She is currently the director of digital product strategy at Nike and in addition to her formal position, she is also heavily involved in DE&I at Nike. In this episode of the Crossroads Series, we talk to Allie about how she has brought her personal life into her professional work, the importance of authenticity in the workplace, and how to create a more inclusive office culture for all. Episode quotes:Why she decided to get an MBA:"I needed to take a little space to think about what I wanted to be doing. And honestly, when I decided to go to business school, I still had no clue what I wanted to be when I grew up. I just knew that I wanted to go and learn more and continue to round out business skills so that I can think about what I wanted to do next. And I knew that business school would be a great way to do that reflection and figure out ultimately where I wanted to go."Why Haas?"When I visited Haas, I was just in lo

What does it take to be an effective leader? Haas School of Business Alumnus and Founder of Group Sixty, Darren Reinke talked with host Sean Li about his book The Savage Leader: 13 Principles to Become a Better Leader Inside Out. Their conversation covered how leaders can form a better bond with their tribe by being humble, showing their curiosity and eagerness to learn. Darren tackled and shared his learnings over the years and how the willingness to put in hard work will eventually pay off. And his definition of perseverance means getting out of your comfort zone, even if you need to face your own fears. But does facing your fears mean saying yes to everything? Tune in until the end of the show as they talk about how his experience taught him that great leaders are authentic and how reaching deep inside to know your values will help you prioritize which things to say yes to.Find nuggets of wisdom in this episode as they talk about self-limiting beliefs and encouraging your team to face their fears and take

When Alan Lock unexpectedly lost his sight due to macular degeneration, he knew his military career was over. What he didn’t know was how many adventures were about to begin. In this episode of The Crossroad Series, Alan tells us about how he took control of his life by setting four extreme goals: to run the Marathon Des Sables, to row the Atlantic Ocean, to ski to the South Pole, and to swim the English Channel. He shares his wisdom on the power of goal setting, how to benefit others through your own accomplishments, and not limiting yourself in life.  Episode Quotes:On how people can get the most out of their lives:"Get out there and hopefully create opportunities for yourself and align those to your goals. If you can, you can. Make that a positive experience for those around you as well. Be a good thing."Alan's thoughts on having his sight back:"I think, of course, obviously if I could have my sight, I'm going to have this completely different career. I'd love to be able to just do

In this episode of the OneHaas Undergrad Series, Soo Song, 2017 Haas School of Business undergrad alumna, shares her experiences after graduating from the program. She talks about lessons she wished she had known in the early stages of her career, how she is embracing her Asian American heritage, and how she moved from becoming a Business Administration student to building a career in growth marketing.During her conversation with host Ellen Chan, Soo discusses Twitter's newest projects and developments. Make sure to tune in until the end because she’ll be sharing her experiences from studying abroad, her advice for current undergrad students, and her relatable experiences on campus!Episode Quotes:Do you have regrets in your career?“When I look at my career, I don't necessarily have regrets. I do think that there are lessons that I wish I'd learned earlier. One of the biggest lessons I've learned in my career is that at the end of the day, it really comes down to relationships and building stro

In today's episode of OneHaas, hosts Ellen Chan and Sean Li profile Haas Alumnus Andrew Chau, the guy who refers to himself (on LinkedIn) as the "janitor" and CEO of Boba Guys. As AAPI and mental health awareness month come to a close, Andrew discusses discrimination and mental health.Andrew discusses how leaders are vulnerable to being dehumanized. Check out his tips on how to handle these mental health issues affecting leaders. Listen to the end of the episode as he discusses his experiences with discrimination as a leader and as a business owner. The episode ends with a very good discussion on the struggles Asian American leaders face in balancing their eastern influences on collectivism and western influences on individualism.Episode Quotes:On Discrimination and Prejudice in the Food Industry:“I believe that there is bias and prejudice, definitely in business that people don't want to talk about. We're not perfect, but we're trying to fight the good fight. We're not gonna do th

In today’s episode, host Sean Li is joined by co-host, fellow alumni, CEO, and co-founder of Sounding Board Christine Tao. An exciting conversation takes place between them and Roy Ng, the founder, and CEO of BondIn honor of AAPI month, the group tackled relevant social issues. Learn how they navigated this situation as leaders of their organization and members of the Asian-American community.Take note of how they draw inspiration from successful Asian-American founders. They discussed their struggles as leaders in addressing social issues. Tune in until the episode’s end as they tackle how diversity helps build better business outcomes.Episode Quotes:On creating a diverse team: "On diversity, I don't look at diversity as an HR topic. I look at diversity as to how to build the best possible team that can address what our customers want [...] Diversity is a way for you to be successful, to incorporate the broadest scope of perspectives as possible in everything that you do [...] Diversity is a business

Christine Tao, Haas undergrad alumna, co-founder, and CEO of Sounding Board shares her insight with host Sean Li. She talks about how coaching and development led to her rapid career advancement in Silicon Valley's media, mobile, and tech sectors. Discover what inspired her to create Sounding Board with her co-founder Lori Mazan. Learn why leadership development creates a direct impact on business outcomes in the episode and how she made leadership development coaching accessible to all levels of an organization.Episode Quotes:Her inspiration for building Sounding Board:“I ended up seeing just the impact that coaching had on my own development. I brought coaching to the people on my team as well. I was able to build a team that was high-performing... The more people that got exposed to coaching, the better that they would operate. It's great for companies to have a well-equipped leader.”How can start-ups have access to coaching?“When you graduated and your start-up needs coaching, check in with your a

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, today's episode features Michael Martin. He is a systems thinker, consensus builder, and self-starter who currently serves as the Data and Analytics Global Transformation Manager at Google. Michael and host Sean Li chatted about how mental well-being contributes to productivity and the importance of building a sphere of influence. Besides his professional work, Michael established the John E. Martin Memorial Fellowship and the John E. Martin Mental Healthcare Tech Challenge, a partnership with Google and Haas Healthcare Association.  He discussed how experiences in his personal life and family shaped how he became more self-aware. Episode Quotes:On mental health and well-being is a continuous journey:“Unlike certain physical issues where you go in for surgery, the issue is addressed and you're good to go thereafter. I think with mental health care, it's this constant journey and you're going through. It’s like this helix. Sometimes it looks like you&#

Christina Ma discusses how Haas School of Business prepared her for leading a cross-cultural and cross-border team at Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific. The episode features an exciting conversation between her and Dr. Brandi Pearce together with host, Sean Li about how she managed a team with diverse cultures. Her advice for building a high-performance team? Listen to everyone within the organization, from the CEO to the newest employees. A key insight that she offers is that leaders shouldn't follow one-size-fits-all communication methods when dealing with employees.She ends with an important message about the importance of genuine recognition, nurturing passion, and encouraging empathy as key ingredients to a truly successful global team.Episode Quotes:On how Haas gave her a good foundation on diversity:“It was an amazing two years. The people that I met in terms of the types of people, the variety, both international and domestic, the industries. It's not something that I think I could have outlined, you

Kicking off Mental Health Awareness Month, today's episode features Somesh Dash. He was recognized as one of the top 100 venture capitalists by The New York Times and CB Insights and by GrowthCap as one of the top 40 under 40 Growth Investors.With roots in India, Somesh Dash, the Managing Director and General Partner of IVP sits down with Sean Li to have an epic conversation around topics ranging: their shared experience of immigrating to the United States, the importance of mental health in the business space, violence against Asian Americans, the Ronald Reagan era, racism, and cultural awareness.We gain insight as Somesh walks us through his story of coming up in Silicon Valley. He takes us to the heyday of the dotcom movement and the height of tech IPOs, what he's learned about venture capital, and how lending a quarter to a random stranger over 20 years ago led him to where he is today.Episode Quotes:On mental health:"Coming out of the pandemic, I really think people are going to want to maint

An entrepreneur at heart, CEO and Founder of Xendit featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30, shares his secrets to start-up success - from finding the right people to setting bigger things in motion.In this episode, we sit down with Moses as he talks about how Xendit started and how he weaved its success. Leading an award-winning start-up digital infrastructure and payment gateway in Southeast Asia, he speaks about his experiences from his days at Berkeley doing 24-hour hackathons, to expanding and launching in emerging markets, and to set out to accomplish more and bigger things. Episode Quotes:On starting the framework and finding the right people:“Similar thing with the Co-founder, I said, these are certain qualities I want, most important being commitment. Someone that you can build things with; you can argue with. Who actually makes the decisions? How committed are people going to be when things go badly? So those were the dimensions I cared about. And I tried to test that through a few examples.”On setting up a

What happens when you combine the tools of entrepreneurship with the lens of social change? Today, we speak with Alex Budak, co-founder of StartSomeGood, a crowdsourcing platform for social impact initiatives, which has raised over $10 Million USD to fund more than 1,000 different projects across 50 countries using a grassroots community-driven approach.Currently teaching at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, his courses are aptly named “Becoming A Changemaker” and “The Berkeley Changemaker”.In this episode, we delve into Alex’s passion behind empowering changemakers and reinventing leadership—emphasizing qualities such as humility, empathy, and how a changemaker mindset requires changemaker action.Episode Quotes:On the idea for founding StartSomeGood:“For so long I had thought that change comes from one or two big organizations like the Red Cross. I realized that actually Changemakers are everywhere in the world and that all of us can lead positive change from where we are just like this. . . . So often

Paul Rice, the CEO and founder of Fair Trade USA, has spent his career making a huge difference in the lives of farmers and growers. In this episode, he sits down with Bree Jenkins to share his learning journey dedicated to social change, which includes buying a one-way ticket to Nicaragua, where he started and led the country’s first fair trade co-op and ended up staying for 11 years. He discusses how sustainability and social responsibility are the real drivers of success, and he calls us to find any and all creative ways to bring purpose into business, what some call conscious capitalism.Episode Quotes:On Fair Trade:“And here's the secret sauce of fair trade. We require that brands and retailers pay more money back to the farm owner or the factory owner. We're not saying be more sustainable y'all, and the cost of that is your problem. That's not what we're saying. We're saying more sustainable. Treat your workers right. And take care of your environment, and the consumer is going to

Scott Kucirek has, hands down, the best job on Earth. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Ocho Candy, an organic (and seriously delicious) candy company based in Northern California. But Scott’s path to Ocho was a circuitous one. In this episode of the Crossroads Series, Scott sits down with Sophie Hoyt to discuss his journey from the Navy to Haas and beyond. He shares insights on how to stay the course when the going gets tough, how to know when it’s time to walk away, why consulting is just not his thing, and why Ocho is his sweetest job to date.Show Links:• LinkedIn• Buy Ocho CandyEpisode Quotes:On why building a company culture that prizes its people is important:If they believed in the leadership and the vision, it didn't matter what they got paid. They were going to do it. I always felt that compensation, to a point, was not the main driver of that. Believing that you made a difference and that you had an impact was very valuable. Creating a culture that celebrated the people was important.On his work co

In this episode, we chat with our special guest, Chase Roberts. Chase is an EWMBA class of 2019 and currently Principal at a venture capital firm, Vertex Ventures US.Chase shares his journey from studying at Oklahoma University and starting his career in finance to his pivot to Sales in the Bay area at a company called Box. He then shares his decision to go to business school at Berkeley Haas and land a job at Segment, where he was involved in Business Development and launching a startup program. Throughout the course of his career, he has built a network of venture capitalists. He tells us how that network led him to pursue an earmarked career in venture capital at Vertex Ventures.He also shares the investment focus of Vertex Ventures and his time spent on the data space, which led the conversation to the evolution of software tools and website development. Finally, Chase invites listeners to join his network and potentially build a partnership in the future.Episode Quotes:On venturing into Sales - "At t