OneHaas

Our guest today is Orion Parrott, General Partner at the Orange Fund. He is an experienced leader in business and technology and uses his background to build, explore, and invest in crypto. In this episode, Orion talked a bit about his background, his experience going to Haas for the EMBA program, and his transition from being an entrepreneur to an advisor and eventually becoming a general partner. Orion also shared about Orange Fund, the investment fund of Orange DAO that invests in crypto startups, some critical aspects of DAO, and what to expect in building, exploring, and investing in crypto. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Alejandra is an Associate at Bee Partners. Her infinite curiosity and strategic thinking brought her to Asset Management. Her quest for large-scale impact and a greater connection with the people she supports attracted her to Venture Capital. Alejandra was born and raised in Chile. Her family spent some time here in the US before going back, where she reconnected with her roots. In this episode, Alejandra shares her origin story, her career path from finance to venture capital, and why she pursued an MBA even with an already successful career. We also hear about Alejandra's passion as an endurance athlete and how the things she has learned through her training experiences align with what she does in her current role in Bee Partners. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Our guest, Yogesh Pingle, is a Corporate Development Manager at Intel. He partners with business leaders and their teams to define and execute strategic growth initiatives. Yogesh was born in India, where he spent most of his formative years before moving to the US to pursue graduate school. Getting an MBA had always been part of his plans, and choosing Haas was a no-brainer. In this episode, Yogesh shares his experiences from studying engineering in India, moving to the US and balancing work and school, and his career as a planning engineer before eventually going to product design and marketing and ending up in corporate development. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Our guest today is Andrew Zellman, an Associate at McKinsey and Company. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and a former officer in the US Navy. Andrew's passions include ultimate frisbee, climate, sustainability, and leveraging his technical background to drive impact and insights in his work. In this episode, Andrew talks about how he ended up going to a service academy and his experiences as a US Navy officer. He also tells us why he decided to transition out of service, get an MBA, and pursue a career in consulting. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Today we're joined by Elena Gomez, Chief Financial Officer of Toast, a cloud-based, end-to-end technology platform purpose-built for the entire restaurant community. Before Toast, she served as the Chief Financial Officer at Zendesk, where she helped scale the company to over 1 billion in annual revenues. Currently, she serves on the board at Haas School of Business and The Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco. Elena talks about her origin story, rich culture, what inspired her to go into finance and accounting, and her vast career experience in different tech companies. She also shares why she is deeply passionate about and committed to advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

This episode is to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month. We're joined by Cristy Johnston Limon, a Bay Area native and a proud "double-bear," having earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business and a BA in Political Science. She most recently served as the Executive Director of the Center for Social Sector Leadership at Haas and launched her own social impact management consultancy called Proxima Partners, where she is currently serving as a principal. Today, Cristy shares her experiences growing up in a San Francisco immigrant community. She talks about going to UC Berkeley in college, eventually getting her MBA at Haas, and using it to scale her impact and advance her career. She also shares her involvement in community and economic development efforts, with her values aligned with building the beloved community from an equity and gender-based lens with a bias toward building solutions for the common good. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

In this episode, our guest is Robert Paylor, a public speaker, and motivational leader, with the story of defining the odds and overcoming challenges. Robert shares his passion and purpose with others, which has allowed him to battle paralysis and achieve goals, no matter how daunting they may seem. Robert broke his neck in the 2017 Collegiate Rugby National Championship, and that accident instantly changed his life. He was told he would never walk or move his hands again. However, by shifting his mindset, he could walk again, do more, and be more. Robert took a leap of faith by turning down an offer from Intel to go into public speaking. He has embarked on a career as an inspirational speaker and has begun writing a book with the working title, “Paralyzed and Powerful.” Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Today's guest is another Double Bear! John Dio is a product manager and business professional with experience helping scale venture-backed EV and ed-tech startups. At Haas, John has been part of the Consortium for Graduate Study of Management, The Graduate Assembly, Haas Consulting Club, and Q@Haas. John is originally from the Philippines. When he immigrated to the US, he faced plenty of challenges, including culture shock, bullying, and coping with being an undocumented student. It wasn't an easy journey, but he overcame them all. In this episode, John shared his early beginnings, experiences as an undocumented immigrant, and attending college and pursuing an MBA. He also talked about his career in recruitment and pivoting into product management post-MBA. Finally, he shared insights on a couple of things he is passionate about - childcare shortage and women's reproductive rights. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Chris chatted with David Siap, Associate at McKinsey & Company. David is an experienced business and technology professional with experience in energy, climate, and consulting. At Haas, David was part of many programs, including several MBA challenges and Berkeley StEP, the Student Entrepreneurship Program. David grew up in an undocumented immigrant Filipino family, which helped shape his relationship with change and challenges. It made him good and comfortable with rolling with the punches, dealing with ambiguity, and challenging himself. In this episode, he talked about his experiences taking up different majors in his undergrad, early professional career, and grad school at UC Davis. He then shared his time at a prestigious place after grad school, Berkeley Lab, going to business school right after, and eventually joining McKinsey. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Our guest is Stanley Lam, Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon. Stanley is an experienced business and technology professional with experience in engineering and product management. At Haas, Stanley was a Dean's Fellow and the VP of Careers for the Haas Technology Club. Stanley was born in Hong Kong and moved to the US alone when he was only 15 to study high school in a boarding school in Missouri. Here, he learned how to be independent, and he considers this experience one of his life's pivotal moments. In this episode, Stanley shares his journey of moving from a small town to a big city, his experiences studying in every major college in California, and his career pivots. Stanley also tells us why he decided to pursue an MBA, commuting experience, the importance of networking, and the value of jumping out of comfort zones and challenging the status quo. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Our guest on this episode is Priya Bajaj, currently Head of Engagement Management at Google Cloud for US West. She is an experienced business and technology professional with extensive career experience with tech giants. Priya is originally from India, but she grew up in Doha, finishing high school there. She then came to the US to pursue her undergrad. In this episode, Priya shares what it was like growing up in the Middle East, where the culture is so diverse. She also talks about going to college in the US and how she literally Googled the top schools to find the right one, ultimately ending up in Georgia Tech, where she spent most of her formative years. Priya also tells us why she still pursued an MBA even after accomplishing so much in her career and how she uses what she has learned in B-school in her current leadership role. Along with engaging executive leaders in her work, Priya is also passionate about creativity and giving back to the community. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Today, we brought Lance Barnard to the show about his unique journey into entrepreneurship. Lance is CEO at Ward Road Pharmacy, a pharmaceuticals company that provides the convenience of a "one-stop-shop" for prescriptions and homecare supplies, expert advice, friendly service, and individualized solutions. He acquired it through a self-funded search, where an entrepreneur embarks on the journey of searching for a company without funding or an installed base of investors, opting instead to secure their funding once they've found their company. Lance grew up in New Jersey but wanted something different when it was time to go to college. So, he went to Southern Methodist University in Texas for his undergrad and studied business, which had always been his interest. In this episode, Lance shared his career experiences at Goldman-Sachs and Samsung Electronics, how he adapted to different company cultures, and coming to the Bay area to pursue his MBA at Haas, which has its own set of cultures. Lance also talked about how he was introduced to search funds, why self-funded search appeals to him more than traditional search, and his journey into acquiring Ward Road Pharmacy. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Today, we have Alijah Talley, West Coast Growth Relationship Manager at Zimba Technologies and Founder and Executive Director at The Qonnection. Alijah is an experienced leader and executive with an extensive background that includes serving as a captain in the US Army, founding The Qonnection with the mission to advocate for African-American students pursuing higher education, and as a Consortium Fellow and MLT (Management Leadership for Tomorrow) Professional Development Fellow here at Haas. Alijah was born in Panama but didn't experience the country and culture because his family moved to the US when he was just a baby. He spent his formidable years and adult life in Texas. Alijah applied to West Point, but going there wasn't a smooth path. The admissions officer assigned to him said he wasn't West Point material. However, he didn't let it stop him. It motivated him to try harder and earned admission to the academy. In this episode, Alijah shares his experiences at West Point Academy and as an army leader. During this time, he also became the Diversity Outreach Admissions Officer, and his experiences in this position led him to found The Qonnection. He didn't want anyone to experience what he did, and he wanted the African-American youth to get a competitive advantage. Lastly, Alijah talks about his reasons for pursuing an MBA, why he chose Haas, internships, his job at Zimba Technologies, and plans post-MBA. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

We welcome Eric Sassano to the podcast today. Eric earned his B.S. in Business Administration at the University of California at Berkeley and currently finishing his MBA at Haas. He works in Investment Strategy at Compound. Before joining Compound, he was with Caprock Group as Manager of Private Investments. Eric began his career at Hall Capital Partners, a multi-family office based in San Francisco. He initially spent his time advising clients on portfolio allocation decisions. Subsequently, he focused on research and due diligence for the firm's Private Equity and Venture Capital fund investments. Eric grew up close to Berkeley, so it's no surprise that he is a Double Bear. In this episode, we get to know a little about his upbringing, growing up within the Berkeley ecosystem, his experiences both in undergrad and graduate school, and why going to business school is one of the best personal investments he has ever made. Eric also shares what got him in the investment space, how portfolio management works, and the future of investing. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Today is another episode in celebration of Pride Month. Our guest, Michelle MiJung Kim (she/her), is a queer immigrant Korean American woman writer, speaker, activist, and entrepreneur. She is the author of The Wake Up where she shares foundational principles often missing in today’s mainstream conversations around “diversity and inclusion” and urges readers to go beyond performative allyship to enacting real transformation within ourselves and in the world. Michelle is also CEO and co-founder of Awaken, a leading provider of interactive equity and inclusion education programs facilitated by majority BIPOC educators, where she has consulted hundreds of organizations and top executives from Fortune 500, tech giants, nonprofits, and government agencies to spark meaningful change. In this episode, Michelle shares her immigrant story, coming out as queer in high school, and how it began her political activism journey. Michelle also tells us who and what inspired her to become an activist, why she is passionate about DEI, and what led her to write her book. Finally, we'll hear Michelle's insights on how we can be a part of the solidarity movement in more ways that are more than just changing profile photos, dealing with trade-offs and contradictions, and how we can truly incorporate DEI in the workplace and in the community. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Happy Pride Month! In celebration, we chatted with Mikhail Shneyder, President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as an owner of Nightingale College, an accredited, proprietary, post-secondary institution that specializes in nursing education, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is an experienced, visionary leader with a successful career of over 20 years of progressive management experience in health care services and post-secondary education for health professions. Through a generous gift to Haas, Mikhail and his husband also recently named the new Shneyder & Kirk MBA Commons on campus. Mikhail is originally from Belarus. His family immigrated to the US when he was 19. Coming to the US was an eye-opener. All his childhood imagination dreams about America vanished immediately. Mikhail went on to do odd jobs for a few years, including dressing up as Barney in Times Square. However, after passing the RN licensure exam, he started to practice nursing. In this episode, Mikhail shares the unique story behind their move to the US, his early experiences after moving, fully realizing he’s gay, and the dark part of his journey into finding and accepting himself and overcoming the challenges along the way. We also get to hear why Mikhail is passionate about healthcare, his reasons for going to business school, and how he got into education. He also talks about the mission and goals of Nightingale and its plans for the future. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Our guest is Ryan Drake Lee, a Senior Principal at Keystone Strategy. He is an experienced leader and problem solver focusing on Technology Strategy, Digital Transformation, and Operational Excellence. A native San Franciscan, Ryan was influenced early on by his father towards business and economics and was exposed to a diverse student body and international experiences and cultures. Some of those experiences shaped his youth and outlook on the world. In this episode, Ryan shares what it was like going to one of the most prestigious historically Black colleges, why he pursued an MBA, and his extensive professional career. Ryan also talks about his passion for environmental sustainability, climate change, and social justice and how those areas of interest have come into play with what he is currently doing at Keystone Strategy. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

We invited Ian Shea to the podcast in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month. Ian is the Founder and CEO of I M Human, an organization that works with companies advising on how to think through the variety of creative ways to culturally support the mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being needs of their employees and implements initiatives that are relevant for them. Ian shares his Life Moments™, such as going to different countries for a youth exchange program, finally getting accepted at Cornell after several rejections, going to investment banking, coming out of restructuring twice, and eventually going to business school. Ian then founded a company, Maestro Market, but that business did not work out through a series of twists and turns. And it was a traumatic and very stressful experience for him. However, that particular Life Moments™ started Ian's journey to launching I M Human. Ian shares how he shifted a potentially disastrous moment into one of tremendous growth in this episode. Episode Quotes: Passionate about entrepreneurship ever since he was young Ever since I was little, I always had started small companies, nothing major. But I was just interested in seeing what I could create on my own. And I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that Rubik's cube. Instead of getting "normal jobs" like a camp counselor, I would be doing other things. On having different executive positions to gain knowledge about running a business My original goal was to learn the plumbing, if you will, of the business. Or, if you think of your little learnings as a clock, I was able to go around the whole clock, get some proficiency. I had some great guidance along the way. I had some great mentors. And all along the way, mentors would drop me into particular positions because they said, if you want to go where you say you want to go, these are all valuable skill sets. You don't have to be an expert in all these areas. But you need to know just enough. So, when you're eventually managing or running a company, you have better preview on the holistic elements of the company. On building I M Human, a “non-traditional’ business It took many years for me to get my own voice in it to understand, and ultimately, to get confidence that, after a traditional background that I had business-wise, that I could actually be just as successful and "non-traditional." What looks very traditional now was not 10 years ago. You're trying to build a business around emotional and wellbeing was not something that was mainstream nor is talking about mental health as it relates to business. None of that was in the dialogue. And so, the benefits of that was that really forced me to come up with my own words, because if you were to read an article and you have an idea similar to that, that validates you and you can take snippets of that to make you sound better. But if there's nothing of that there, you really have to hone in. And I had a lot of support in that “hone in”. I had support from my family, my friends. I'll never forget this, I was building this, I didn't have any clue what I was doing, but I knew inside where I was going. And so, people would say, "How are you doing? What are you doing?" I couldn't really articulate it in a confident way, which doesn't make your loved ones feel that confident in what you're doing. But they still supported me throughout. What is I M Human We are a trusted advisor for organizations that are at a point where they want to grow their culture to be more supportive of the mental, emotional, and spiritual being their employees. And what that entails is it really boils down to culture transformation and culture growth. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

In celebration of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we chat with Jason Wang, founding partner of Beluga Capital, a venture capital fund investing in early-stage technology companies. Jason has been a food and tech entrepreneur since 2011. He was the founding CEO of Caviar, a popular food delivery app that Square acquired in 2014. Before Caviar, he cofounded Munch On Me in 2011, a daily deals platform that was part of the Summer 2011 batch at Y Combinator. He’s also held various roles at Google, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Microsoft. Jason was born in China, but his family came to the US when he was just one year old. He grew up in Texas but moved to the Bay Area when he was eight, and this is where he spent most of his life. Although Jason studied accounting and ended up in finance and banking, he had always wanted to study business. In this episode, Jason shares how he got into entrepreneurship, specifically in the food and tech industry, launching Caviar and selling it after two years, and becoming a franchise owner of The Halal Guys Inc. Jason also talks about how he got into the investment space and launched Beluga Capital, a venture capital fund investing in early-stage technology companies. Finally, Jason let us in on his travel adventures, having been to 107 UN-recognized countries and his goal of climbing the Seven Summits. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Today we have John Bolaji, MBA, Master of Engineering candidate at UC Berkeley. Aside from being a Consortium Fellow, he is also Co-President of The Black Business Student Association here at Haas. John comes from a Nigerian family. He is good at Math and Science, and coupled with his passion for science fiction and technology, he went to MIT and studied Mechanical Engineering. However, John wanted to explore other industries other than tech and engineering. He worked as a Consulting Analyst in Accenture and then a Project Manager at McMaster-Carr, where he got to experience real management and leadership experience.In this episode, John shares his reasons for pursuing the new joint master’s degree in business and engineering, joining different resources inside and outside of Haas, and taking on leadership roles to promote positive changes in the world, especially for people of color.Episode Quotes:On being exposed to management and leadership experience early in his career"It offered me some really interesting and unique leadership opportunities that I was really happy to get and confirmed for me that the leadership and management aspect is where I want to be in terms of my career, in terms of how I'm contributing to the world. I think that's where my natural abilities and skills lie."The role of MLT (Management Leadership for Tomorrow) in his business school application“I definitely have to give a shout out here to MLT. That's another organization that helps prepare black and brown students to transition to business school. What I did was MLT MBA Prep. It's essentially a large group of people kind of going through the MBA application process. So, a lot of people have MBA application consultants. This is like a similar version of that but it's a much larger community and it's focused on uplifting black and brown students and indigenous students. And that was 100% the most impactful part of my preparation and application process. MLT was really the first intro to this world and I can't thank them enough for how the preparation process, the coaches that they give you, access to the networking with schools that they give you, is all very impactful. And on top of all of that, it just creates such an amazing community of people who are going through the same process at the same time.”On choosing business schools“Every business school admissions process is different for everybody. And I think, more so than any other professional school, there is a strong emphasis on prestige, rank, business school, name brand, and all those different things, and that definitely influenced my thinking a lot. But I'd say my advice to people is that everyone's business school application journey will be unique. The prestige and name brand definitely have some effect in certain areas, but you can think of other things like the school, culture, fits, geographic location, student size; all those different things will have a much larger impact on your experience.”Why he joined different programs inside and outside of Haas“I did this intentionally, but I really overloaded myself. I was trying to hone in my focus and my prioritization. I was like, I'm going to sample everything and put as much on my plate as I can. And then I'm going to see what sticks essentially. Because you only have so much time, and at the end of the day, you end up prioritizing the things that you find important, and the things that you don't find important will fall off the wayside.”A piece of advice from John“It's going to be tough, but don't be afraid to push your boundaries and get outside your comfort zone. I feel like that's a very cliche piece of advice, but the way I'd frame it is, it's a lot easier to get comfortable and stay inside your comfort zone without even realizing that you're in your comfort zone. You might think you are pushing your boundaries when in reality, you're just slightly turning to the left or slightly turning to the right. And when I say completely change everything that you thought your boundary was, if you can go to the opposite end of the spectrum and test it out to see how far you can go and how far you think the spectrum even is, you might realize there's way more in the middle than you thought or it's not as far as you thought that this thing that you thought was super radical really is not that radical. And maybe you can even go further and get closer to finding something even better for you than you thought could be possible on this side of whatever spectrum you're thinking of.”Show Links:LinkedInManagement Leadership for Tomorrow - MBA Prep ProgramBlack Business Student AssociationHaas Consortium FellowshipUC Berkeley's MBA/MEng programHaas Tech ClubSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations