Kim Girard, Author at Haas News | Berkeley Haas

Honoring Black History Month: Mia Character, BS 20, on finding black pride

February 11, 2019| by Kim Girard

"We have to speak up and share our different perspectives in order to learn from one another.” - Mia Character, BS 20. — *“We have to speak up and share our different perspectives in order to learn from one another.” – Mia Character, BS 20. Photo: Annie Wang.*

In honor of Black History Month, we’re running a series of profiles and Q&As with members of the African-American community at Haas. Follow the series throughout February here.

When Mia Character arrived at UC Berkeley as an undergraduate in 2016, she found the perfect community in the Afro Floor of Barbara Christian Hall. The hall, named for the professor who founded Berkeley’s African American Studies department, opened Character to a new world.

“There was something so special about living on a floor in Christian Hall with people who looked like me,” she said.

The students on the floor celebrated Black History Month, and every week attended a one-unit seminar class together with the African American Theme Program (AATP). A seminar with Blake Simons, a local community organizer and assistant director for the Fannie Lou Hamer Resource Center and African American Student Development Office, taught her a lot, Character said.

“I was a college freshman still trying to figure out my identity and the amount of knowledge and perspective he had to share was truly transformative,” she said. “On top of that, I took African American studies classes, which I never really had a chance to do. Having the opportunity to learn about black history, art, and culture at UC Berkeley was something so special to me as a freshman.”

A precocious student

Character is a native of Gretna, Louisiana, just east of New Orleans. As a second-grader, before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, her family packed up their SUV and fled Gretna for her grandmother’s house in Georgia.

“I still have a vivid memory of us sitting in hours of traffic just to get past the toll gates because there were so many people leaving,” she said.

*Mia Character accepting an award in elementary school.*

Character, who was always a precocious student, moved often throughout her childhood, until her family settled in Redlands, CA.

At Redlands High School, there were some black students, she recalled, “but a lack of black students in the AP system,” she said, so she stuck with her choir friends and took AP courses. She recalls her junior year in particular, in which she took AP history with her first black male teacher. “He would teach us about slavery and black history and I appreciated the authenticity that he brought and taught, but at times it felt like that he had to joke about it to lighten the mood and make sure the other students weren’t uncomfortable, which was always frustrating to me.”

*Mia Character (right) with her best friend, Frances James. Both are campus diversity advocates.*

At Berkeley, Character, a double major in Business Administration and Media Studies, joined the Haas Undergraduate Black Business Association (HUBBA), and is a member of RISE, an undergraduate admissions program that encourages underrepresented minorities at UC Berkeley to apply to Haas.

She’s also a former house manager of Afro House, an eleven-bedroom cooperative in the Berkeley Hills where she lived her sophomore year.

A tight-knit community

Being at Cal has finally allowed her to find pride in and embrace her blackness, she said. “I really appreciate all that I have learned and how it has made me proud to be me,” she said.

While the black community at Berkeley is small, about 3 percent, it is very tight knit, she said. “I’ll go to class and there won’t be anyone who looks like me, and as much as this bothers me, I know that I have a community I can go to at the end of the day,” she said. “Being at Haas with my best friend, Frances James, who is also a business major, has been amazing because I know that I will have someone who shares a similar experience to confide in both on a personal and academic level.”

Character says her experiences have allowed her to get comfortable with speaking her mind, too. “I will say what needs to be said, no matter how uncomfortable it may make others feel,” she said. “I feel comfortable with speaking my mind, so I’m going to speak up when I have the opportunity. We have to speak up and share our different perspectives in order to learn from one another.”

Character, (center), is executive of internal affairs for the Haas Undergraduate Black Business Association. — *Mia Character (front, center) is executive of internal affairs for the Haas Undergraduate Black Business Association.*

Honoring Black History Month: Jason Atwater’s search for his enslaved ancestors

February 6, 2019| by Kim Girard

*Jason Atwater with his mother and sister at Berry Hill Plantation.*

In honor of Black History Month, we’re running a series of profiles and Q&As with members of the African-American community at Haas. Follow the series throughout February here.

Curiosity fueled MBA student Jason Atwater’s bittersweet journey to uncover the history of his enslaved ancestors—and to walk the grounds of the Virginia plantation where they once lived.

“I always wanted to find out more about my family’s history,” said Atwater, a member of the 2019 class of the Berkeley MBA for Executives program, who grew up in Pennsylvania. “I thought it would be amazing if I could track down one of my enslaved ancestors, but I thought it would also be so unlikely because of the lack of information that was available.”

After five years of tracing his family tree on both sides, Atwater hit a research wall—specifically, the year 1870, when formerly enslaved people were listed by their names for the first time in the U.S. Census. But a lucky break came in 2017, when a distant cousin provided new information on Ancestry.com, where Atwater works as a digital marketing manager. Atwater had earlier registered his own DNA on Ancestry.

*Jason Atwater touring the mansion at Berry Hill.*

Along with a name—Matt Duncan—the cousin included a copy of a ledger, written by the owner of Berry Hill Plantation in Halifax County, Va. Atwater recognized Matt Duncan’s name: He was his two-times maternal grandfather. The ledger also included the names of Matt’s parents, Darby and Lucy Duncan. “It had their actual names, which was amazing,” Atwater said.

“This wave of emotion”

Darby Duncan, Atwater discovered, worked as first chef to the plantation owner, who at the time was the third wealthiest man in Virginia, owning 3,600 acres, and was a personal friend of Thomas Jefferson.

After an article about Atwater’s experience ran on the Ancestry.com blog, the company’s creative team suggested accompanying him to the plantation to document the experience. Atwater, along with his mother and sister, traveled with a film crew to Virginia in August 2017.

Watch a video of Atwater’s journey to Berry Hill Plantation with his mother and sister.

A list of enslaved people at Berry Hill, including Jason Atwater's ancestors. — *A ledger of enslaved people at Berry Hill, including Jason Atwater’s ancestors.*

“It’s almost hard to describe how many emotions I was feeling simultaneously, driving up and getting out of the car and looking at the plantation and seeing how enormous it was—the mansion, the giant columns,” Atwater says in the video, as the family arrives at Berry Hill. “It was just overwhelming. I could just feel this wave of emotion, almost like being in the water when waves hit you, one wave at a time. Each wave was a different emotion. It was fear and sadness and happiness and anger, all just kept washing over me.”

The family toured the Greek Revival style mansion and a preserved stone building that served as slaves’ quarters—one of few that are still standing on the property. They also walked through Diamond Hill Cemetery, where more than 200 slaves are buried among unmarked stones. “All I could think about is that they’re here, they’re buried, but no one knows who they are,” Atwater said.

(The estate, which is now a conference and event center, was named a National Historic Landmark in 1969.)

A Darby cooking gene?

During a stop at Darby’s Tavern, a restaurant on the grounds that is named for Darby Duncan, Atwater touched a large metal pot that Darby used for cooking. Atwater learned that he had been sent to New Orleans to study creole cooking—and was considered a top chef of his time. In the midst of being an enslaved person, Darby had some autonomy, Atwater said.

“I tried to put myself in his position. What was his life like? Was he treated well?” Atwater says as he walks through the tavern in the video.

A stop at Darby's Tavern, to honor Darby Duncan. — *A stop at Darby’s Tavern, to honor Darby Duncan.*

Cooking, he noted, is a passion shared by his entire family. “We inherited that from Darby Duncan,” he said. “The cooking gene.”

While in Virginia, Atwater also traveled to the Special Collections Library at University of Virginia in Charlottesville to view the Berry Hill Plantation ledger in person.

Atwater, who is co-vice president of diversity for the EMBA class, has shared his story with classmates, and encourages other African Americans to overcome any fear or shame they may feel in tracing their enslaved ancestors.

“It’s been a great experience, just so amazing to be there and connect with a piece of my family’s history,” Atwater said. “Complete strangers have written me about how the story touched them, and that’s led them to research their own families.”

Honoring Black History Month: Evan Wright, MBA 20, on growing up in D.C.

February 4, 2019| by Kim Girard

In honor of Black History Month, we’re running a series of profiles and Q&As with members of the African-American community at Haas. Follow the series throughout February here.

We kick off our series with an interview with first-year MBA student Evan Wright, a Washington, D.C. native who is VP of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the MBA Association student government.

Berkeley Haas News: Tell us about where you grew up.

Washington, D.C., primarily in Southeast Washington, DC, which is a predominantly black and low-income part of the city. When I grew up in D.C., it was still a majority black city and the black community there was solidly middle class. I grew up in a famously progressive church, the People’s Congregational United Church of Christ, which had a strong social justice component. My pastor’s father-in-law was Andrew Young, who was famous for being a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a part of the civil rights movement. I’m not very religious but I think growing up in that church where there were black lawyers, judges, black doctors, people living paycheck to paycheck, and manual laborers, I saw the full spectrum of what black people could be and how our lives could be anything—and I had a very strong social justice founding that very much influenced how I thought about myself as a black person.

Evan Wright with his mother. — *Evan Wright with his mother on Easter Sunday in 1993.*

What was your experience growing up black in your community?

Being low-income in D.C. meant that I had access to things that low-income black children in other cities didn’t have access to: free museums, summer programming, (former Mayor) Marion Barry’s program to give stipends for unpaid internships in the government allowed me to have government internships and get a bus and train pass to get to and from. Growing up in D.C. I had access to so much opportunity that I’m very thankful for. At the same time, I also grew up in D.C. in the 1990s during the war on drugs. I have had—and my family members have had—negative interactions with police from very early on. I had to very early on think about my physical safety coming to and from home in a way that other children I went to school with later on didn’t have to think about.

Was Black History Month a big part of your childhood?

Very much so. It was a very big event in my church. We would have people from leftist political movements, we’d do interfaith dialogues between the Jewish community and the Muslim community in the area. It was a very progressive education and we dove deep.

Who are some black historical leaders/writers who have impacted your life?

My favorite book my senior year was Revolutionary Suicide, written by Huey P. Newton, the famous leader of the Black Panthers. James Baldwin’s book The Fire Next Time was one of my favorites—just thoughtful in the way he can seamlessly talk about race, sexual identity, gender, and religion, and in all the ways that he interacts with being a black person in America.

MLK and Malcolm X at a brief meeting before the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. — Wright admires both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, pictured at a brief meeting before the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Photo: U.S. News & World Report collection at the Library of Congress.

More than anyone else, I admire MLK and Malcolm X and I think both of them are much closer in ideology then they are seen to be in popular culture, where they are often whitewashed. Both of them were very critical of capitalist structures and arguably anti-capitalist, which I think is also something that people never talk about. Malcolm X had a quote that “you can’t have capitalism without racism” and King spoke and wrote about the “evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism.” King wasn’t a pacifist; he was a strategic, non-violent activist, which is very different.

What do you wish others knew about what it means to be black in the U.S.?

Growing up black in the United States is to constantly be told that you aren’t part of the group, that you’re somehow removed. You are told by the justice system, by the educational system, by all of these institutions that we hold up to be important, implicitly or explicitly, that you’re not an American, that you’re not a part of society. I don’t think that I could have expressed this idea until I went abroad to Singapore after graduation. I was there for a year and a half and I had Singaporeans come up to me and say, ‘Oh, where in Africa are you from?’ Their conception of what an American is is a white person, so I had to often say, ‘I’m African American. I’m an American.’ That was my first time having to assert my American identity.

Evan Wright (top, left) with friends at the 2019 Haasquerade ball. — *Evan Wright (top, left) with fellow MBAs at the 2019 Haasquerade Ball.*

Berkeley MBA for Executives grads urged to embrace adversity, “go beyond yourself”

January 30, 2019| by Kim Girard

"Think every day about how you can go beyond yourself," Dean Harrison told the graduates. — *“Think every day about how you can go beyond yourself,” Dean Harrison told the graduates. (Left to right) Audrey Ng, Katherine Mlika, Shalaka Kharche, and Rohini Panjrath. All photos: Jim Block*

Be open to risk, embrace adversity, and go beyond yourself were inspiring messages delivered to 69 students in the Berkeley MBA for Executives (EMBA) Class of 2018 who graduated last Saturday.

“We live in challenging times,” said commencement speaker Tootie Tatum, EMBA 15, CEO of Blackhawk Genomics. “There’s no shortage of tribalism, cynicism, or discord. You are truly empowered to change that tide in the world because if you don’t, who will?”

At a ceremony packed with students’ friends and family in Hertz Hall, Dean Ann Harrison praised the class for persevering through 19 months of a rigorous management and leadership curriculum—all the while managing demanding jobs, and maintaining active family and social lives.

“Many of you traveled long distances to take classes,” said Harrison, who presided over her first commencement as new dean. “This wasn’t always easy. Finding ways to balance all of these commitments is nothing short of remarkable, and we applaud you. After this, you can accomplish anything.”

Dean Harrison with Valedictorian Jim Griffin. — *Dean Harrison with Valedictorian Jim Griffin who “excelled in the program and encouraged others to excel as well.”*

Jessica LaBounty, chosen as the class student speaker, described the support that her classmates provided each other. “Our cohort family has become a new and powerful kind of mirror,” she said. “In this mirror, we have the opportunity to see ourselves not as our families see us, not as our work colleagues see us, and certainly not as we see ourselves. This Haas mirror has the remarkable ability of showing us who we are capable of being. This mirror, this faith we have in each other, is full of optimism and bravery.”

Together, the group experienced the Haas School’s unique brand of experiential learning, which comprises 25 percent of the curriculum. At the heart of this EMBA format are five immersive learning experiences led by Haas faculty on location: leadership communications in Napa, applied innovation in San Francisco, entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, business and corporate social responsibility in Copenhagen, and policy in Washington DC.

Distinguished Teaching Fellow Veselina Dinova received the Earl F. Cheit Award For Excellence In Teaching for her instruction.

“In (the course) Financial Information Analysis, Veselina made the fine print of financial statements come alive with her infectious enthusiasm for this characteristically dry topic,” Jay Stowsky, senior dean of instruction, said before presenting the award.

The award for outstanding graduate student instructor went to Auyon Siddiq, who was the GSI for Prof. Lucas Davis’ Data & Decisions course.

Grads were surrounded by friends and family at Saturday's EMBA commencement. — *Graduates were surrounded by friends and family at Saturday’s commencement.*

Stowsky also delivered the Valedictorian Award to Jim Griffin. “Our valedictorian award goes beyond celebrating the student with the highest GPA,” he said. “It also celebrates the student who excels in an intense and accelerated environment. Not only did Jim excel in the program—he encouraged others to excel as well.”

The ceremony included Haas’ Defining Leadership Principles Awards, which went to Michael Guimarin (Question the Status Quo), Kate Mansalis & Ron Sasaki (Confidence Without Attitude), Jim Griffin (Students Always), and Laura Hassner (Beyond Yourself). A 5th Principle award, for embodying all four principles while always choosing graciousness, went to Wendi Chiong and Brian Tajo.

Tatum, who holds a PhD in biomedical sciences and has made her mark in genomics, urged graduates to be open to risk, and welcome adversity with open arms. But she also noted that there’s a safety net available to them if they fall.

EMBA Class of 2018 — *The EMBA 2018 Class*

“Know that this Haas fellowship that you are now a part of is for a lifetime,” she said. “Everyone here who has come before you, we are really your safety net.”

Harrison closed the ceremony with a reflection on Martin Luther King Jr.

“Think every day about how you can go beyond yourself,” she said. “In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrated on Monday: ‘Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?'”

Chris Larocca and Trevor Buehl chaired this year’s EMBA student campaign, raising almost $60,000 to support faculty and student excellence at Haas.

Undergrads tie for win at National Diversity Case Competition

January 28, 2019| by Kim Girard

(L-R) Advisor Mary Balangit with undergraduate students Alec Li, Claudia Diaz, Kiara Taylor, and Frances James. — *(L-R) Mary Balingit, undergraduate assistant director of admissions, advised the National Diversity Case Competition winners Alec Li, Claudia Diaz, Kiara Taylor, and Frances James. Photo: Jim Block*

A plan to build an inclusive new small-format Target store in Oakland netted a Haas undergraduate team a first-place tie with the host school at The National Diversity Case Competition (NDCC). The 8th annual event was held at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business Jan. 18-19.

The Team: Team captain Claudia Diaz, BS 19, Kiara Taylor, Alec Li, and Frances James, all BS 20. The team’s advisor was Mary Balingit, assistant director of admissions & outreach for the undergraduate programs, and the undergraduate lead for inclusion & diversity. Faculty coaches were Haas Lecturers Steve Etter and Krystal Thomas, along with Erika Walker, assistant dean of the undergraduate program.

The Field: 168 undergraduates from 42 business schools around the country, competing for a total of $20,000 in prize money.

The Challenge: Choose a neighborhood and develop a strategy for the location, design, and merchandising of a new small-format Target store, as well as address ways to help the community integrate Target into their neighborhood. Target asked the students to consider community engagement, marketing, the supply chain, delivery options, finance & logistics, and diversity & inclusion.

The team’s plan: To build a small-format Target in downtown Oakland, called The Town’s Target, with a locally-owned café to be operated by a local food entrepreneur. The cafe would double as an incubator—a residency program that would allow that local entrepreneur to build clientele and develop an exit strategy to launch a business at the end of two years, at which time a new entrepreneur would take over the café. The café would include a mural painted by an Oakland artist collective, and a community space for local social justice organizations to meet. Electronic lockers in the store would house customer’s hot lunches or purchases and be accessible to people with disabilities and farmer’s market produce would be delivered daily, along with locally sourced products, like coffee, chocolate, and apparel.

Presenting their case at Indiana University — *Frances James (speaking) and the undergrad team presenting at Indiana University’s Kelley School.*

What made them winners: Storytelling, originality, and depth of content. Competition judge Zain Kaj, CFO of GE Global Supply Chain at GE Healthcare, said the team’s ideas were “creative and delivered with passion and a genuine sense of inclusion and celebrated what the weekend was all about.”

The competition provided the perfect platform for the team “to showcase how we’re living our culture out loud,” Walker said. “The Defining Leadership Principles were in full effect and I’m so proud of the team for its authentic approach and positive energy. It’s a well deserved win!”

James opened the team’s 15-minute presentation in a unique way—with spoken words.

Oakland
The land of culture, the home to change
The Brown Berets carried the torch for Chicano freedom
Black Liberation ignited
The voices of Malcolm X and Angela Davis heard loud and clear—they called for more
Oscar Grant killed, a flawed police force at fault
Black Lives Matter, they yelled, Black Lives Matter!
Tupac preached about changes, America needs change
Said forgive but don’t forget, always keep your head up
All of these voices came to form the Oakland we know
But it has become so much more…

A collage included in the undergrad students' presentation. — *Alec Li’s collage included in the student’s presentation was an homage to Oakland’s rich history.*

Li designed a stunning visual presentation, with collages representing Oakland’s rich history. “We hit every emotion,” he said. “We made them laugh, and made them cry.” Taylor had great command and presence in the room, Balingit said.

The secret sauce: Diaz’s slow and steady delivery of her personal story of growing up in a low-income community in South Central Los Angeles—a food desert, she said, where your choices were either “McDonalds or Jack in the Box because there were no fresh strawberries or apples.” A Haas senior and a social justice warrior, Diaz served as team captain, and “the person who had to rally everyone together,” Taylor said.

The Haas Factor: Questioning the status quo. When the students read the case they boiled it down to one word: gentrification. Then they focused on Oakland, and how gentrification has impacted the city. That led them on a tour of Oakland with Balingit, where they drove past shuttered mom and pop stores and discussed the homeless problem and how lower income people were priced out. They decided that every aspect of their case must prioritize inclusion and the needs of the community. The approach was very “Berkeley,” Balingit said, referring to the focus on social justice.

Alec Li, Mary Balingit, Claudia Diaz, Frances James, and Kiara Taylor in Indiana. — *Alec Li, Mary Balingit, Claudia Diaz, Frances James, and Kiara Taylor take a break in Indiana.*

Most memorable experience from the competition: A standing ovation from the crowd. “We could not get out of that building when we were done,” Taylor said. “We were literally held back.” At that moment, James said, “we knew we had made an impact.”

The students got to bring their whole authentic selves to the competition, Balingit said. “They brought such a fresh, innovative and risky approach but still won the hearts of everyone there,” she said. And another fun outcome: they all finish each other’s sentences now—and might just be friends for life.

Dean Harrison to share her vision for Haas

January 23, 2019| by Kim Girard

<em>Haas Dean Ann Harrison. Photo: Noah Berger</em> — *Haas Dean Ann Harrison. Photo: Noah Berger*

Dean Ann E. Harrison will share her priorities for her first 90 days in a discussion with former Dean Laura Tyson to kick off the spring Dean’s Speaker Series next month.

The event, planned during the anniversary week of the Haas Defining Leadership Principles, will be held Tuesday, Feb. 5, at 12:30pm in Chou Hall’s Spieker Forum.

It’s the 9^th anniversary of the principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always and Beyond Yourself, four phrases that have come to be widely associated with Berkeley Haas.

In conversation with Tyson, Harrison will share her vision for Haas, her take on the Defining Leadership Principles, and her leadership approach.

Harrison began her tenure as Haas dean this month. The former William H. Wurster Professor of Multinational Management and Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Harrison has a deep Berkeley history. She earned her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley with a double major in economics and history in 1982. She also served as a professor of Berkeley’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics from 2001 to 2011.

A Q&A will follow the talk, which will be posted after the event on the DSS web page.

Registration is required for the free event, which is open to the Haas community and invited guests.

Doors will open at noon and a light lunch will be served.

Upcoming events in the Dean’s Speaker Series include:

Laurene Powell Jobs

(First Annual Chris Boskin Deans’ Speaker Series in Business and Journalism)
A conversation with Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder and President of Emerson Collective

Thursday, February 7
12:30-1:30pm
Spieker Forum

David Aaker

Professor Emeritus, Haas School of Business

Tuesday, March 5
12:30-1:30pm
Spieker Forum

First student-authored Berkeley Haas Sustainability Report debuts

January 22, 2019| by Kim Girard

L-R: Shane Puthuparambil, Berklee Welsh, & Tim Tembrink. — *L-R: Shane Puthuparambil, Berklee Welsh, & Tim Tembrink of the HBSA Sustainability Committee.*

Chou Hall uses about half as much water per square foot as other Haas buildings. All of Cafe Think’s coffee grounds are used as garden compost by UC Berkeley’s Gill Tract Farms. And Haas students print 77,000 pages—or about four tons—of paper annually.

Those are just a few facts unearthed in the first-ever student-authored Berkeley Haas Sustainability Report, published this week by the Haas Business School Association’s (HBSA) Sustainability Committee. The report is a sweeping overview of where the school stands with its sustainability efforts in its buildings, classrooms, and centers.

“This was our way of going beyond ourselves to give back to our business school,” said Tim Tembrink, BS 19 and vice president of sustainability for the HBSA. Tembrink worked on the report with Berklee Welsh, BS 20, and Shane Puthuparambil, BS 22, (environmental science and business.) “Writing the report was a journey from the beginning to the end of the semester,” Tembrink said. “We spoke to every single person we could find and everybody was so interested in the report and interested in helping us.”

Tembrink said he hopes that the 25-page report will be used for internal purposes or for Haas to showcase its sustainability-related initiatives outside of Haas.

Taking a leadership role

Robert Strand, executive director of the Center for Responsible Business, and Prof. Laura Tyson, former Haas dean and the faculty director for the Institute for Business & Social Impact (IBSI), commended the students for their work. “We stand at a critical point in history,” they wrote in a letter published with the report. “The sustainability challenges confronting the world are significant and mounting faster than anticipated. Berkeley Haas is well positioned to assume a leadership role among business schools to address these challenges and leverage the power of business to drive positive change.”

The report includes details of energy, waste diversion, and water use in different campus buildings—including Cheit Hall, the Barbara & Gerson Bakar Student Services Building, and the Faculty Building, with a special focus on Chou Hall, which was just certified as the greenest business school building in the country. Chou Hall recently earned TRUE Zero Waste certification at the highest possible level along with a LEED Platinum certification for its energy efficient design and operation.

The team worked closely with UC Berkeley campus groups to collect data on energy and water use, waste diversion, and supplies usage. UC Berkeley’s Energy Office, for one, has developed an energy dashboard to help monitor energy use anomalies across campus. (Haas is aligned with new campus-wide energy goals, include reducing energy use intensity by 2% annually, adding renewable solar energy, and shifting to 100 percent clean electricity from off-campus sources.)

Gathering the data

Welsh said the most difficult part of the project was compiling information across the U.C. Berkeley campus and beyond. “From accessing individual water meter data, to interviewing Cafe Think staff, facilities managers, and more, we found that no single individual had access to all of the information we needed,” she said.

Writing the report was of particular interest to Tembrink, who is launching a line of women’s clothing called Foundationals this spring. Foundationals’ first product, a sweater to be sold on the company’s website, aligns with Tembrink’s commitment to the environment. It’s made from 48 percent recycled water bottles and 52 percent recycled cotton. It will also be produced in a LEED-Platinum certified factory in Vietnam. “It’s a dream factory,” he said. “With regards to human rights and labor standards this factory was amazing.”

After Tembrink and his team graduates, they hope that the sustainability report will serve as a benchmark—and that future HBSA students will update the work annually.

“By compiling data in one place, we hope to provide students, staff, and faculty with a clear understanding of where Haas excels, and areas in which we need to improve in order to remain leaders in the fields of sustainability and business,” Welsh said.

Full-time MBA Program ranked #7 by Financial Times

January 28, 2019| by Kim Girard

The Full-time Berkeley MBA Program again ranks #7 among US schools and #10 in the world, according to the Financial Times Global MBA ranking published today.

Haas faculty research ranked #9 in the world and #7 among US schools.

The ranking is based on data provided by participating schools and input from alumni who graduated in 2015, which accounts for 55% of the ranking.

Strong alumni salaries are a factor in the Haas School’s showing. Haas alumni recorded the 4th highest weighted salaries in the world and 8th highest salaries today. (Weighted salaries refers to the average alumni salary three years after graduation, US$ PPP equivalent, with adjustment for variations between sectors). These two salary components account for 40% of the ranking.

Haas, tied with Michigan Ross, scored the highest in aims achieved with 91% alumni reporting that their MBA achieved their aims.

In the top special categories, determined by the alumni survey, Haas ranks as follows:
#2 in corporate social responsibility

#3 for entrepreneurship

#3 in e-business

View the full report.

Alumna Eleni Kounalakis’ rise to lieutenant governor

January 22, 2019| by Kim Girard

<em>Eleni Kounalakis, California's 50th Lt. Governor, at her Jan. 7 inauguration at Tsakopoulos Library Galleria in Sacramento. Photo: Drew Altizer</em> — *Eleni Kounalakis, California’s 50th Lt. Governor, at her Jan. 7 inauguration at Tsakopoulos Library Galleria in Sacramento. Photo: Drew Altizer*

The Haas alumni community can now count California’s first elected female lieutenant governor among its ranks, after Eleni Kounalakis, MBA 92, took the helm on Jan. 7.

Kounalakis became the state’s 50^th lieutenant governor at a crowded ceremony attended by newly minted Governor Gavin Newsom, who swore her in, and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. Serving as master of ceremonies was former Michigan governor and UC Berkeley alumna Jennifer Granholm, BA 84 (political science).

“I’m thrilled that the first woman to be elected as lieutenant governor is a Berkeley MBA,” said Peter Johnson, assistant dean of the full-time MBA program and admissions, who met Kounalakis while he was living and working in Budapest and she was serving as former President Barack Obama’s U.S. ambassador to Hungary.

Johnson said he was always impressed by her leadership.

“Her ability to question the status quo, even in the traditional role of ambassador, made her stand out among the diplomats serving in Hungary,” he said. “I know she’ll bring that same savvy and enthusiasm to the office of lieutenant government.”

Eleni Kounalakis (middle) surrounded by Haas alumni and community (including former Dean Rich Lyons and Peter Johnson, assistant dean of full-time MBA program and admissions, at a 2011 event held at the Ambassador’s residence in Budapest in 2011. — Eleni Kounalakis (middle) surrounded by Haas alumni and community (including former Dean Rich Lyons and Peter Johnson, assistant dean of full-time MBA program and admissions) at a 2011 event held at the Ambassador’s residence in Budapest in 2011.

No greater investment than education

In her new role, Kounalakis will have a hand in guiding the future of UC Berkeley, as a member of the UC Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees. During her inauguration speech, Kounalakis said she would focus on protecting California’s environment and fight for accessibility and affordability in public education.

“Civilized societies recognize that the path to wisdom is through education and that’s very personal to me,” she said.

She recounted her father’s journey to America from his village in Greece as a teen.

With no money or English skills, her father landed in Lodi, Ca., working as a field hand and attending Sacramento State for just $62 per semester, including the cost of books, she said.

“Think about that: $62 a semester. One job, no loans,” she said. “How else could he have gone from the fields to the classroom?” Her father, Angelo Tsakopoulos, worked his way up from the fields to become one of the state’s largest land developers and Democratic donors.

There is no greater investment in the future of our state than investing in education, she said. “As your lieutenant governor and in my role as UC regent and CSU trustee, I am committed to expanding access to public education here in our state. It is wise. It is smart. It’s the right thing to do. And it is most important now as we face the rapidly changing digital economy.”

“What it looks like for a woman to ‘lean in'”

Kounalakis was born and raised in Sacramento. After earning her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, she earned an MBA at Berkeley Haas. Dan Sullivan, senior director of academics at Haas, met Kounalakis during the program’s orientation in 1990.

“The Class of 1992 was full of strong personalities, but Eleni stood out immediately,” he said. “She was just delightful: bright, engaging, and super high energy. And she was always warm, kind, and thoughtful towards even the most junior members of the staff, as I was at that time.”

Kounalakis spent 18 years helping to build her father’s Northern California real estate company, AKT Development Corp. In 1992, she became a staff member of the California Democratic Party and she served four times as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and as an at-large member of the California State Democratic Central Committee.

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former US embassador to Hungary. — *Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis was former US ambassador to Hungary under President Obama.*

At AKT, where she served as president, she helped raised more than $1 million for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign before backing former President Barack Obama.

In 2010, her career shifted focus, as she was sworn in as former President Obama’s U.S. ambassador to Hungary. At 43, she was one of the youngest women to head a U.S. embassy at a time when Hungary was grappling with the rise of nationalism and antisemitism.

She recounts her family’s story and her experience as a diplomat in the 2015 book Madam Ambassador: Three Years of Diplomacy, Dinner Parties, and Democracy in Budapest. In a review, Janet Napolitano, UC President and former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, wrote “If you want to know what it looks like for a woman to ‘lean in,’ read Ambassador Kounalakis’s book. It is an inspiring example of a businesswoman-turned-diplomat taking every opportunity to effectively advance the interests, values, and security of our country.”

Ted Janus, BA 83, MBA 94, and principal at J Capital, who has known Kounalakis for 20 years and serves with her on the Haas School Board, said it’s no surprise to him that she won the election.

Both Kounalakis and her husband, journalist Markos Kounalakis, BS 78 (political science), a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, view themselves as public servants and elected office was “a natural extension of what Kounalakis has been doing all along,” he said.

“She’s incredibly hard working,” Janus said, noting the 58-county listening tour she embarked on during her campaign. “She’s an excellent communicator and she’s very capable at business, capable in politics, and a very capable ambassador. I think she’s a winner and she’s just getting started.”

Chou Hall certified as country’s greenest academic building

January 11, 2019| by Kim Girard

Chou Hall is officially the country’s greenest academic building, having earned TRUE Zero Waste certification at the highest possible level along with a LEED Platinum certification for its energy efficient design and operation.

The TRUE Platinum Zero Waste certification came after more than a year of dedicated waste sorting, composting, and other efforts to divert over 90 percent of Chou’s landfill waste. The official notice came from Green Business Certification Inc. (GBSI) on Dec. 20, following an on-site audit by the U.S. Green Building Council.

“The whole team is beyond excited to lead the way with the country’s greenest academic building,” said Danner Doud-Martin, the staff lead of the Haas Zero Waste Initiative and associate director of the International Business Development (IBD) Program at Haas. “It’s been such a journey—more than two years of trying to get all of our stakeholders on board with behavioral changes. It’s been a significant challenge, but we are so proud of all that we’ve accomplished.”

“A mark of leadership”

The Chou Hall Zero Waste Initiative is a joint effort led by a multidisciplinary team of graduate and undergraduate students working closely with Cal Zero Waste, Haas faculty and staff, facilities management, and building vendors to ensure that building operations are designed for successful waste diversion.

“Zero waste is a culture change for organizations and we’re thrilled to see that Berkeley Haas students, faculty, and staff have wholeheartedly committed to it,” said Stephanie Barger, director of TRUE at the U.S. Green Business Council. “TRUE certification is a mark of leadership and ongoing commitment to advancing a zero-waste economy.” About 25 percent of the more than 100 TRUE-certified facilities have achieved TRUE Platinum, Barger said. Chou Hall is the only academic building to achieve the honor.

Danner Doud-Martin at a recent Chou Hall zero waste audit. — *Staff lead Danner Doud-Martin (right) with Michelle La of Cal Zero Waste at a recent Chou Hall zero waste audit*.

During their December visit, the final step toward certification, the Green Building Council interviewed stakeholders involved with the project—including Courtney Chandler, Haas chief strategy and operating officer, former Haas COO Jo Mackness, and Haas Management Lecturer Frank Schultz, among others.

Separately, GBCI also announced this month that Chou received LEED Platinum certification for its architectural design, construction, and functioning of the building, earning 85 points—well above the 80 points required for the Platinum rating. Points are allotted in areas such as water efficiency, energy use, construction materials used, indoor environmental quality, and design innovation. Haas is also pursuing a third designation, WELL certification, given to buildings that promote user health and well-being.

“Going for all three certifications at the highest level is incredibly ambitious,” Chandler said. “With WELL certification we hope to achieve a trifecta. We are so proud of the work that everyone has done to make Chou Hall the greenest academic building in the country, and we hope that our work will inspire and guide all of the UC campuses and other institutions across the country.”

“A wonderful confirmation”

TRUE Zero Waste certification levels include Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. To achieve TRUE Platinum, the Chou team earned 69 out of the 70 credits that they applied for, providing a narrative and evidence for each credit. Credits included everything from composting food scraps to tracking the purchase of environmentally preferred products to providing employees with access to zero-waste training to reducing the use of hazardous waste chemicals.

*Student team lead Jessica Heiges sorting trash during the recent Zero Waste audit.*

Jessica Heiges, the Chou Hall Zero Waste Initiative student lead and a candidate for the Master’s of Development Practice program at the College of Natural Resources, called the certification “a wonderful confirmation that the enormous amount of hours that the community devoted toward the effort was finally validated.”

“This was a very difficult initiative because we are the first ones to go through it,” she said. “There were no best practices, no industry trends that we could fall back on or implement with our eyes closed. We had to address every single credit and the underlying motivation behind each credit, and had to go through it in a much more meticulous manner because it was all brand new.”

With the certification earned, Doud-Martin said the committee will now draft a “best practices” manual as a guide for other UC campus buildings that want to follow in Haas’ footsteps. Heiges said she’s excited to meet with other groups on campus to share what they’ve learned.

A shift toward reusing and reducing

The zero waste certification process began as soon as Connie & Kevin Chou Hall opened to students in August 2017.

“We initiated the TRUE Zero Waste certification for Chou Hall as our beacon to demonstrate that zero waste is definitely achievable for the entire campus,” said Lin King, manager of Cal Zero Waste, which manages waste for all of campus and is aligned with the University of California’s commitment to move toward zero waste by 2020.

In August 2018, Haas participated in its third week-long TRUE Zero Waste audit. Waste audits—a messy, hands-on endeavor that requires separating compostable items like soiled paper towels and paper cups from recyclable cans and bottles. The audits are a required component to better understand the waste flow and provide a benchmark for improvement.

The team used audit data to make more zero-waste adjustments and recommendations, including working with Café Think and the Evening & Weekend MBA program to change student snack offerings to bulk items; implementing a program to donate Café Think’s coffee grounds to UC Berkeley’s Gill Tract Farm for garden compost, and replacing the bathrooms’ one-roll toilet paper dispensers with two-roll dispensers to conserve toilet paper. (Custodial staff are less likely to toss an almost-spent roll if there’s a second one in the dispenser, Doud-Martin said.)

Doud-Martin said the next phase will be to encourage a shift from recycling and composting toward reusing or reducing single-use items such as “to go” containers and coffee cups. One recent example is a pilot with Café Think, which allowed customers to put down a $1 deposit for a mason jar of overnight oats and yogurt that can be refilled at the cafe. “Our goals are mighty,” she said. “But this shift would align us with more of a true zero-waste model.”

Space dreams: Alum Frank Bunger’s quest to make space tourism a reality

January 10, 2019| by Kim Girard

Orion Span Space Station — *A prototype of the Aurora Space Station, which will host four guests and two crew traveling in low orbit.* (PRNewsfoto/Orion Span)

Frank Bunger, MBA 18, dreamed of space as a child. Today, he’s pursuing that dream as co-founder and CEO of Orion Span, a startup that plans to build the Aurora Space Station to launch travelers into space 200 miles above the earth’s surface by 2021.

Bunger, who started Orion Span as a Haas student, has a goal to raise $2 million by Feb. 5 on SeedInvest, an online investment service, so the company can begin building a prototype. The station will accommodate six people—two crew members and four guests, who will pay $12.5 million each for the 12-day trip. So far, 26 people have put down the $800,000 deposit.

We recently sat down to discuss Bunger’s space travel plans.

Berkeley Haas News: Tell me a little bit about your interest in space.

Frank Bunger: Space has been a passion of mine since I was a little boy. I was born in ’79 so I missed the Space Race. I remember being a little kid and reading in the history books about these journeys to the moon; I was like, “Wow! What an exciting time!” At that point, the 80s, it seemed like we were just on the cusp of creating this ecosystem in low-Earth orbit with the International Space Station and none of that came to pass because the costs were just far too astronomical for commercial endeavors to take root.

BHN: How did the idea for your startup happen?

FB: When I got to Haas I thought, “Okay, what could I do with the time I have left in this world and the skills I’ve learned as an entrepreneur to move this forward?” On the launch front, there are a lot of players like Space X that are attempting to significantly cut the price of launch and improve access to space. And in the destination business there is a field of players who were making things more expensive than they needed to be and then, by extension, they have to charge their customers more. That’s where I wanted to jump in first.

BHN: Who did you go to for help after you came up with the idea?

FB: When I came up with this concept in the summer of 2017 I started floating ideas. My first conversation was with a UC Berkeley faculty member who later became an advisor, Professor Tarek Zohdi from the mechanical engineering department. My first question to him was, “Can I 3-D print this whole thing, and just how cheaply can I build it?” Through many conversations, it turned out that we could probably 3-D print a good portion of it through known technologies. I eventually found some of the best people at NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston who have been in the industry for decades, who have done this before, who worked on the International Space Station, and told them what I had in mind. We started to slowly form a team.

BHN: So how much is it going to cost to build the station?

FB: NASA and other commercial entities are spending a lot themselves in order to make something operable. I knew that space travel could be done far, far more cheaply—$65 million to build the whole thing. It’s still relatively expensive, but compared to others, that is about an order of magnitude less than any of our competitors.

BHN: Why did you choose a low-Earth orbit destination?

FB: It’s just closer, so the amount of energy to reach that point is pretty much as low as it’s going to get to achieve orbit. So that’s one thing that keeps cost down on the launch front. Number two, you get awesome views. Lastly, the Earth’s magnetic field keeps you shielded from the Earth’s natural defenses.

BHN: What classes did you take at Berkeley Haas that helped you start Orion Span?

FB: Entrepreneurship lecturers Kurt Beyer and David Charron were extremely helpful. The venture capital class I took, too, helped while I was forming the company. And all the other classes around Haas helped, including some of the marketing courses—specifically strategic marketing. I asked the professor for advice many times and I think we really nailed it the marketing, at least at the get-go. We did a lot of things right early on.

BHN: How did classmates react to your business plan?

FB: I think some think I’m kooky and some think it’s cool. It’s a wide range.

BHN: What does the space station look like?

FB: It has the volume of a large, private jet—of a Gulfstream. It’s about 12-feet wide and 35- to 40-feet long, and cylindrically shaped because that’s what fits into a rocket. The key to a space like this is to keep it as open as possible so the guests sleep in these large-ish kind of sleeping pods. It’s kind of like a small cruise ship. I think that’s probably the best analogy.

BHN: What will your guests do once they’re up there?

FB: People want to feel what it’s like to be a professional astronaut. So they will spend a good part of it being citizen scientists. We want to grow food. And we’re also going to have just some fun activities. Even something as mundane as ping pong gets a lot more exciting in zero gravity because the ball goes everywhere, as does the paddle.

BHN: Do you worry that space travel is very elitist?

FB: Commercial aviation in the 1920s was a game for the rich. Space travel today is going to be a game for the rich. It will not be so forever. My goal is to make it accessible to everyone, but it takes time. The biggest bottleneck cost remains launch so until we see the price of launch come down, it’s going to remain something for the wealthy.

BHN: Will you go up with the first crew?

FB: I’ll go up within the first year but not first because if I go up, that’s 10s of millions of dollars we’re not making.

BHN: What do guests do to prepare to go?

FB: The minimum training time will be two weeks and the maximum will be three months, and we’re going to ultimately customize it per guest. The two-week training will be like diving training: you spend 80% of your time training on what to do in the unlikely event that things go wrong.

BHN: After the prototype is built, how much do you have to actually test it?

FB: A lot. The Space Act Agreement from NASA that provides access to facilities as well as know-how from their staff to test the hell out of the station launch. Our first milestone is to build a ground model, which is just going to be a demonstration that’s not flight-worthy. The second milestone is a scale model which will actually go up (empty with a payload) into orbit and serve as a test bed for us. The final step is to build the full-size space station. It goes through about a year of testing: vacuum chamber, pressure testing, materials testing, strength testing, all that kind of stuff, and NASA has facilities for doing that.

BHN: How do you get insurance for a business like this?

FB: There’s actually insurance companies out there that do this stuff, believe it or not. Yeah. They insure rockets and/or payloads, but we’ve already talked to two different providers that can insure this.

Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering Program ranks #2

January 23, 2019| by Kim Girard

The Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering Program ranks #2 in the world, according to a new ranking of the top 15 quant finance masters programs published by Risk.net on January 16.

Risk.net’s ranking is based on eight metrics, ranging from acceptance rate, job offers, and salaries to faculty research and faculty-student ratio. Particular weight was given to average graduate salaries — $159,402 for Haas MFE graduates — and a strong post-commencement employment rate — 99% of Haas MFEs.

View the full report.

In other reports, the Berkeley MFE is ranked #2 by QuantNet and #1 by TFE Times.

Strong job outcome for full-time MBA Class of 2018

December 10, 2018| by Kim Girard

<em>The job market is bright for the 2018 full-time MBA class. </em><em>Photo: Noah Berger</em> — *The job market is bright for the 2018 full-time MBA class.* *Photo: Noah Berger*

Salaries and sign-on bonuses remained strong for the Class of 2018, with a bump in the number of students landing jobs three months post-graduation.

About 93.4 percent of job seekers accepted offers within three months of graduation, with about 83 percent receiving job offers by graduation.

“This is just about as strong of a job market for MBAs that I’ve ever seen,” said Abby Scott, assistant dean of Career Management & Corporate Relations. “Salaries are up, thanks to stock options and bonuses. We’re really pleased with the employment success of this year’s class.”

Pay is solid this year for the class of 242 graduates, with average salaries of $127,571, up from $125,572 last year. Those salaries were topped off by an average sign-on bonus of $29,212. About seventy percent of the class received signing bonuses, and about 41 percent received stock options or grants.

Tech, consulting top sectors

Technology was again the most popular sector for new Berkeley MBAs, pulling in 32 percent of the graduates. Amazon, Google, and Adobe were among the top tech employers.

Gabriela Belo Soares, MBA 18, said she took a full-time job at Google in business operations and strategy for a number of reasons.

“I always admired the company’s trajectory and how it changed the way we use the internet, and I strongly identified with the company’s values and mission,” she said. “Tech companies are currently under massive scrutiny from users and the media and have a big pressure to keep up the high pace of growth and innovation. This environment is exciting and requires making smart decisions responsibly and quickly. That was what I was looking for.”

Meantime, 24 percent—or 44 students—took jobs in consulting, with McKinsey & Co., Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Bain & Co., Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and IDEO representing the top hiring firms in consulting.

Carina Serreze, MBA/MPH 17, who graduated in December, took a job as an associate with McKinsey—her first choice of the three offers she received.

“When it came down to it, I was choosing between a full-time offer at Genentech or a startup or McKinsey,” she said. What drove her decision was the opportunity to work across different healthcare verticals at McKinsey, where she also has more geographic flexibility (she now lives in Seattle and travels often to San Francisco).

“Consulting was an opportunity to go really broad,” she said.

New companies make list

Nearly 14 percent of grads took positions in finance, including fintech, up from 11.8 percent last year. Meantime, 14 graduates started companies, while 25 others went to startups in various industries.

New companies on the school’s top hiring list include EY Parthenon, IDEO, Kraft Heinz, and Tesla.

Maxwell Kushner-Lenhoff, MBA 18, said the work he did at Haas taught him many of the skills he needed to be successful in his current role as a global supply manager in battery materials at Tesla.

“I came back to Haas to get into cleantech and I discussed the work I did in the Cleantech to Market course during my interview process,” said Kushner-Lenhoff, who previously worked at the Dow Chemical Company. He is one of seven members of the Class of 2018 who went to work at Tesla.

Read the 2018 employment report.

Undergraduate program staff honored with two campus “Excellence in Advising” awards

December 10, 2018| by Kim Girard

<em>The undergraduate office team, clockwise from left: Erika Walker, Renee Camarena, Elinor Gregorio, Mary Ballingit, Karren Bautista Tanisaki, Dresden John, Barbara Felkins, and Sojourner Blair. Missing from photo: Dinko Lakic and Alessandra Fadeff.<br /> — The undergraduate office team, clockwise from left: Erika Walker, Renee Camarena, Elinor Gregorio, Mary Ballingit, Karren Bautista Tanisaki, Dresden John, Barbara Felkins, and Sojourner Blair. Missing from photo: Dinko Lakic and Alessandra Fadeff.

The Haas Undergraduate Office will be honored with two “Excellence in Advising” awards this week by UC Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor of Undergraduate Education.

Barbara Felkins, director of academic affairs for the Haas Undergraduate Program, will receive the Mary Slakey Howell Excellence in Advising Award, while Felkins and her undergraduate team will be separately honored for “Excellence in Advising.”

Both awards will be given during a Dec. 12 ceremony at the Banatao Auditorium in Sutardja Dai Hall from 4-6pm.

“It was a total surprise for me,” said Felkins, who has worked at Haas for 32 years. “It’s just amazing to receive an award for doing something that I love. Working with our students and helping them with their academics as well as their personal problems can be very challenging, but when I see them walk across the stage at our commencement ceremony it’s all worth it.”

“Excellent service and positive energy”

The award, named for the late Mary Slakey Howell, former director of advising and policy at the College of Engineering, is UC Berkeley’s highest for advising excellence. The awards are given annually across campus by the office of the Vice Chancellor of Undergraduate Education, Catherine P. Koshland. They recognize “the positive impact the office has had on student learning, performance, engagement, and progress and the many ways it contributes to a culture of advising excellence on campus.”

Dinko Lakic and Erika Walker at 2018 undergraduate commencement. — *Dinko Lakic and Erika Walker (with student) at 2018 undergraduate commencement*

The honored undergraduate team includes Felkins, Sojourner Blair, director of admissions; Karren Bautista Tanisaki, assistant director of academic & student services; Renee Camarena, assistant director of student services; Dresden John, student experience manager; Alessandra Fadeff, program manager, admissions; Mary Balingit, assistant director of admissions and outreach; Dinko Lakic, associate director of student services; and Elinor Gregorio, assistant director of academic affairs.

In her nomination form, Erika Walker, assistant dean of the Haas undergraduate program, said the team has “delivered excellent service with positive energy and passion” on a regular basis during a very busy year.

“The team’s applied leadership methods are geared toward helping students become independent learners and effective leaders,” Walker wrote. “I am proud to have a team that supports and advocates for students, and provides equitable service.”

She noted that the office has recently launched and supported multiple new programs, including the Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology (M.E.T.) program, a simultaneous degree between business and engineering; the BioBusiness simultaneous degree program with molecular and cellular biology; and a new Global Management Program (GMP) for freshmen that embeds global education into the undergraduate experience.

*Barbara Felkins, recipient of the Mary Slakey Howell Excellence in Advising Award.*

“We always put the student experience first,” Blair said. “I’m honored that the office is being recognized.”

A stellar graduation rate

Walker also nominated Felkins, who began her tenure at Haas as an assistant in Associate Dean David Alhadeff’s office, under former Dean Ray Miles.

“From the smallest innovations to crisis care management, it is because of Barbara that we have a 99 percent graduation rate of business majors,” Walker wrote in her recommendation letter.

In her current role, Felkins oversees student degree progress from admission until graduation, assisting students with class planning, academic, and personal issues. Felkins also works with the faculty, tracking student grades and advising on academic policies. Additionally, she oversees undergraduate commencement and the graduation reception and serves on campus-wide committees, including the Colleges and Schools Committee, Student Systems Policy Committee, and the Advising Operations and Advising Council.

In his nomination letter for Felkins, Jay Stowsky, senior assistant dean of instruction, called her the “longest serving and most deeply knowledgeable student affairs officer at Haas.”

“Her long tenure has been characterized by a unique ability to connect meaningfully and compassionately with individual undergraduate students while simultaneously enforcing fairness in a competitive and complex enrollment system,” Stowsky wrote.

*(Left to right) Lecturer Steve Etter with Sojourner Blair and Karren Bautista Tanisaki of the undergraduate program office*

Haas finance Lecturer Steve Etter commended Felkins for her attention to detail, knowledge of the university, and positive disposition with students.

“With ever-changing work and personal schedules, students often turn to Barbara for advice on choosing faculty, classes, and breadth requirements,” Etter wrote in his nomination letter. “I’ve heard so many times from students that Barbara was a life saver when it came to selecting classes and getting through the process.”

Adena Ishii, BS 14, recalled how Felkins helped her when her father was dying during her senior year at Haas, taking the time to sit and listen, and to make recommendations for resources she could access. “She wasn’t afraid to ask about my mental health and make sure that I was getting the help I needed,” she wrote in a recommendation for Felkins. “I wouldn’t have made it to graduation if it wasn’t for her.”

Haas Lecturer Krystal Thomas praised the office’s shift toward helping students with life preparation and management. As an example, she noted Walker’s support for Women’s Empowerment Day over the past six years, an event that brings 100 faculty-nominated students together annually to spend the day with more than a dozen senior business executives. The program evolved out of questions female students were asking about how to handle themselves in professional environments, Thomas said.

Support for the event represents a core tenant of the undergraduate office, Thomas noted: “If you see a problem, solve it.”

Cleantech to Market celebrates 10 years of success

November 29, 2018| by Kim Girard

Cleantech to Market co-founders Beverly Alexander and Brian Steel are celebrating the program's 10th year. — *Beverly Alexander and Brian Steel are celebrating the 10th year of the C2M program, which brings students together from across Berkeley to work with cleantech startups. Photo: Jim Block*

Jenny Bailey, MBA 19, sat in a circle with her Cleantech to Market team in Spieker Forum on Tuesday, talking about cyanobacteria. More specifically, how to sell them for use in skincare.

“I’m not sure we should call them skincare solutions,” Bailey said, as teammates weighed in on how to define a skincare product line for startup HelioBioSys, which has developed cost-effective ways to harvest and process the bacteria, commonly found in oceans.

The students are among six teams — comprising 20 MBA students and 11 graduate students from engineering, biology, law, and other Berkeley schools — who will present their findings and recommendations to more than 200 alumni, faculty, students, and industry professionals at the 10th annual Cleantech to Market (C2M) Symposium in Chou Hall on Friday. In addition to two awards decided by the audience, judges will also award a $5,000 C2M Cleantech Award, sponsored by Wells Fargo.

*Team HelioBioSys prepares for the Cleantech to Market Symposium. Photo: Jim Block*

The C2M program, launched a decade ago, pairs students with scientists to help push promising technologies to market. With CO2 levels the highest in human history, the need to develop viable clean tech startups has never been more critical, says director Bev Alexander. Alexander runs the program with co-director Brian Steel and C2M faculty member Bill Shelander, a trio affectionately known as “B3” for their first names.

“Cleantech to Market grew out of an environmental urgency and it’s only grown more urgent,” Alexander says. “We’re giving students so much freedom to innovate here at a time when California has put a stake in the ground as an antidote to shifting federal government priorities.”

Indeed, California is leading the way on renewables and sustainable energy initiatives, and Berkeley is an epicenter — with C2M an influential part of the ecosystem. Over the past decade, the program has paired more than 300 researchers and startup founders with student teams. C2M pays off for these clean tech companies, which have collectively raised more than $142 million and employ about 300 people, Alexander says.

More women leading teams

This year’s new crop of teams will add to that success, by pitching ways for startups to commercialize a variety of new technologies.

There’s Dauntless.io, which works on adaptive machine learning for multiple applications; Opcondys, which is focused on power switching using light instead of electricity; Mosaic Materials, which is building metal-organic frameworks for gas separation; Lucent Optics, which developed light-redirecting film for efficient natural lighting; and Treau, which makes lightweight heat exchangers to decarbonize heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC). Notably, half of the six student team leads this year are women, a program record. “I’m really encouraged and inspired by this,” says Bailey, who is a team lead.

Jahon Amir, MPP 19, a researcher at the Berkeley Lab and member of team — *Jahon Amir, MPP 19, a researcher at the Berkeley Lab, practices the presentation with his team, Opcondys. Photo: Jim Block*

Steel and Alexander have nurtured C2M from a small, student-led pilot connecting scientists at Lawrence Berkeley Lab with graduate students on campus, to a marquis program that’s forged tight alliances with state agencies like the California Energy Commission and federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Energy, top universities, and a network of incubators. “We’ve gone from a local pilot to a national pipeline,” Alexander says. “We used to go ask people at Lawrence Berkeley Lab if we could work on their technologies, and now we have people from all over the country applying for just six to eight slots in our program. Our alumni are among the ‘who’s who’ of this industry.” To date, more than 400 graduate students — paired with scientists and researchers throughout the 15-week program— have completed the C2M course.

Getting the technology out of the lab

Among the first was Brooks Kincaid, MBA 11, who co-founded battery technology storage startup Imprint Energy with UC Berkeley PhD student Christine Ho. It was one of the first startups to come out of C2M. “This was her technology, her baby,” Kincaid recalls. “She was pretty engaged and spent a lot of time with our team but had no concept of how to commercialize it.”

Kincaid, who had an engineering background, worked closely with Ho, and the pair gained some traction by the program’s end, along with a grant that enabled Ho to continue the work in her PhD lab. As president and CEO of Imprint, Kincaid focused on getting a license agreement in place, hiring the team, and getting seed money from Dow Chemical, a longtime C2M sponsor.

By the time Kincaid left Imprint Energy to pursue a finance career in 2014, the Alameda, Ca.-based company had raised about $9 million. “The technology made it out of the lab and survived,” he said. “But we’re also a good example of the time and energy and patience required to develop a cleantech innovation.”

*Team Mosaic meets with C2M faculty member Bill Shelander (left). Photo: Jim Block*

C2M was originally conceived as an extracurricular project by Lawrence Berkeley Lab and students in the Berkeley Energy Resources Collaborative, or BERC, a multidisciplinary student organization. Prof. Catherine Wolfram brought the pilot into the Energy Institute at Haas, hiring Alexander and Cyrus Wadia, now vice president of sustainable business & innovation at Nike, as the first faculty co-directors.

Students who led the way

Students who helped launch the program have gone on to their own cleantech industry success. They include Naveen Sikka, MBA 09, CEO of biofuel startup TerViva, which was named to the list of top 25 AgTech startups by Forbes for the past two years; Adam Lorimer, MBA 10, who co-founded Alphabet Energy in 2009; and Christy Martell, MBA 10, is now a sales lead at energy storage company Stem. Martell says she appreciated working on a diverse C2M team with students majoring in English and public health. As a C2M coach, she’s among more than 1,000 cleantech industry pros who have served as class speakers, mentors, subject matter experts, and interviewees over the past decade.

Mosaic's team lead Eric Kang, MBA 20 — *Mosaic’s team lead Eric Kang, MBA 20* *Photo: Jim Block*

“It’s so much more structured now, and so much more impactful for the students from a career perspective,” Martell says. “Bev and Brian and the team make sure the students get good exposure to the labs and the different technologies. And the level of research that goes into market plans — asking an open-ended question like, ‘Is this technology viable, and if so, in what market?’ and distilling that into a discrete plan — is so helpful for the students.”

The C2M annual cycle begins in January, when Steel, Alexander, and Shelander meet with leaders from the Department of Energy, Berkeley-based fellowship program Cyclotron Road, the Cleantech Open (which trains early-stage entrepreneurs), and the California Energy Commission to winnow down a list of possible startups. “It really helps to have knowledgeable partners referring pre-vetted technologies,” Steel says. One example is Howard Yuh, a UC Berkeley graduate who is founder and CEO of GreenBlu, a solar desalination startup. Alexander met Yuh through the Cleantech Open, inviting his startup to work with a C2M team in 2017.

Student teams are chosen in April and May, and projects kick off in August, culminating with a year-end symposium presentation and a 100-page report assessing the technology and recommending paths to market.

The course paid off for Maxwell Kushner-Lenhoff, MBA 18, whose team won two of the awards at last year’s symposium. But Kushner-Lenhoff, who is now a global supply manager of battery materials at Tesla, says there were bumps along the way in completing a project for the wastewater treatment technology startup MICROrganic Technologies. By the middle of the course, his team ranked itself poorly for effectiveness, and had to figure out how to turn the project around.

Kushner-Lenhoff says C2M is the reason he chose Haas. “No other program rivals C2M on meaningful engagement with cleantech startups,” he says. “These companies are banging on the door to have C2M teams work with them.”

Cleantech to Market Symposium (and 10th Anniversary Celebration)

Date: Friday, Nov. 30, 9-4:30 pm

Location: Spieker Forum, Chou Hall

Speakers:

Maxwell Kushner-Lenhoff, a global supply manager of battery materials at Tesla
Howard Yuh, founder and CEO, GreenBlu
Ryan Hanley, MBA 11, general manager of Shell’s Energy Platform
Sebastien Lounis, UC Berkeley PhD, applied science and technology and co-founder of Cyclotron Road
Jill Fuss, founder and CTO of startup CinderBio, a project lead at Cyclotron Road, and a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Erik Stokes, chief of the energy deployment and market facilitation office of the California Energy Commission

Judges:

Kathleen Jurman, technology scout at Dow Ventures
Joshua Posamentier, MBA 13, co-founder and managing partner at Congruent Ventures
Jeremy Nowak, PhD candidate (Chemistry), UC Berkeley

Arrow Capital’s mission to boost campus startup investment

November 6, 2018| by Kim Girard

Arrow Capital's student-run team: (left to right) Investment partners Ben Adler, JD 20, Levi Walsh, BA 19 (computer science and mathematics), Kaitlyn Uythoven, BS 19, Niles Chang, BS 20, Amy Guo, M.E.T. 22, and managing partner Matthew Bond, MBA 19. — Arrow Capital’s student-run team: (left to right) Investment partners Ben Adler, JD 20, Levi Walsh, BA 19 (computer science and mathematics), Kaitlyn Uythoven, BS 19, Niles Chang, BS 20, Amy Guo, M.E.T. 22, and managing partner Matthew Bond, MBA 19.

A new student-led venture fund, Arrow Capital, launched last month to help shepherd more early-stage investments in startups related to UC Berkeley.

The fund is managed by Matthew Bond, MBA 19.

Arrow has an influential parent fund in Bow Capital. In 2015, the University of California partnered with Vivek Ranadivé to create Bow, a venture capital fund that would invest in research and technology developed by UC students and faculty. (UC’s Office of the Chief Investment Officer is an anchor investor with a $250 million commitment.) Ranadivé, the founder of TIBCO and the current owner of the Sacramento Kings, was asked to lead the fund.

Matthew Bond, MBA 19, applied to Haas after working in banking in London for seven years, planning to return to his startup roots. — *Matthew Bond, MBA 19, returned to his startup roots after working in banking in London for seven years.*

Bond connected with Bow Capital during his first year at Haas, when he served as a Berkeley Haas Venture Fellow. Asked by Bow to come up with new ideas for investing in UC Berkeley startups, Bond proposed a fund that would concentrate on smaller, pre-seed-round deals, providing additional deal flow to Bow—which typically makes seed and Series A deals across the UC-affiliated system and beyond.

Bow approved the idea and Arrow Capital was born. It’s managed by Bond and five UC Berkeley students who serve as investment partners. The partners will typically invest $15,000—but potentially more—in each deal. They plan to make six to ten deals per year and, if they succeed, expand Arrow’s footprint to other UC campuses.

A flywheel of growth

Once Arrow invests in a startup, the student investment partners will work with the founders to help grow their businesses and raise subsequent funding. “Our work does not stop once the paperwork is signed. In fact, it has barely begun,” Bond said. “We hope that the startups we back will go on to raise a larger round led by Bow.” By investing Berkeley’s own endowment dollars back into UC Berkeley startups, “we create a virtuous flywheel of growth,” Bond said.

Applications for startups are already pouring in, and Arrow began reviewing them this week. The only requirement to apply is that the company must be connected to someone who currently has or previously had a UC Berkeley affiliation. Aside from funding, Arrow is offering startup teams connections to UC Berkeley alumni, other startups, and campus accelerators, helping the teams find talent, and providing operational and strategic guidance.

As Arrow’s managing partner, Bond—who started his first company at age 16 and studied math at Oxford University as an undergraduate—fashioned a rigorous, competitive two-step interview process for the student applicants. About 100 people expressed interest in the five slots, and eight students competed in the final round. They were asked to review two startup pitches and defend the startup they chose to fund.

Choosing the team

Last month, five UC Berkeley students—including three from Haas—joined the partnership as investment partners. They include Amy Guo, a freshman in the Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (M.E.T.) program; Kaitlyn Uythoven, BS 19; Niles Chang, BS 20, along with Levi Walsh, a third-year Computer Science major, and Berkeley Law student Ben Adler.

Bond specifically chose students from varied backgrounds with different investment interests and work experience. Chang, for example, loves both the media and the food and beverage spaces, and will be joining J.P. Morgan’s investment banking division next summer. Each student partner will focus on a few industry sectors.

Niles Chang, a self-described foodie, who will invest in food-related and media startups. — *Niles Chang will invest in food-related and media startups.*

“I’m fascinated by how technology has drastically changed the way we receive information, and it’s exciting to see the rise of original content and the strides in digital media,” Chang said. “I’m also a huge foodie and love the constant innovation in the food space, everything from plant-based meat to on-demand services.”

Kaitlyn Uythoven, a former Cal beach volleyball player, will invest in startups for Arrow. — *Former Cal beach volleyball player Kaitlyn Uythoven will work closely with UC Berkeley’s Skydeck and is interested in blockchain technology.*

A former Cal beach volleyball player, Uythoven said she knew when she arrived at UC Berkeley that she loved business and working on teams, which drew her to apply to Haas after she finished her varsity volleyball career. Taking Lecturer Kurt Beyers’ entrepreneurship class last spring solidified her interest in startups and her desire to work for Arrow. “I found out that I really love entrepreneurship,” said Uythoven, who is interested in sectors ranging from blockchain to high fashion.

*Amy Guo, a freshman in the Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (M.E.T.) program, started a creative writing nonprofit in high school.*

Guo, who is pursuing a dual degree in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) and business, said she’s hoping to expand upon her interests in education (she founded Writer’s Ink, a student-run nonprofit centered around creative writing, in high school), entertainment, AR/VR, and e-commerce while working with Arrow.

“I thought that this was just the most incredible opportunity,” said Guo, who grew up in Irvine, Ca. “We, as students, get the chance to put significant capital into the companies our peers are starting. There’s a lot of responsibility in that.”

Building a pipeline

The partners spent the first few weeks after the launch getting to know each other and developing Arrow’s funding application for startup applicants, expanding the website, and meeting with other startup groups on campus including Skydeck, The House, Citris, and Free Ventures.

There’s been a ton of interest in the fund so far, Bond said. “Our primary mission is to build a pipeline for startups at Berkeley and we’ll be leveraging our talented community of students, faculty, and alumni to help these startups succeed.”

After spending the past seven years working in hedge funds, private equity, and investment banking, Bond said he’s happy to return to the startup world.

“I came to the West Coast to pivot back toward entrepreneurship,” he said. “I had previously founded a few companies at school and university, and really enjoyed the journey, and so I wanted to get back into that world. Silicon Valley was the best place to pursue that ambition.”

Haas publishes diversity, equity, and inclusion action plan

October 16, 2018| by Kim Girard

Berkeley Haas leaders last week delivered a sweeping action plan that provides concrete ways to bolster enrollment of underrepresented minorities at Haas and to develop a more inclusive environment schoolwide.

The report, called The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Action Plan, drafted with the deep input of students and alumni, was published on the Haas Diversity website Friday by Courtney Chandler, Haas’ chief operating officer, and Jay Stowsky, senior assistant dean for instruction.

Last month, Chandler and Stowsky formed a leadership team charged by Interim Dean Laura Tyson with creating an action plan within 30 days focused on three areas: rebuilding trust with underrepresented minority students and alumni, and allies; making Haas a community that African American and all underrepresented minority students want to join; and increasing outreach to and yield of underrepresented minority students at Haas.

“100 percent committed”

The resulting plan is a direct response to a disappointing decline in the number of African American students enrolled in the Full-time Berkeley MBA Program for the last two years—a dip that occurred despite this being the largest class size in the school’s history. (In 2018, six African American students enrolled in a class of 291 students. In 2017, 10 African American students enrolled in a class of 282. In 2016, a peak of 19 African American students enrolled in a class of 252.)

The urgency of this action plan stems from Haas’s efforts to begin turning around this admissions trend in the hopes of making improvements in next year’s enrollment. However, the school seeks to improve diversity and inclusion across all programs, faculty, and staff.

“We’re so proud of the work everyone has done to complete this plan, which we believe is a critical step toward long-term change in building a more diverse community at Haas,” said Chandler, who with her leadership team met every morning for 30 days to listen to students, alumni, faculty, and staff before drafting recommendations by the Oct. 5 deadline. “It’s critical for our community to know that we are doing everything we can to address our diversity issues and that we are 100 percent committed to this effort.”

Chandler said the leadership team failed to react quickly or urgently enough to address the decline in African American student enrollment, instead looking at the problem through “an academic lens,” and viewing the sudden decline as a two-year statistical anomaly.

The concern is not only about providing fair access to a top MBA education, it is also about teaching students how to lead diverse teams and be comfortable with sometimes uncomfortable conversations about race, Stowsky said. “This is difficult to do when the student body and faculty are not diverse,” he said.

In a position to lead as a business school

Élida Bautista, director of inclusion & diversity at Haas, emphasized the school’s commitment to shifting its mindset toward understanding the impact of being underrepresented and prioritizing the actions in the plan that address this.

“With this set of actions, Haas is positioned to lead as a business school that values meaningful contributions to diversity,” said Bautista, who also worked on the action plan.

Interim Dean Tyson said the Haas School’s leaders will work quickly to implement the school-wide strategy in the short- and long-term. Incoming Dean Ann Harrison, who begins her term in January, is also committed to a successful outcome.

Recommendations in the plan include:

Hiring a Director of Diversity Admissions, who will focus on expanding opportunity for all historically underrepresented communities.
Increasing scholarship funding to URM students, and adopt a “first-offer-best-offer” approach to financial aid.
Hiring a Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, who will report directly to the Dean and focus on executing the plan.
Changing MBA admissions criteria to consider an applicant’s skillset and experience in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Establishing a Diversity Admissions Council, which will include staff, faculty, students, and alumni. Hire up to two second-year FTMBA students to serve on the FTMBA Admissions Committee.
Evolving staff hiring policies and practices by adding explicit language in job postings to address diversity needs.

The plan acknowledges that many students and alumni have worked to make change at Haas around diversity, equity, and inclusion. That group includes the student-led Race Inclusion Initiative (RII), which launched in 2016 and delivered a detailed list of action items related to diversity & inclusion at Haas to former Dean Rich Lyons last spring; the Haas Alumni Diversity Council (HADC), which consists of alumni and diversity leaders from the three MBA programs; and student leaders from the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, the Black Business Student Association (BBSA), and the Latinx Business Club.

Monica Stevens, MBA 96, who founded the Alumni Diversity Council in 2012, called the decline in the school’s diversity numbers upsetting and unacceptable, but said the plan is a “more defined way to move forward.”

“We need to build the infrastructure for future success, but we also have a patient in the ER who needs immediate attention, and it’s important to act quickly,” said Stevens, who called for “true accountability” from the leadership team and “measurable outcomes.”

Living up to our Defining Leadership Principles

The plan outlines next steps, specifies deadlines, defines staff owners of each area, and details the financial impact of each action item. Tools are also under development to measure the success of each outlined goal.

Several Berkeley Haas MBA students, who provided input to the Haas team and are leaders with the Race Inclusion Initiative, agreed the plan is a solid step in the right direction.

“Honestly, I am happy with this plan and am eager for meaningful steps to now be taken,” said Matt Hines, MBA 19. “It is largely consistent with the recommendations we made six months ago.”

Victoria Williams-Ononye, MBA 19, said she’s pleased that top diversity positions were added in admissions and in the Dean’s office and that Haas is committing financial resources to support its action items. “The hope would be that once the recommendations are in the budget and the people are hired that the school will continue to progress for years to come. At the end of the day, this is a plan. We need substantive action to occur before full confidence in the administration is built.”

In November, the Haas Staff Town Hall meeting will be devoted to a school-wide discussion of the action plan.

“Creating this plan is just the beginning,” Chandler said. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us and we encourage everyone to commit to this journey. We need to live up to our own Defining Leadership Principles to make Haas an even better, more diverse business school.”

How family heritage influenced Élida Bautista’s career path

October 2, 2018| by Kim Girard

In honor of Latinx Heritage Month, we’re featuring interviews with and profiles of members of the Latin American community. For this interview, we caught up with Élida Bautista.

Élida Bautista, director of diversity & inclusion at Haas, is one of five siblings who grew up in an extended Mexican family of mixed immigration status in Chicago. When she was 13, her family moved to Fillmore, a sleepy California agricultural town where her father, aunt, and uncle were farm workers.

At a young age, Bautista was bussed out of her Puerto Rican neighborhood to a multi-ethnic, better-resourced school—and her life from then on became an exploration of the culture, language, food, and games of her classmates. “I credit my Chicago roots with putting me on the diversity path,” says Bautista, who came to Haas from UCSF’s Department of Psychiatry, where she spent 15 years developing programs focused on social justice, diversity, and inclusion.

At Haas, she’s setting school-wide strategy for inclusion, diversity, and equity, and also works to support students, faculty, and staff to build an inclusive school climate.

We asked Bautista a few questions:

What are the roots of your heritage?

Both of my parents are from a rural town in Zacatecas, Mexico. Growing up, we spent our summers visiting family there. We joined in on summer traditions, and visited local archeological sites. Additionally, my father made it a point to take us to neighboring states to deepen our cultural exposure and understanding, simultaneously sharing his knowledge of Mexican history and indigenous ‘leyendas’ (oral history).

Elida with her niece — *Élida with her niece celebrating Día de los Muertos.*

What aspect of your cultural heritage do you enjoy sharing most with others?

As an adult, when I moved away from my family, I started to share traditions related to Día de los Muertos with my friends, such as setting up an altar or gifting them sugar skulls with their names, and explaining to them the meaning behind the holiday. I also enjoy sharing traditional Mexican cuisine with my friends. From simple ‘antojitos’ (traditional snacks) to laborious dishes from scratch, it’s a way of staying connected to my family’s traditions and sharing the joy of yummy food.

How did your heritage influence your career path?

My dad had a strong influence in instilling in me a sense of obligation toward my community and taking care of each other. When I was a teenager we moved from Chicago to an agricultural town in California. I witnessed how Mexican students were tracked out of college prep classes, and therefore had limited choices upon graduation. I was interested in becoming a psychologist to challenge these patterns and create more access to higher ed. There’s still a long way to go, but I see a lot of opportunity.

Grit and drive help Robert Paylor, BS 20, walk again

October 1, 2018| by Kim Girard

Robert Paylor practices walking with a forearm walker during his physical therapy session with Tom Billups, associate head coach of the UC Berkeley rugby team, at the Simpson Center for Student-Athlete High Performance. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)

This semester, Robert Paylor, a junior at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, is up by 5:30 a.m., hits the gym, then attends an accounting class and a political lecture, works out again for two hours, bolts down Chex Mix and an energy drink, and heads to another class.

Most Cal student-athletes have a similar routine. But for Paylor, a former varsity Cal rugby player recovering from partial paralysis, just getting out of bed and dressed in the morning is a feat, never mind the daily grind of navigating the hilly campus in a wheelchair and an intense rehabilitation schedule.

That Paylor is even alive and starting to walk with assistance after a devastating accident 16 months ago is a miracle. Fans cheered him on Saturday at Memorial Stadium when he was introduced and walked during the first quarter of the football game.

*At the Cal-Oregon football game on Saturday, Sept. 29, Paylor’s progress was celebrated on the field, and fans from both teams stood and cheered. (UC Berkeley photo by Kelley Cox)*

“The guy is a bloody inspiration,” says Jack Clark, head rugby coach at Berkeley and former head coach of the U.S. national rugby team. “He has a lot of faith, and support from his family, but this is a kid who wakes up and answers the bell every day. It’s a form of perseverance that you don’t understand until you see it. You have to see it to understand the depths of it.”

On May 6, 2017, Paylor, a freshman at the time, was injured at the Varsity Cup championship match between Cal and Arkansas State. That moment, caught on video — an opponent wrapped his arm around Paylor’s neck and didn’t let go as a formation of players called a maul collapsed — still raises questions. Paylor’s parents condemned the sport’s governing body, USA Rugby, for not disciplining the opponent; Clark called the hit preventable and “illegal” under the laws of the game.

In the aftermath, doctors told Paylor he’d suffered a spinal cord injury and likely would never walk again. Paylor then caught pneumonia, which lingered a month. He couldn’t eat or sit up for more than 10 minutes without passing out, and the muscles on his 6-foot 5-inch, 235-pound frame quickly atrophied.

“I was broken physically and mentally when I first got hurt,” says Paylor. “I couldn’t feel anything from my neck down. My prognosis was terrible. They said, ‘You’ll be happy if you can ever pick up a piece of pizza again and bring it to your face.’ ”

Paylor never accepted that; he believed that, with hard work and faith, he would walk one day without assistance. That belief in himself, that grit that coaches say defines Paylor, is why he’s at the cavernous Simpson Center for Student-Athlete High Performance, where he works out three times a week with Tom Billups, the associate head coach of Cal Rugby.

When asked if he expects Paylor to ever walk without his walker, Billups simply nods.

*Paylor at his locker in the high performance center, where he works out three times week. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)*

Paylor moves laboriously through his walking workouts, powering through 50-yard laps with the help of braces and a walker. Billups, a strength and conditioning specialist, is always right behind him, with an encouraging word or, when required, a verbal push.

Paylor’s current personal record is 350 yards, but sometimes, like on a recent day after an intense and fatiguing neuro-Pilates workout, it’s more like 300.

Billups understands Paylor’s frustration with incremental improvements. Before the accident, Paylor’s role as a rugby lock was all about using his height and muscle to provide power inside the scrum. “Coaching him before the injury, I know that he’s a grinder,” Billups says. “His position was to do all of the hard stuff — tackling, pushing guys and moving people who don’t want to be moved,”

Now, Paylor applies that same effort to moving his own legs, which with every step can feel like lifting 40-pound weights.

<em>Jack Iscaro (left) and Brian Joyce, two of Paylor’s rugby teammates, escort him to physical therapy at the Simpson Center for Student-Athlete High Performance. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)</em> — Jack Iscaro (left) and Brian Joyce, two of Paylor’s rugby teammates, escort him to physical therapy at the Simpson Center for Student-Athlete High Performance. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)

At Berkeley Haas, Paylor is surrounded by the tight-knit Cal rugby community. Coordinating through a Google doc schedule organized by Clark, the entire team has signed up to follow their friend from class to class, with occasional challenges when his wheelchair’s fickle smart battery gives out.

“Geographically, these hills are brutal,” says Paylor, who has memorized the locations of all of the automatic doors on campus, and the areas of classrooms where it’s easiest to pull up to a desk. “Accessible seating is probably the biggest thing.”

The help from classmates extends to weekends, too. “Robert is their friend, and they want to include him in whatever they’re doing,” Clark says. “If they’re going to the Cal football game or the women’s soccer game, it’s, ‘Hey, do you want to go?’”

The team downplays efforts made on Paylor’s behalf. “It’s good to just have him back,” said Cal rugby flanker Ben Casey, an environmental economics major.

<em>Paylor, being helped to stand by Tom Billups, associate head coach of the rugby team, has a “perseverance that you don’t understand until you see it,” says rugby head coach Jack Clark. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)</em> — Paylor, being helped to stand by Tom Billups, associate head coach of the rugby team, has a “perseverance that you don’t understand until you see it,” says rugby head coach Jack Clark. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)

Paylor’s supportive community extends to legions of Cal alumni and rugby teams worldwide, including players from Australia, New Zealand and the UK who have sent Paylor letters of encouragement and jerseys. Close to $1 million has been raised for Paylor through his GoFundMe campaign, money to fund many rehabilitation expenses not covered by insurance.

A few hundred thousand in donations poured in within days of Paylor’s injury as word got out, says Cal Rugby player and Berkeley Haas junior Tyler Douglas, Paylor’s closest friend and former weightlifting partner.

“Everyone understands what the Cal community is,” Douglas said. “You respect the people who came before you, and those people respect and care for you.” Douglas said momentum gathered as word of Paylor’s injury spread. “Then the international rugby community came out and it kept spreading,” he said. “We’d be a tournaments and they’d mention his name.”

The response is partly a testament to who Paylor is, he said. “You’ll never meet another person like him,” he says. “He’ll shoot you a big smile and a handshake. I’m close to everyone on the team, but the connection you make with Rob is immediate.”

Paylor said the support motivates him. “It’s just huge that so many people are rooting for me,” he says. “When I’m having dark times and feeling sorry for myself, I have all of these people who believe in me. It’s infectious. It keeps me going.”

*A junior at Berkeley Haas, Paylor intends to get his MBA after he graduates. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)*

For Paylor, getting into Berkeley Haas as a junior was a life goal. His parents, who live in El Dorado Hills, California, both work in business, and he has decided to follow in their footsteps. And rugby, he says, has a lot in common with business. “In rugby, you graduate with a Ph.D. in teams,” he explains.

Over the summer, after he finished intense neurorehabilitation at Craig Hospital in Colorado, Paylor interned in operations at Intel Corp. Now, he’s enjoying the breadth of the subject matter in his classes — from lecturer Suneel Udpa’s accounting course to lecturer Arturo Perez-Reyes’ business communications course, where he’s learning why soft skills are important in business.

While Paylor isn’t sure what he’ll do after graduation, an MBA is part of the plan.

Business is a perfect path for Paylor, Clark says. “A lot of cognitive smarts come out of business schools — but if they want someone with grit and smarts, he’s a combination,” the coach says. “Something tells me that this guy will go on to do something really phenomenal.”

Adriana Vanegas, BS 20, on learning to excel as a student

October 1, 2018| by Kim Girard

Adriana Vanegas with her family — *Adriana Vanegas, BS 20, (front, right) with (L-R) sisters Fabiola and Monica; and her mother, Patricia.*

In honor of Latinx Heritage Month, we’re featuring interviews and profiles with members of the Latin American community. For our fifth interview, we caught up with Adriana Vanegas.

When Adriana Vanegas, BS 20, arrived in California from San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, in 2006, she spoke no English and struggled to stay motivated in school.

“Twelve years ago, I never would have imagined that I would be at Berkeley Haas,” said Vanegas.

But over the years, Vanegas said she was inspired by her mother, who runs her own dental practice, to work hard and study, which led her to Irvine Valley College. There, she was involved in student government and served as a student ambassador, helping to raise money for scholarships and boost enrollment at the school. From Irvine Valley College, she achieved a goal she never thought possible: transferring into Berkeley Haas as a junior this year, receiving a Chancellor’s Scholarship, a Leadership Scholarship and the Kruttschnitt Aspire Scholarship.

*Adriana Vanagas, BS 20, came to the U.S. from San Salvador in 2006*

We asked Vanegas a few questions about life in San Salvador and her culture:

Tell me about your family.

I grew up in a very big family. At least once every week, I would see all of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins gathered in one place. Not having my family around all the time was one the most difficult things I had to adjust to when I came to the United States. Over time, I realized that regardless of where I am in the world, I will always have my family’s support.

Why did you move to the U.S.?

In El Salvador, my mom had a dental practice but not many people were able to afford dental care so it became difficult for her to financially support the family. My mom made the brave decision to move to the United States to attain the American Dream. While she established herself in the US, I stayed behind with my grandparents in El Salvador and I eventually immigrated to California in 2006. My mom now has her own dental practice in California.

How did you become a good student?

Becoming a good student was a bit of a process for me but I remember my “turning point” very clearly. It was the last day of elementary school and I was walking home, nervous to open my report card. As soon as I opened it, I realized that I got all Cs—barely passing the grade. At that moment, I felt an overwhelming feeling of guilt because I knew I was not worthy of all of the sacrifices that my mom made for me. While my mom worked over 10 hours per day to build a better future for our family, I spent my days doing everything else besides school work.

From that point, I set myself a goal to make my mom proud and do well in school. The biggest challenge was not even knowing what studying meant. As a young middle-schooler, I thought rereading a study guide was boring—so as a music-loving Latina, I turned to music. Every Thursday night throughout middle school, I was in my room singing about mitochondria and cell walls to prepare for my biology test. Slowly, but surely, my grades improved and I accomplished my goal.

What do you love the most about being Salvadoran?

I am part of a community of fighters. As I was growing up, my mom showed me what it really meant to be a fighter, a go-getter, and a hard worker. Everything I have today is because of my mom’s hard work. She is the reason why I was able to learn English, why I was able to get an education in the United States, why I was able to transfer out of community college, and why I will be able to graduate from UC Berkeley. Her incredible example inspires me to work even harder every single day and to be a fighter—just like her.

How did your culture influence your future goals?

Being Latina has always empowered me to work harder because I want to set an example for other Latinos to dream big and further their education. There are so many children in El Salvador who are unable to continue their education due to economic reasons, which traps them in the vicious cycle of poverty. After graduation, my goal is to go back to El Salvador and help underprivileged children by empowering them through education.