UC Berkeley Haas Alum writes “The New Money Rules” book for Gen Z
Before enrolling at Haas, Kevin Brar, EWMBA 27, was a drug discovery scientist working on promising new cancer therapies at a Bay Area biotech company. The company’s lead program, a potential treatment for ovarian cancer, reached a Phase 2/3 clinical trial, but the project was ultimately shelved due to funding constraints.
“That moment had a big impact on me,” Brar said. “Our therapy was showing encouraging data and real potential to help patients, but we couldn’t move forward without funding. It made me realize how critical strategic financing is to bringing innovation to patients.”
That realization led Brar down a new path. He decided to study finance at Haas, where he is also the inaugural Melissa Dickerson Finance Fellow. The fellowship, founded this year for second-year Evening & Weekend MBA Program students planning a career in finance, is named for Melissa Dickerson, MBA 03. Dickerson is chief financial officer at private equity firm Genstar Capital.
“We are so grateful to Melissa Dickerson for enabling us to expand the Finance Fellows program, this time to provide an opportunity to students in our EWMBA Program,” said William Rindfuss, managing director of Strategic Programs in the Haas Finance Group. The Finance Fellows program has a long history at Haas, Rindfuss said, beginning with the C&J White Finance Fellowship, founded in 1980 by Gladys L. White, BS 1917. Additional fellowships have been added over the years.
Fellows receive a scholarship plus mentoring
Fellows are chosen based on their preparedness and promise in achieving their career goals in finance, including the clarity of their path toward those goals. The fellows, 12 this year, receive a scholarship award and are assigned a Haas alumni mentor, ranging from a recent graduate to a senior executive working in the Fellows’ finance field of interest.
The 2025-26 Finance Fellows include:
Investment Banking: Joohoon Lee, Evan Tan, Jimmy Lin, Alex Cheung, all MBA 27
Entrepreneurial Finance: Tunde Ahmad, Micha Kubicka, Matt Wong, Graciela De Leon, George Margetson-Rushmore, all MBA 27
Private equity and investment management: Bruno Hinojosa, MBA 27
EWMBA Finance: Kevin Brar, EWMBA 27
C&J White Finance: Rohan Agarwal, MBA 27
A fantastic time for finance
Evan Tan, a Singapore native who worked at UBS as a product specialist before joining Haas, said a desire to pursue technology investment banking brought him to the MBA program.
“I came to Haas to pivot into tech investment banking, the perfect intersection for me to stay in finance while being at the forefront of all this exciting change that’s happening in the Bay Area,” he said. “We’re seeing so much M&A and fundraising activity across big tech and startups. It’s a fantastic time to be here as advancements in tech and AI will transform every industry vertical.”
He added that the opportunity to build his network has been just as important.
“Meeting students in my MBA class has been amazing,” he said. “People come from diverse backgrounds, they’re motivated and driven, and I’m learning from all of them.”
Micha Kubicka, from Poland, is pivoting to finance from a career in politics and climate-focused philanthropy.
“I think Cal is the best possible place to be doing climate venture investing,” she said. “Given our commitments to climate and sustainability and the rich ecosystem of innovation in the Bay Area, and the really strong programs that Cal offers in finance, it checks all the boxes in a way that I think no other business school does.”
The Finance Fellowship is also a unique opportunity to connect with an industry mentor, she added.
“The Fellowship is set up to give people an opportunity who perhaps haven’t had experience in finance before,” she said. “It’s set up to ease our path into a space that can feel difficult to break into, so I appreciate the opportunity to be guided along that journey.”
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