“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 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.

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.

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.

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Prof. Nancy Wallace has been honored with UC Berkeley’s prestigious 2019 Berkeley Faculty Service Award for making a lasting and significant impact—particularly by helping the campus navigate complex financial and real estate issues.

The award is bestowed by the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate on faculty whose “outstanding and dedicated service to the campus, and whose activities as a faculty member have significantly enhanced the quality of the campus as an educational institution and community of scholars.”

Wallace, the Lisle and Roslyn Payne Chair in Real Estate Capital Markets and chair of the Haas Real Estate Group, shares the honor this year with Spanish Prof. Ignacio Navarrete of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

“During the past 10 years, Nancy has devoted extraordinary time and energy to the campus’s day-to-day well-being,” wrote Anthony Long, chair of the Academic Senate’s Committee on Faculty Awards and an emeritus professor of classics and literature.

Wallace, a prominent expert on the residential mortgage market, mortgage-related securities, and pricing models, helped the campus with a “series of onerous financial issues,” including the budget for intercollegiate athletics, advising on strategic banking relationships, and a sustainable funding model for the Lower Sproul Plaza redevelopment project.

In 2008, she was recruited by the UC Office of the President to serve on the Systemwide Committee on UC Faculty Mortgage Programs. She was also drafted to play a major role in the financial planning for Memorial Stadium., helping to deliver a blueprint for expanding the stadium’s uses.

Prof. Candi Yano, Haas Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Chair of the Faculty, along with Prof. Richard Stanton wrote in a letter of support that in addition to her campus service, Wallace goes far beyond herself at Haas.

“Very few faculty are so committed to the campus that they are willing to invest long hours and their intellectual prowess in improving the financial stability of the campus. We note that Nancy is equally dedicated in her service to the Haas School, where she has served as Chair of the Real Estate group essentially ‘forever’,” they wrote.

In addition to her service on campus, Wallace has served on the Federal Reserve’s Model Validation Council and the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Research Advisory Committee.

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The Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering Program is ranked #1 by The Financial Engineer, which published its annual financial engineering rankings this week.The Berkeley MFE has placed #1 in this ranking since 2016.

TFE focuses 55% of its ranking on the quality of the class (students’ GREs, GPAs, and the acceptance rate) and 40% on post-degree outcomes. Another 5% is based on the number of distinct courses available and research expenditures.

Read the full report here.

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Evan Wright, MBA 20, is VP of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Haas MBAA.

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.

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 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.

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 fellow MBAs at the 2019 Haasquerade Ball.

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

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 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.

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.”

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“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.”

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

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Steve Varacalli, MBA 19, at home in Australia.

This article appeared first on Berkeley News.

“Last summer, after finishing up exams as a first-year MBA student at Berkeley Haas, I learned during a routine MRI that my rare form of spinal cancer had come back.

I can’t say it was a shock.

I’ve been fighting this cancer since I was a kid. I was 11 when I first collapsed on the soccer field in my Australian hometown with excruciating pain in my legs. Since then, life has included a series of painful surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation and three relapses, as doctors around the world struggled to diagnose my type of cancer — ependymoma — and how to best treat it. Many times, it seemed as if nothing would ever work.

I never gave up, though I came close a few times. Learning to live with the disease, which is hell, don’t get me wrong, has meant learning to live life to the fullest despite the cancer — playing soccer and cricket, getting involved with startups at Haas and with clubs on campus (I was a founder and co-president of the new Cannabis Club at Haas and worked with two campus startups as an adviser). After earning a master’s degree in finance in Australia, I’m now getting close to an MBA.

Steve Varacalli, who has been fighting a rare form of spinal cancer since he was 11, tries to stay active and involved in life — despite his disease. (Photo courtesy of Steve Varacalli)

One thing that makes my life away from home easier is the support of my classmates. I’m very close to my family at home in Angle Vale, South Australia. Growing up on a rural vineyard and farm the youngest of four siblings, I was always running around with them — or playing cricket, soccer and football.

When I relapsed here in Berkeley, classmates became a second family. Immediately, they rallied around me, posting a spreadsheet asking for volunteers to drive me to six weeks of radiation treatment at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto. The form filled up within minutes, to my relief and amazement.

They cooked me nightly dinners, too, so I didn’t have to worry about finding a meal before I headed to class and could instead rest. Assistant Dean Peter Johnson provided strong support and organized a schedule with me to do evening courses so I could travel to treatment during the day.

Professors also provided so much help — including Omri Even-Tov, who surprised me by arranging with a group of my classmates to go to a Golden State Warriors game a few days after I finished my radiation treatment. On that final day, my classmate Fahed Essa was at the wheel. We blasted “Eye of the Tiger” in the car on the way home to celebrate and sent the video to our classmates. It was such a relief to be done and cancer-free one more time.

To celebrate and thank everyone, I threw a big party at my house, asking people to attend in a costume of a radioactive suit—and many of them did. (Yes, cancer survivors can have an off-kilter sense of humor.)

Steve and his friends celebrate his last day of radiation. (Photo courtesy of Steve Varacalli)

This May, I plan to collect my diploma at graduation, on time and with a solid GPA. Long-term, my goal is to become an entrepreneur, but first I’ll pursue a career in agricultural technology or real estate in California. Coming from a farming family and having been involved in real estate development, I’d like to test myself and build a career in America.

I’ll also keep giving back. As an ambassador for Cancer Council SA, a group of South Australians devoted to cancer prevention efforts, my duties include speaking at corporate events, handing out sunscreen to kids and helping recently diagnosed cancer patients and their families deal with their diagnoses.

Another life goal, however, is to compete in the Paralympics. I’m not sure what event I’ll try out for, but I’m a competitive person, and it might just be soccer. (I played for the Haas MBA soccer team in a tournament in Austin last year.)

For now, I’m feeling so positive about my future and appreciative of my time at Berkeley. Every day as I’m making my way to class, I’m thankful for the opportunities and friendships I’ve found here and for the culture of inclusiveness and support.”

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Oakland teachers participating in a Teachers of Oakland live event.

The Humans of New York street portrait series transformed how people view everyday New Yorkers. Teachers of Oakland founder Om Chitale, MBA 18, is hoping his startup will do the same for teachers.

Since founding Teachers of Oakland more than a year ago, Chitale has posted more than 100 first-person stories from the city’s public school teachers to social media, where the startup has 5,000 Facebook followers and 1,900 Instagram followers.

The posts are about starting a conversation, Chitale said.

“The gaps in opinion that exist in the education world are tremendous, and people aren’t listening to each other,” he said. “I want people to look at our posts and say, ‘That teacher shared something that really moved me.’  These stories can change the direction of the conversation.”

Om Chitale, founder of Teachers of Oakland

With a potential Oakland Unified teachers’ strike looming, it’s particularly important “to fight the urge to look away,” Chitale said. “We have to lean in, because there is real pain there. There are structural issues with how we support and value teachers, and there is a big empathy gap. Teachers of Oakland is an avenue to listen to our teachers directly, and hopefully get involved in some capacity.”

Reclaiming the narrative

Chitale, who worked in early childhood education in his early 20s, knew he was ready for a career change when he arrived at Berkeley. “I came into Haas trying to figure out what my role in the world was,” he said. “I’d worked at Deloitte, but I knew that I was super passionate about education.”

A startup idea emerged during a group project in a social entrepreneurship class taught by lecturers Jorge Calderon and Ben Mangan, both of whom remain strong mentors.

Chitale set out to interview 100 people who inspired him. He chose to talk to teachers about their motivations, struggles, and experiences. “I wanted to learn directly from them instead of relying on broader narratives,” he said.

Those mainstream narratives, he said, often portray teachers in negative or neutral ways. He wanted to create something more respectful of the role teachers play in the community and in closing the opportunity gap for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.  “I wanted teachers to reclaim the narrative,” he said.

Teachers who have participated so far include Derek Boyd of MetWest High School, who discussed inter-generational impact, Jason Muniz of Fremont High School, who spoke about privilege and service, Nakachi Clark-Kasimu of the North Oakland Community Charter School, who described the spiritual basis of her work, Tawana Guillaume of Madison Park High School, who talked about innovation and fresh ideas, and Kristen Brett, of Acorn Woodland Elementary, who discussed inclusion.

An Oakland teacher shares her story.

Chitale says he hopes to double social media engagement this year, and perhaps add a podcast, and more events like the #RaiseYourHand Party for Teachers of Oakland with the Red Bay Coffee Roastery & Coffee Bar that will be held this Saturday morning in Oakland. He’s working on new ideas as an  expert-in-residence at The Teachers Guild, an initiative run by a team of educators and designers from IDEO’s Design for Learning Studio.

Gratitude and validation

Erin Gums, MBA 18 and a member of Chitale’s advisory board, attended the first Teachers of Oakland live event last year, when four teachers took the stage to discuss what attracted them to teaching, what keeps them in the classroom, the challenges they face, what gives them hope, and what’s unique about Oakland.

“Having this forum may be the only one of its kind where teachers get to express themselves,” Gums said. “It’s so meaningful for teachers to be seen and heard in that way. You could just see the gratitude and validation.”

Stella Gums Collins, the first teacher featured on Teachers of Oakland.

Gums met Chitale while they were Haas students; they both enrolled in Dialogues on Race, a student-led independent study seminar for MBA students that Chitale co-facilitated. Gums’ aunt, a retired Oakland early childhood education teacher named Stella Gums Collins, met Chitale at Gums’ birthday party— and became the first teacher Chitale profiled.

“I believe in Om and his vision,” Gums said. “He’s put his heart into this.”

For now, Teachers of Oakland is supported financially by Chitale, along with friends and family. Eventually, Chitale plans to fund the non-profit independently through foundations and donors, and by collaborating with local businesses. He may eventually move the model to other cities, too, though the project’s heart will remain in Oakland.

“There’s just something about Oakland’s ethos,” Chitale said. “This idea that we are fighting for something, we are fighting for justice.”

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Devon Howland, internship and alumni coordinator for the Boost@BerkeleyHaas pre-college program at Haas. Photo: Jim Block

Devon Howland’s passion for mentoring led him to a fitting role, as internship and alumni coordinator for the Boost@BerkeleyHaas pre-college program. The 30-year-old program has helped prepare more than 1,000 Bay Area high school students to become the first in their families to go to college.

Howland, a first-generation college student himself, oversees all aspects of work-readiness requirements for students entering Boost@BerkeleyHaas summer programs, internships, and site visits to Bay area employers.

We spoke with Devon about his views on black history in America and on Black History Month, and the need to do a better job in teaching black history in schools.

Berkeley Haas News: How did you learn about black history in America?

Devon Howland: Personally, I had to go out to find black history on my own through study and personal stories. What we learn in school is just insufficient. I happened upon an African-American history museum as a junior in high school and got really interested in the topic, which led to me reading and researching on my own. I first read The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. These books helped me see into the lives of other blacks so I could relate my life to theirs. In the end, this allowed me to value black people and their contributions in ways my education did not.

Maya Angelou’s book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings “helped me see into the lives of other blacks.” Photo: William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum

This desire to know about and value the lives of those like me continues and fuels my current family genealogy searches. Ultimately, this led me to realize that black history too often gets reshaped and softened in its retelling. I think partially this could be because young people would naturally question why our founders displaced the original inhabitants of this land and enslaved others to build it. We must teach how this oftentimes torturous and demeaning yet sometimes inspiring and brave history has been and continues to challenge black status in U.S. society.

BHN: What do you think of Black History Month?

Devon Howland: I’m glad it was initiated by (historian and author) Carter G. Woodson, but in its implementation, we have stopped short of making it all it could be: an opportunity to talk about this very tangled, difficult, and tragic story of how black people were brought to this country and later made to integrate into a society that was unwilling to accept them. Let’s rightly celebrate what has been achieved for sure. We all are direct recipients of intentional and unintentional foundations laid by all our predecessors.

BHN: How do we do a better job of educating K-12 students about this?

High school students in the Boost program at Haas. Photo: Jim Block

Devon Howland:  We have a generation of young people who no longer want to be victims, nor put up with what prior generations put up with. After the shooting of Trayvon Martin (the unarmed 17-year-old African-American teenager from Miami Gardens, Fl., who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman), many became aware that African-American parents must have these difficult talks with our sons and daughters about how to survive. We must tell our sons what they can and cannot do in a public setting because it might risk their lives. K-to-12 could be this great place to bring to life these ugly realities that people of color have to face.

BHN: Who are your heroes in the black community?

Devon Howland: I would just point to people in my life who took the time to invest in me. In the past, that would include people in my neighborhood, but it’s also been people of color in positions at the university or in the corporate world, or even just my uncles, who were father figures to me, who stepped up. When I think about Black History Month, I think about people like that. Not necessarily nationally known figures, but people who had their own opportunity to make an impact and influence and used it.

BNH: You also mentor outside of Berkeley Haas.

Devon Howland: This current generation desperately needs mentors who can really be their heroes. I currently mentor several youths I’ve met through volunteering with two programs that impact teens: Alive and Free and Young Life. Both organizations focus on helping to young people at risk and their need for Christian values, respectively. In both I see how small investments of my time and heart produce tremendous tangible dividends in the lives of young people. Inside and outside of work, I get to see lives change. In the end, there is nothing more rewarding than that.

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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.

In this interview, Matt Hines, MBA 19, discusses the challenges of being black in mostly white Atlanta private schools, how his parents championed Black History Month, and the Haas course that helped him share his feelings about race.

“Being comfortable and confident with who I am took a while for me, in relation to race,” Matt Hines, MBA 19. Photo: Eric Tecza, MBA 18.

Tell me about what is was like growing up black in your community.

While Atlanta is very diverse, the community I grew up in was not very diverse at all. I went to private school my entire life and grew up in a fairly white community. The first black student I remember having in my class was in fifth grade. For a while I struggled with kids at school assuming I should act a certain way, talk a certain way, or listen to a certain kind of music—kids having expectations for what I should or shouldn’t be. Being comfortable and confident with who I am took a while for me, in relation to race, and it’s definitely something I still work on.

Hines spending time with his father:”It’s something I think about, how my father handled having a black son, and the conversations that we had and are still fortunate to have today.”

Did you have experience with Black History Month as a child?

Black History Month wasn’t a big thing when we first got to our school in Atlanta, but I remember both my parents petitioning the school and setting up their own events every year when they would bring in speakers. We watched the movies Ruby Bridges (about a six-year-old African-American who helped to integrate the all-white schools of New Orleans) and Little Rock Nine (about The Little Rock Nine group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock) during Black History Month whenever they came on TV. When we lived in San Antonio (before Atlanta), my sister and I participated in the Mahogany Brain Challenge in our church, an African-American history trivia challenge between kids in various churches across the city. We’d study black history with other black youth and learn facts about black leaders such as George Washington Carver and Harriet Tubman.

Who are some African Americans who inspire you?

Hines admired Jackie Robinson for “everything he stood for, everything he fought for.” Photo: Bob Sandberg, Cowles Communications, Inc.

When I was a kid it was always Jackie Robinson. I remember having a picture of him in my room growing up and reading autobiographies about Jackie Robinson and admiring everything he stood for, everything he fought for. I have since enjoyed reading Malcolm X, appreciating both the vigor with which he sought to uplift the black community and his commitment to introspection and learning that allowed him to continually shift his rhetoric throughout his life. Today, Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of my favorite authors. He writes a lot about his relationship with his father and then his son. It’s something I think about, how my father handled having a black son, and the conversations that we had and are still fortunate to have today.

What can be done in the schools to build more understanding about black history?

The Dialogues on Race course at Haas has been an exceptional opportunity for me to start to get more comfortable discussing topics about race in my life. (Hines is a course co-facilitator with America Gonzalez). The goal of the class is to force us to think introspectively about our own racial identity and our own biases and the way we interact with society and to really dive into the historical context of racism—the institutional and systemic racism—that exists in the country. For me, it’s been very powerful to get more comfortable hearing my own thoughts about race and to speak them with a group of peers in a safe environment. That’s a model that I think can be used elsewhere.

How do you feel about speaking frankly in front of white people in the classroom?

I feel comfortable talking about this subject with black people and I do it all the time. The goal is to speak about it with people who don’t look like you. If we look at the way this country is run it is still dominated by white people who are making the decisions and have the capacity to make change. In my mind, no significant change can happen without white people on board so we have to have these conversations with them and we have to create allies.

Hines with his parents at the University of Michigan undergraduate commencement in 2013. (He earned a degree in business administration & management) Photo: Hines family.

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

For me, growing up black has been mentally taxing more than physically taxing. It’s constantly second-guessing every interaction I have with someone. Are they genuine in the way they look at me and talk to me? Am I the the first black person they’ve talked to this month and has that changed the way they talk to me? There are little microaggressions that get to you, like when I’m in line at the grocery store or the bank there have been multiple times when a white person has just “accidentally” walked in front of me and that person acts as if he or she didn’t see me. It’s not the end of the world, but you’re thinking: Is this person even worth wasting the energy on or do I want to just let it go?

Beverly Tatum (the president of Spelman College and the author of Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?) talks about how we live in a racialized society that is impossible to escape and that we are all complicit. She used the analogy of breathing in the smog in a polluted city and that it’s truly impossible to escape unless we are consistently putting in counter measures to counteract the racism and segregation that exists in our society today. The first piece of that is acceptance and I don’t think that we’re at a point of acceptance. If we do ever get to a point of acceptance we have to teach the truth in our schools and the truth about our history.

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The two teams: (L-R:) Sid Mullick, Cici Saekow, Mark Sheiness, Kylie Sale, William Lynn (from Edison International/Southern California Edison), Bree Soares, Kate Tomlinson, Joyce Yao, Deborah Tan, and Nick Matcheck, all MBA 20.

The Win: 1st and 2nd place at UCLA’s 6th Annual Challenges in Energy Case Competition Feb. 8-10.

The Field:  Seven teams competed from across the country in the case called, “Pedal to the medal: Southern California’s transportation roadmap timed with the 2028 Olympics.” Haas sent two teams—Team Metromile and Team Vinculara—that went to the finals this year, competing for $5,000 in cash prize money.

The Case:  Teams were challenged to answer the following question: With Southern California leading the transformation to electrify the transportation sector, where is the money to be made, and how can I get my company involved? Teams could position themselves anywhere in the electric transportation supply chain—as either new company or an existing player in the market. The case needed to support the zero-emissions 2018 roadmap and the electrification of California’s transportation sector.

A little background: Los Angeles is hosting the summer 2028 Olympic games.  As the city prepares, the LA Cleantech Incubator is partnering with local government and businesses, including Southern California Edison, to speed up the region’s move toward transportation electrification. The partnership’s members have agreed to go beyond California’s goals for emissions and pollution reduction before the games begin by targeting an additional 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases and air pollution—by accelerating transportation electrification.

The pitch from Team Vinculara (first place): (Nick Matcheck, Bree Soares, Kate Tomlinson, Deb Tan, Joyce Yao) Vinculara proposed a blockchain-based platform that would provide a more efficient and effective allocation of the state-regulated Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits to electric vehicle fleet owners. The idea came from team member Kate Tomlinson, a business consultant for Blockchain at Berkeley, who is researching the use of blockchain in the energy industry. The problem they addressed? Electric vehicle owners are compensated for avoiding carbon emissions though the Clean Fuel Reward Program run by utilities, but the current tracking system is costly and inaccurate and does not incentivize enough behavior change. “Blockchain helps to reduce a lot of back-end inefficiencies,” Yao said. Vinculara’s blockchain platform, when used by electric vehicle owners, fleet managers, and regulators, would help reduce the cost and complexity of tracking and verifying credits and in doing so, open up the LCFS market to smaller players who are currently unable to get involved and claim their credits. “I think the market-opening part is the most interesting part of our proposal,” Tomlinson said.

The pitch from Team Metromile (second place): (Sid Mullick, Cici Saekow, Mark Sheiness, and Kylie Sale) The team proposed combining Metromile’s per-mile auto insurance program with a calculated cash advance to accelerate adoption of electric vehicles, while simultaneously transforming the company’s potential to become a preferred provider of auto insurance among electric vehicle owners. Traditional cash incentive programs rely on fuel savings, which take several years to recover. This proposal leverages per-mile calculated auto insurance, with a three-year insurance subscription to deliver immediate electric vehicle savings to potential customers up front, thereby converting on-the-fence customers into EV adopters.

On seeing double at the final: “All the teams worked really hard and we were honored to be chosen as finalists,” Saekow said. “When the judges announced that both first and second teams went to Haas, I felt especially proud to share the stage with my classmates.”

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L-R: Haas Venture Capital Club co-founder Chris Truglia with Peter Loukianoff, managing partner of Strawberry Creek Ventures, David Navarro (the club’s past VP of professional events), and club co-president Esmond Ai at the club’s holiday party last year.

Last fall, Chris Cindy Cordova, an aerospace engineer who arrived at Haas with little knowledge of the venture capital industry, attended a pitch session in Silicon Valley where VCs were grilling entrepreneurs seeking funding.

“Hearing that back-and-forth about what investors are interested in and watching how entrepreneurs presented themselves was useful to me,” says Cordova, MBA 20, who attended the session with 30 fellow members of the new Haas Venture Capital Club (HVCC) at Plug and Play, a Sunnyvale, Ca.-based accelerator.

With a goal of giving students an inside look into the world of venture capital and helping them to break into the tight-knit venture capital industry, the club has already grown to 160 members from the full- and part-time MBA programs.

Chris Cindy Cordova, MBA 20, co-president of the Haas Venture Capital Club.

Many Haas students are interested in venture capital and entrepreneurship, and launching the club was an effort to provide more connections and resources, said Chris Truglia, EWMBA 19, who founded the club in 2018 with Scott Graham, also an Evening & Weekend MBA student.

“Even though the heart of VC is in our backyard, we haven’t fully taken advantage of it,” said Truglia, who has worked in venture capital and is currently COO of technology startup Junar. “We’re hoping that the club will raise Haas’ profile as a feeder school to the best funds.”

“A confidence booster”

So far, the club has co-hosted, with the Women in Leadership club, a conference featuring speakers who discussed challenges faced by women in venture capital and by female entrepreneurs. Other events featured a panel of Haas students who landed internships or jobs in the venture industry, and a focus session with Strawberry Creek Ventures, which co-invests with other funds in companies led by Berkeley alumni.

Faculty advisors to the club—Deepak Gupta, an industry specialist in the Haas Career Management Group, Rhonda Shrader, executive director of the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Program, and William Rindfuss, executive director of strategic programs in the Haas Finance Group—are reaching out to engage Haas alumni as mentors. And the club’s VC Excursion Program aims to connect groups of eight to 10 HVCC members to alumni in venture capital for fun activities such as hiking and sailing.

Mingling with alumni who work in venture capital at a recent event at a local pub was a confidence-booster, says Cordova, the club’s co-president. “It helped me become more confident, knowing that there’s a group of pros out there who want this club to be successful and to see them acknowledge how it benefits the students,” she says.

Landing the VC jobs

Equally important is forming relationships with Silicon Valley accelerators and VC firms, in part through more treks to firms to shadow professionals, with the goal of helping students in the job search. Early efforts have yielded some returns: Four Haas students are already working at paid internships at Plug and Play.

The club is also developing what it calls its Talent Pipeline Program (TaPP), a program to help students of all experience levels to increase their knowledge of the VC industry through club activities and independent research, said Esmond Ai, MBA 20 and club co-president. Through the program, students will create training materials, organize workshops, and book guest speakers.

Student teams would, for example, undertake an independent project, such as researching an emerging market for a report or white paper. Then, instead of waiting for public job postings, teams could proactively approach VC firms and offer up their knowledge with an eye toward doing work for the firm.

“The idea is to place students in the right place at the right time when permanent job openings arise,” Ai said.

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Stacey King, MBA 20: “Black history did not end with the Civil Rights era.”

Where did you grow up and what was your experience growing up black in your community?

I was born in Chicago. My dad’s job transferred my family to Raleigh, North Carolina, when I was 10. When we lived in the southern suburbs of Chicago, my neighborhood was all black and my school was fairly diverse. We were very close to family, and my parents ensured that I felt a sense of pride in being black. I don’t think I truly became aware of the impacts of race on my life until we moved to North Carolina, where my neighborhood was all white and my school was predominantly white. I never felt that I identified with any group of people in Raleigh. I often heard microaggressions and stereotypes that made me uncomfortable but that I didn’t know how to deal with or counter. It wasn’t until I found a more progressive, diverse group of friends in college that I had a community where my voice was heard and respected as a black person.

Who are a few African American historical figures/leaders/writers who you honor, or who have had an impact on your life?

“Embarking on such a huge life transformation takes a lot of courage, tenacity, and resilience,” King says of her grandparents’ trip north during the Great Migration.

I, of course, honor the well-known historical figures, but the black people that I most revere are in my family. My grandparents all migrated from the  south as part of the Great Migration, which is a very significant part of U.S. history that has shaped the culture of many major cities in the United States. I feel that embarking on such a huge life transformation takes a lot of courage, tenacity, and resilience. I think the effects of this have trickled down through the generations in my family and have ensured that each generation is afforded more opportunities than the previous. I wouldn’t be at Haas today were it not for their investments in my education and development.

What can be done in the schools or in our country to build more understanding of black history outside of Black History Month?

Conversations need to be more open and honest about the history of black people in the United States and how that has had positive impacts on our society but has also led to violently oppressive systems. I think people need to discuss the true reasons behind current “controversial” topics surrounding the black community today (Black Lives Matter, Colin Kaepernick, etc.) instead of dismissing them as un-American. These events are Black History, and people balked at integration in the same way. I think simply taking the time to engage with what’s happening in the black community today and legitimizing the thoughts and feelings of black people is a way to learn more about black history. Furthermore, it’s important to note that black history did not end with the civil rights era, it continues today and is still evolving.

King with her brother and her parents at North Carolina State University commencement. King earned a BS in chemical engineering in 2010.

Black culture and history is everywhere! There are so many books, movies, and articles in popular culture that are now easy to access. Articles such as The Case for Reparations, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the documentary 13th on Netflix, directed by Ava DuVernay, are current pieces that I believe provide insight into how legalized discrimination has impacted the black community. The Smithsonian Museum for African-American History and Culture in DC is a beautiful free museum that thoughtfully examines black culture in the US, and I think everyone should visit.

What do you wish others knew about being black in the U.S.?

I want others to appreciate the diversity within the black community and look beyond stereotypes. A lot of black culture that is widely circulated and exported only shows one side of the black community. There is culture that is emerging (HBO’s Insecure, Black Panther, Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance) that gives a more nuanced glimpse into what it is to be black in the U.S.  As in any culture, black people vary in their political opinions, religious beliefs, gender identities, and sexualities, socio-economic and educational experiences, and family structures. I would hope that these aspects of pop culture will encourage people to appreciate the rich diversity of the black community. Haas has been one of the few places where I feel people are genuinely interested in the black experience, and I wish others would express the same desire to learn and understand more about being black in the US.

I also want people to understand that black pride is not racist. These are movements and ways of thought that are meant to build a sense of community and pride in a world that is constantly telling us that we are less than, we are not qualified, and we are not American.

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When Molly Turner started as Airbnb’s first policy liaison back in 2011, most people in urban planning and government were still thinking of tech as an industry—rather than a force that was about to unleash a barrage of services and technologies that would disrupt the very fabric of city life.

Five years later, Turner took what she had learned on the front lines of this disruption to create the Berkeley Haas course on the topic, “Tech and the City: How to get urban innovation right.”

Lecturer Molly Turner

“I was both inspired and terrified by how much money was pouring into what I call ‘real-world tech startups,’ because I noticed that the entrepreneurs and the investors building them didn’t know very much about the cities they were disrupting,” says Turner, a lecturer in the Haas Business & Public Policy Group the whose background is in urban planning. “It felt like a very good time to go and teach the future tech leaders at the business school a little bit about cities.”

Now, Turner’s course has inspired a new podcast, “Technopolis,” produced by The Atlantic’s CityLab and which she co-hosts with Jim Kapsis, a Washington D.C.-based start-up advisor. The first eight-episode season launched today.

Remaking, disrupting, overrunning

Each episode is inspired by “a technology that is remaking, disrupting, or overrunning our cities in some way, good or bad,” Turner says. In some cases it’s a specific company, in others it’s a concept such as autonomous vehicles.

“We start by asking what we know about it right now, and then we bring in guests to broaden our thinking and ask the questions people aren’t asking about this stuff,” Turner says. “What could this mean for cities 50 years from now? What are some of the impacts that no one is planning for, and some of the unintended consequences, both good and bad? And what does it mean for our lives in cities, and how cities govern.”

Technopolis Co-Host Jim Kapsis

The show’s guests come from some of the hottest tech companies and from city government, and also include academics and researchers who provide historical, philosophical, or futurist perspectives. The first season is sponsored by WeWork—though the company has nothing to do with the content, she says.

Turner says it was Kapsis, a friend who had served as a climate advisor in the Obama administration and with whom she often discussed these topics, who proposed the idea that they host a podcast together. So they pitched it to CityLab, “the best publication covering what’s going on in cities and what the future of cities look like,” she says. CityLab provides an editor-in-chief, seasoned radio producers, and access to the deep knowledge and connections of its reporting staff.

“It’s a true partnership,” she says.

From VC explosion to batteries and more

Episode 1 of Technopolis starts at the beginning, in a sense: it’s all about venture capital, and why tech investors are so interested in cities all of a sudden. They look at what that means for city leaders, and how the venture capital influx has transformed jobs as city halls.

The second episode covers autonomous vehicles, exploring some of the impacts no one is thinking about, while the third episode looks at batteries, and whether they may soon be turning buildings into mini power plants.

What about electric scooters? “Of course the scooters have home up—I think they’ve been mentioned several times in the first three episodes already, because they’re such a visible example for everyone in cities about how technology is changing our lives,” Turner says. While they haven’t devoted an episode entirely to scooters, Turner says they do explore the different tactics scooter companies and other startups are using to deal with city government.

“Is it better to ask for permission or beg for foregiveness? Companies are definitely trying both,” she says.

Listen or subscribe to Technopolis for free on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google.

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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.

Jennifer R. Cohen will launch a new course on “Equitable & Inclusive Leadership” this summer. Photo: Jim Block

Haas lecturer Jennifer R. Cohen is gearing up to launch a course called “Equitable and Inclusive Leadership,” this summer. The elective is open to both Evening & Weekend and Executive MBA students. Cohen’s goal with the class is to present the data-driven benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, providing students with the language, concepts, insights, and tools to use DEI best practices in and out of work.

Data is key to Cohen, a scientist by training who holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in biochemistry, cellular, and molecular biology. Though she dreamed of being a scientist as a child, she said she found herself increasingly drawn to the idea of creating inclusive communities where underrepresented students felt safe and supported to do their best. That led to a career pivot. Most recently, she ran Oakland, Ca.-based SMASH, a STEM-intensive college preparatory and pipeline program for underrepresented high school students.

A service-focused family

Jennifer R. Cohen (right) with her parents (middle), and sister, Malia. Photo: Jim Block.

Cohen grew up in the diverse Richmond and Portola neighborhoods of San Francisco, in a public service-focused family  with her four sisters, attending the city’s public schools. One sister, Malia Cohen, formerly served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Her father, Evered Cohen, was the ordained pastor of San Francisco’s Lutheran Church of our Savior in 2014.

“Growing up, Black History Month was something celebrated in our church and in our school assembly,” she said. “It felt like a reflection. It was very pageant-like and almost Halloween-like. You dressed up as Harriet Tubman and were replaying the underground railroad. It was similar to the talent portion of a pageant.”

Today, Cohen said she’d like to see the month be more centered on amplifying intentional love of the black community throughout the year, including events like Oakland’s Black Joy Parade, organized by Elisha Greenwell, which celebrates the black experience and the community’s contribution to cultures past, present, and future.

Breaking stereotypes

We spoke with Cohen about her heroes in the black community—there are many, including her parents, and public servants such as former First Lady Michelle Obama, Cohen’s sister, Malia, who is now chair of the California State Board of Equalization, and U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who, like Cohen, is a Howard University undergraduate alumna.

“I’m inspired by people whose passions and contributions break stereotypes,” Cohen said. “People who are activated. The creators and doers in our community.”

Here are a few more of Cohen’s heroes:

Vivien Thomas. Oil portrait by Bob Gee.

Vivien Thomas: Thomas was a heart surgery pioneer at Johns Hopkins during the 1940s. When Cohen was a graduate student, rumors spread among black students about a famed black man who had made a significant medical contributions to the hospital. She later learned that Thomas was a surgical technician, who did not have a medical degree, but nonetheless developed a procedure used to treat “blue baby syndrome,” working with a team to save babies from heart failure. “He was someone who was denied access to become a doctor, but that didn’t stop him,” Cohen said. “Countless lives were saved.” Cohen found Thomas’s framed photo in the basement of the hospital. The photo was later moved to the main floor, around the time that the film “Something the Lord Made,” was released, which recounts Thomas’ story. “He has a beautiful gold gilded frame now and that matters,” Cohen said. “I feel like that’s reflection of how we as a society are moving away from having our vast and significant contributions hidden in the proverbial basement to being showcased on the main floor.”

Henrietta Lacks: Lacks was an African American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research today. “I would not have graduated or completed my PhD without HeLa cells,” Cohen said. As the founder of the Biomedical Scholars Association in Baltimore, a group that provides a support system for underrepresented minority scholars within the Hopkins community, Cohen brought local Baltimore middle and high-school students into the research lab for hands-on STEM experiences. “I would tell them that your connection to science is right in front of your eyes. You are looking at the cells that came from a black woman from the Baltimore area.” An unknowingly heroic contributor to science and medicine, Lacks “teaches me the power of legacy and the impact we can make in the lives of people we’ve never met,” Cohen said. Some heroes are out in front like Oprah and Michelle Obama, Cohen said. “But with Henrietta Lacks it’s impossible to measure her impact, to monetize the impact of having her cells being harvested and grown all over the world to test for all kinds of diseases and to create cures for all kinds of diseases, including polio.”

Tomi Adayemi: Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American author of young adult novels that are taking Afrofuturism into the mainstream. Her debut novel, “Children of Blood and Bone,” which is currently being made into a movie by Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions, takes place somewhere that’s “like Wakanda with magic,” Cohen said. (Wakanda is the fictional African country in Marvel Comics’ “Black Panther.”) “When I escape I want to go to a place that’s an alternative reality for black people that sheds the legacy of slavery and oppression and presents blackness in our full glory and genius. So when I think about heroes, these are people who are creating that alternative,” Cohen said.

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A panel on the legal challenges of the cannabis industry. Photo: Jim Block

More than 200 people packed Spieker Forum last Thursday for the inaugural SheCann Summit, a day-long event aimed at making sure women and minorities don’t get left out of the brand new, fast-growing legal cannabis industry.

SheCann organizers, clockwise from top: Fahed Essa, Steve Varacalli, Roberto Ortegon, Jordan Lee, Celeste Faaiuaso, and Nish Samant. Photo: Jim Block

“We decided to put on SheCann because we wanted to highlight the importance of having equitable representation in the industry,” said Fahed Essa, MBA/MPH 19, SheCann co-organizer and co-president of the Berkeley Cannabis Industry Club. Essa welcomed the intergenerational, diverse crowd to the event, which was co-presented by online shop and publication Miss Grass.

Event panels covered the cannabis legal landscape, industry investing and fundraising, marketing challenges, and conscious consumerism.

Essa said that Steve Varacalli, Berkeley Cannabis Industry Club co-founder and co-president, came up with the idea for a cannabis conference that would focus on women and social responsibility.

“We were trying to figure out what would stand out,” Essa said. Varacalli, MBA 19, said he’d been watching the cannabis industry evolve from his native Australia before he arrived at Haas—and was getting increasingly intrigued by the potential.

“It’s not often that you watch an industry get deregulated,” he said. “It’s so exciting.” Varacalli notes the group “is not a consumption club,” but instead aims to destigmatize the cannabis industry, as well as provide career, investment, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

An audience question during a SheCann panel. Photo: Jim Block

An investor conversation covered topics ranging from how a cannabis company is valued to how to decide when it’s time to raise venture capital to how to choose a VC partner. In cannabis, venture funding can still be tricky since cannabis is legal in California but still illegal at the federal level.

Tahira Rehmatullah, managing partner at Hypur Ventures, advised entrepreneurs to do their homework before investor meetings and match the content of their pitches to whom they’re meeting with. “Your pitch won’t be the same for everyone you are talking to,” she said. As early stage companies, you aren’t expected to have to have all the answers, she said, “but we have to know that the check we give you has some sort of a plan behind it.”

On the fundraising side, Erin Gore, founder and president of medical cannabis company Garden Society, discussed her challenges in raising a $2 million Series A round, including walking away from an intense potential investor who reminded her of a bad boyfriend. “I had the courage to tell him no, and I had three weeks of payroll left….and I had to have the confidence that this was going to work,” she said, advising, “If it’s not right in your gut, don’t do it.”

All event ticket proceeds benefited The Hood Incubator, which works to increase the participation of underrepresented minority communities in the legal cannabis industry, and Success Centers, which empowers marginalized community members through education, employment, and art.

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Clockwise from top left: Bosun Adebaki, MBA 19, Karin Bauer, program manager for the Berkeley Haas Blockchain Initiative; Asst. Prof. Giovanni Compiani; Adam Sterling, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business; Kate Tomlinson, MBA 20,  and high school students attending a She256 event.

Bosun Adebaki, MBA 19, will spend time this spring researching the merits of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), a form of digital money that’s being tested by governments and central banks worldwide. His goal is to determine how central banks can use digital currencies to become more competitive, flexible, and efficient.

Adebaki, a fellow with the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, is among eight graduate students and seven faculty members from across UC Berkeley who received the first round of grants from the Berkeley Haas Blockchain Initiative, a new program funded by a grant from blockchain industry leader Ripple.

“We’re moving quickly to become a hub for all of this innovation that we believe will lead to new research discoveries and technologies that seek to solve the world’s most pressing business and societal problems,” said Karin Bauer, program manager for the Berkeley Haas Blockchain Initiative.

Ripple chose Haas last June as a partner in its $50 million University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), an effort that has expanded to include 29 prestigious universities around the world. Haas received a multi-year, multi-million-dollar grant to support research in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital payments. The Berkeley Haas Blockchain Initiative is housed in the Institute for Business and Social Impact (IBSI) at Haas and reaches across all of UC Berkeley.

A global research network

Laura Tyson, faculty director of IBSI and former Haas dean

“It’s exciting to watch the Ripple UBRI Partnership gather momentum at Haas and across the Berkeley campus,” said Prof. Laura Tyson, faculty director of IBSI and former dean of the Haas School. “Individual companies and researchers can only accomplish so much. But by supporting a research network that spans across so many great universities and over five continents, Ripple is building a powerful program that could lead to important advances for not only the entire sector, but for the world.”

Blockchain, originally developed to securely and transparently record transactions involving bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, has become one of the hottest areas in business because it represents a fundamentally new way of handling large volumes of sensitive data. Blockchain keeps encrypted records in widely scattered networks of devices, and its advocate say it’s less vulnerable to manipulation and fraud, and is well suited for delicate operations such as money transfers and title searches.

The Berkeley Haas initiative is supporting pioneering academic research to examine the changes these technologies are bringing to a wide range of industries and the financial system, and also how they might be harnessed to reduce poverty and enhance the greater good. In addition to awarding research grants, the initiative is partnering on the new Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, a  joint venture of Berkeley Engineering’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, the Haas School, and Blockchain at Berkeley to incubate blockchain startups. In addition, the initiative has a pool of funds to distribute to students organizing blockchain-themed events, such as speaker series and conferences.

“Ripple’s generous gift to Haas is in recognition of our ability to drive innovation and inspire research collaboration across different professional schools and programs at UC Berkeley in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital payments,” Bauer said.

Fifteen research grants awarded

The first round of grants went to professors from Berkeley Engineering, the School of Information, and Haas, as well researchers from the Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity and the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. Haas Prof. Paul Gertler received funding for research focused on adoption of digital payment systems by small businesses in emerging markets, and Asst. Prof. Giovanni Compiani received a grant to study what drives demand for cryptocurrencies among both individual and institutional investors. Blockchain courses taught by Adam Sterling, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, and Ikhlaq Sidhu, chief scientist and faculty director of the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, also received grants.

Eight students from Berkeley Law, Berkeley Engineering, the School of Information, the Department of Economics, and Haas each received smaller grants that will allow them to complete research projects within a semester.

She256 advocates for diversity in blockchain.

Haas students participating, in addition to Adebaki, include Kate Tomlinson, MBA 20, and a business consultant for Blockchain@Berkeley, who will be researching applications of blockchain within the energy sector. Her project will dive deeper into the specific challenges of financial reconciliation, hardware integration, and data sharing as they apply to the energy sector. Lauren Fu, MBA 19, will research ways to assign vehicle accident liability by collecting and storing accident data using blockchain—so that the data collected will be auditable and tamper-free.

She256, co-founded by Sara Reynolds, BS EECS 21 and a Blockchain@Berkeley consultant, also received a grant to continue to develop the reach of the organization, a movement to increase diversity and break down barriers to entry in the blockchain space. The annual she256 conference will be held on Sunday, April 28, at Haas.

Supporting the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator

The Berkeley Haas initiative is also providing entrepreneurship training for teams accepted into the brand new Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, funded by the Berkeley XLab. The Xcelerator provides money, mentorship, and resources to teams building blockchain enterprises.

Neeraj Goyal, MBA 19, and Ije Anusionwu, MBA 20, wanted to use blockchain to help refugees track and sell valuables that they leave behind when they are uprooted. The pair have applied for a grant through the Xcelerator program to help build a startup based on the idea. (Grants will be announced this spring.) “Capital will be important, but we also need the expertise of people who have founded companies successfully,” said Goyal.

Working with the Sutardja Center on blockchain makes sense, says Rhonda Shrader, executive director of the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Program. “We teach complementary skills that are critical for commercializing any technology,” said Shrader, who will teach courses through the program. “At Haas, we take what we know about business management and apply it to frontier technologies in a systematic and methodical way. Cooperating with Berkeley Engineering on projects large and small is what Haas students want.”

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Left-right: Elaine Leong, MBA 19, Christine Lam, CEO of Citi China, and Moi Liu, MBA 19.

Elaine Leong and Moi Liu—both MBA 19s and roommates at Haas—landed a sit-down interview during winter break with Christine Lam, CEO of Citi China, to talk about the keys to her successful finance career.

Leong wasn’t going into Citi cold; she’d worked as a management associate at Citi in Malaysia before applying to Haas.

At Citi, Leong had rotations in operations, retail, and corporate banking and managed a portfolio of high net-worth clients as her final assignment. “I wouldn’t be at Haas without Citi and the great leaders and mentors that I met there,” she said. “That’s why I value every opportunity to share Citi’s culture with my peers and schoolmates.”

Leong met with Barbara Desoer, MBA 77, and the CEO of Citibank N.A., before applying to the Berkeley MBA program.  It was Desoer who introduced Leong and Liu to Lam, who has been at the fore of her industry for decades and has served in her current role since 2016.

“I’m grateful that Berkeley gave me the platform to learn from leaders such as Christine Lam,” Liu said. “I am inspired by the wisdom she shared, which gave me fresh perspective on developing my own career path.”

Citi established business in Shanghai, China, in 1902. Since then, Citi China has grown to become one of the most global of all foreign banks in China, operating in nearly 100 markets. With both retail and institutional product offerings, the bank operates in 12 cities and has 6,000 employees.

In the early 1990s, Lam spearheaded Citi’s securities services business ventures in the China B-Share market. She’s also served as head of operations and technology for Asia Pacific, country business manager for Citi Consumer Banking in Hong Kong and Macau, and chief of staff to the regional CEO of the Corporate and Investment Bank.

Lam offers some key takeaways from the interview:

Keep an open mind when opportunities present themselves.

Lam began her Citi career as a management associate in the management trainee program. Soon after, she was asked to assume management responsibilities for an operations unit.  She went on to become the youngest member of the new team—assuming leadership responsibilities within a year of joining the firm.

Throughout her career, Lam continued to be open to new challenges, taking on roles in emerging industries, such as when Citi entered the B-shares market. (On the Shanghai Exchange, B-shares trade in U.S. dollars. On the Shenzhen Exchange, B-shares trade in Hong Kong dollars.) Lam said her willingness to try new roles helped her to develop a reputation as open-minded, adventurous, and adaptable. “It became a lot easier for other managers to consider me for assignments where I may not have had prior experience,” she said.

Focus on building transferable skills.

When asked how she transitioned to many new positions, Lam explained that she often looked beyond the job titles and instead considered the skills involved. When moving from operations into retail banking, for example, she noted that about 70 to 80 percent of the skills required for both jobs overlapped, skills such as people management, process management, and risk management. “So when you take a risk of 20 to 30 percent it’s not that bad,” she said.

Understand strengths and shortcomings.

An adventurous spirit has always been a key strength and has played an important role in Lam’s career work choices over the decades.

That said, she said she works on areas within her skill set that need to be developed and asks for help when she needs it.  “I have always sought advice,” she said. “I might have blind spots. Having a group of people who I feel comfortable speaking with has always helped in terms of making my career decisions.”

Attitude is more important than aptitude.

For entry-level positions at Citi, the company prefers an open and positive attitude over a specific body of knowledge, Lam said. “Citi is an institution that is very willing to take risks on people,” she said.

Lam said Citi values attitude over aptitude because “the world is changing so rapidly that the technical knowledge of today may no longer be relevant tomorrow.” More important are willingness and ability to learn, a person’s communications skills, and strategic thinking, she said.  “It doesn’t matter if you don’t have [the knowledge],” she said. “We will teach you.” As a global bank, Citi also looks to hire candidates who can deal across cross-cultures, with a wider perspective of the world.

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The Full-time Berkeley MBA and the Berkeley MBA for Executives rose to their highest ranks ever in the latest U.S. News & World Report ranking published today.

U.S. News ranked the Full-time Berkeley MBA #6 for the first time—tied with Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Columbia Business School; the Berkeley MBA program had ranked #7 for the prior 11 years.

The full-time MBA rankings are based on data provided by participating U.S. schools and on polls of business school deans and directors of accredited MBA programs, as well as surveys of corporate recruiters and company contacts. The score is calculated from placement success and starting salary (35%), student selectivity (25%), peer poll (25%), and the average of the last three years of recruiter polls (15%).

The Berkeley MBA for Executives rose to #7, up from #9 last year, in the EMBA ranking. The EMBA ranking is based entirely on the peer assessment by business school deans and directors of accredited MBA programs.

The Evening & Weekend MBA ranked #2 with an index of 99 (out of 100) points, after being ranked #1 for the past six years. The part-time MBA ranking is based on a peer assessment score by deans and MBA directors (weighted 50%), various student quality measures, and percent of MBA students who are part-time (12.5%).

In the specialty rankings, Haas placed as follows:

#3 in nonprofit

#5 in entrepreneurship

#6 in international

#8 in finance

#8 in management

#9 in marketing

#14 in accounting

#14 in info systems

#14 in production/operations

#19 in supply chain/logistics

The full report is available here.

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