OneHaas

Cory Boatwright, MBA 21 – Finding Jobs That Matter For Our Vets

In honor of Veterans Month, the OneHaas Alumni Podcast is pleased to welcome Cory Boatwright to the show. Cory is a Senior Advisor of Workforce Development, Strategies, and Programs for Hiring Our Heroes.  Growing up in a working class home in Chico, California, Cory always knew he wanted to go to college, but coming from limited means made that a challenge. So he decided to start his career by first joining the military – a decision that sparked a lifetime passion for service and social impact work.  Cory tells host Sean Li how his time in the Air Force prepared him for a successful career in business, what it felt like to fulfill his childhood dream of attending Haas, and how he’s giving back to the veteran community through his work at Hiring Our Heroes.  *OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.* EPISODE QUOTES: On how the Air Force prepared him for a career in business “ I always knew that I wanted to be like a business person, right? And I kind of just made up this person, this fictitious person of who I wanted to be. And I took characteristics of people from books, magazines, shows, and stuff like that, of who I wanted to be as a business person. And so one of the things that I thought was like, okay, well, a business person has to be able to be a public speaker and speak in front of people…And so I was like, well, how do I do that? I don't have the skills to do that. So I joined the Air Force as a military broadcaster. I was like, I'm just gonna throw myself into this.” On his switch from the investment banking world to military programming “ There's a role that came open at LinkedIn to build out their military recruiting programs. I had zero experience as a recruiter. I wasn't a recruiter, but I was like, I'd really like to work with the military community. And so I talked to a friend of mine who owned a nonprofit… And he’s like, Cory, what do you do for free? And I was like, I help vets get jobs and get into school. And he’s like, you should figure out how to get paid to do that.” On fulfilling his longtime dream of attending Haas “...Immediately I was with my people and I was like, no doubt I'm coming here.  Just a huge sense of belonging. I went there and basically I was able to, between like the core courses, which every one of them really resonated with me, I loved the curriculum of the program, but also when it came to electives, I was able to build out a learning path for myself that was more geared towards buying a business than it was doing a startup.” On the work he’s doing at Hiring Our Heroes “ They come into our ecosystem and we're making sure that we're getting them to the places that they need to be. For instance, if somebody has a housing issue, they don't have housing or they're about to lose their housing, or they can't pay their utility bills, like that person's gonna be really difficult to help get a job because their basic needs aren't being met at that moment. And so we make sure that they're gonna get to the right people to be able to help them fix that issue and then come back into our orbit so that we can help them connect to meaningful employment. Not just jobs, but like jobs that matter, jobs that are gonna be sustainable, jobs that are gonna have good wages and benefits and stuff like that.” SHOW LINKS: * LinkedIn profile [https://www.linkedin.com/in/coryboatwright/] * Hiring Our Heroes website [https://www.hiringourheroes.org/] * Cory’s book recommendation: HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company [https://www.amazon.com/HBR-Guide-Buying-Small-Business/dp/1633692507] Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations [https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations]

Bryce Gilleland, MBA 20 – Coaching Founders & Creating Social Impact

On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, meet Bryce Gilleland, a general partner at the Cal Innovation Fund, who is helping tomorrow’s most-innovative founders change the world.  Bryce, a Californian through-and-through, grew up in Irvine before moving to San Francisco to begin his career at Pacific Gas and Electric. After many successful years in the energy sector, he hit a ceiling and saw the MBA program at Haas as a pathway forward. But what began as a practical step in his career turned into so much more.  Bryce joins host Sean Li to discuss his journey from PG&E to venture capital and how coaching others and a personal growth mindset is at the core of everything Bryce does.  *OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.* EPISODE QUOTES: On what led him to Haas and his drive to get an MBA “The beautiful part of the whole thing was like after going to Haas, it really opened up my eyes. You know, I saw a bunch of other students with a bunch of other jobs. I saw a bunch of people starting their own businesses and it really expands your mind going there and just talking to your fellow students and hearing some really inspirational professors and, you know, the chancellor now, Chancellor Lyons, he was the dean of Haas right when I joined, and he was super inspirational. So even at the welcome dinner, he was like, I want my students to learn all this stuff, but I really want them to learn: ‘They do that, we do that.’ And that line stuck with me so much where it's like, oh, okay, yeah, I don't have to just simply revere or wonder why other people did it. I could actually go leap in and try to do it myself.” On his decision to take a semester off and travel the world “ There was like a need to go do it and find more of myself, like shed the layers. So it was really, really cool that – you know, I'm forever thankful for Berkeley for many things. But one of them was that they were like, yeah, we have a method for this. We'll make it work. And they gave me that chance to do that.” How he ended up with the Cal Innovation Fund “ When this presented itself, I just dove in and was like, okay, I gotta have some ability to coach and impact leaders because that's what I feel like is kind of in my soul, almost, or my spirit is aligned towards that. And then I wanna be able to make an impact in the world. And, you know, the Cal fund aligns with that. Totally.” What opportunities the Cal Innovation Fund looks for “We try to invest in startups that are gonna make a greener, healthier, more sustainable world. So it's kind of a value-based fund. And then the fund donates 50% of the GP profits (so the company profits, not the investors’) back to the school. And so it just feels very aligned in that we're trying to support the Berkeley ecosystem, really all the UCs, but most founders are outta Berkeley, and trying to make the world a better place in the process. And then trying to give back to that system and create the flywheel of innovation for that.” SHOW LINKS: * LinkedIn Profile [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryce-gilleland-574b74a/] Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations [https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations]

Richard Velazquez, MBA 03 — Relentless Personal Growth

For Hispanic Heritage Month, the OneHaas Alumni Podcast is honored to share the story of Richard Velazquez, a mission-driven executive who is using his decades of experience in a variety of industries to help other Latinx MBA students and alumni succeed.  Every time Richard felt like he hit a ceiling at a job, he pivoted and found new ways to keep moving up. Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Richard learned the value of education and hard work from an early age. It was this drive that got him accepted into one of the most competitive engineering colleges in the U.S. and launched his career into the automotive industry. Richard’s relentless pursuit for personal growth led him to hold senior leadership positions at Microsoft, Pepsico, and Amazon. But through all those jobs, a constant for him has been his desire to give back and uplift other Hispanic business professionals in their careers.   Richard chats with host Sean Li about his career journey from designing cars at Honda and Porsche, to being one of the key masterminds behind Xbox Kinect, his pivotal role at Pepsico, and his new position as CEO of the Latinx MBA Association.   *OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.* EPISODE QUOTES: On his journey to Haas and getting his MBA “When I had the opportunity to move to Germany to work for Porsche, I put my MBA plans on hold and I was like, you know, I'd rather go to Germany and live in Europe for a few years before I take that route. So it was great. I really loved living in Europe. That's where my love for traveling started. I've been to 105 countries since then, but it all started living in Germany…So after two years at Porsche in Germany, I applied through the Consortium for Graduate Study Management, they give full fellowships. At the time it was for underrepresented minorities who were looking to get their MBA and was open to anyone who has a commitment to diversity. And I applied, I got into Haas.” On Xbox Kinect’s success and Richard and his team’s involvement  “People just really got into it... So the thing with Kinect was since it was doing skeletal tracking, if you just flick your wrist, the character on the screen would just flick their wrist. There was no like faking it. So Dance Central was phenomenal. It showed you which arm was wrong. It highlighted in red when you were doing something wrong and it was game changing at the time. So it set a Guinness World Record, it was the fastest selling consumer electronics device, it was like 10 million 10 million units in less than like two and a half months or something like that. So it was a big deal.” On his decision to leave Microsoft for the beverage industry and a top role at Pepsico “ It was similar to like the car design and like, it's gonna be slightly different [but] it's all gonna do the same thing. So it wasn't advantageous for me to do it 'cause I wasn't linear or growing in any way, shape or form.  I'm still an individual contributor. I'm not leading any teams. I want to get promoted, I want to advance.” On why he wanted to pursue a full time role in helping other Hispanic business professionals grow  “ After 30 years, I was like, well, I'm getting more personal fulfillment from these scholarships that I'm getting for students who are like me who didn't have those opportunities to get into school, for helping people get their first jobs, for helping them invest in their careers, than I am by making an extra billion dollars or a hundred million dollars for Amazon or these other companies that don't really need it…It's not giving me the personal satisfaction that I'm getting from this work I'm doing with people.” SHOW LINKS: * LinkedIn Profile [https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardvelazquez/] * Latinx MBA Association Website [https://www.latinxmba.org/] Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations [https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations]

Joshua Ahazie, BS 18 – Putting African Music on The World Stage

This month, the OneHaas Alumni Podcast is excited to share the story of Joshua Ahazie, founder and CEO of ATIDE and marketing lead at Warner Music Africa.  Joshua grew up in Lagos, Nigeria in a household brimming with music and entrepreneurial spirit. After following one of his brothers to California and attending Berkeley City College, he set his sights on the Haas School of Business. Through his Haas education, Joshua found a way to combine his love for music with his desire to make the world a better place.  Joshua joins host Sean Li to chat about the inception of the ATIDE Project and the community impact it’s had in Lagos. They also discuss the growth and global success of Afrobeats, his work with Warner Music Africa, and his vision for Nigeria's music industry. *OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.* EPISODE QUOTES: On what drew him to Berekley Haas “It was this campus and school that had values or principles that were very clear in their culture and they sort of embodied that into the learning process as well. So I was drawn to the principles because that was pretty new for me, and I just ended up spending the next couple of months learning more and more. I was stopping people that were wearing Berkeley Haas merch like, ‘how do I get into this castle atop the hill?’” On the origins of ATIDE “ So it started off as a philanthropic project, right? Our focus was sort of giving back with commerce. The name by the way, it's Yoruba and it means, ‘We are here.’ In the early days, we had launched this curated online store in partnership with a couple Nigerian entrepreneurs who were passionate about social causes. And during my time at Haas, I was very inspired by brands like Tom's. Like, you know, the idea that commerce could fund impact in a very sustainable way because as opposed to donations, you are actually building a customer, building an audience and that can scale. So our goal was simply to sort of help these local businesses reach the global audience while also funding meaningful social change.” On the important role music plays in his work “ That's the language I speak, man. Like, I play instruments, I collect records, I love seeing artists perform. It's such a vulnerable and expressive form of art. And even though we've worked across different industries –  hospitality, nonprofit, e-commerce, gaming, whatever it may be – my most exciting projects, personally, are our music campaigns and our artists like rollouts.”  On the booming music scene in West Africa “ A couple of things that could have helped with the growth that we're seeing now is just the confidence that we have in our identity. I think in the early 2000s, we were sort of focused on fusion. How do we put in R&B with our sound and how do we put in this record with that one? But now, being African is cool and our artists are leaning into their identity of what it means to be African and make music as an African. I think that confidence in our Africanness has been something that has allowed us to sort of stand out in a very saturated music market globally.” SHOW LINKS: * LinkedIn Profile [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaahazie/?originalSubdomain=ng] * ATIDE Project [https://www.atideproject.com/] * The Cavemen. [https://www.instagram.com/the.cavemen/?hl=en] * JOEBOY  [https://www.instagram.com/joeboyofficial/] * Joyce Olong [https://www.instagram.com/joyceolong/?hl=en] Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations [https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations]

Liz Castelli, EMBA 24 – Designing Experiences with Impact

On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, learn how alum Liz Castelli went from a middle school science teacher to co-founder and CEO of Tinsel Experiential Design.  After planning her own dream wedding, Liz wanted to pivot from education to the events planning space. With the help of her two friends, they launched Tinsel and quickly grew it from a boutique agency to a powerhouse experiential company working with clients like GitHub and Uber.  Liz chats with host Sean Li about the evolution of Tinsel, the importance of having a clear vision when it comes to company culture, and why she wanted to pursue an executive MBA at Haas with an already successful business under her belt. *OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.* EPISODE QUOTES: On Tinsel’s early days “ How do brands connect with their audiences? This was sort of the beginning of experiential. And man, we were the redheaded stepchild. It would go through like capital A agency, it would go through create, it would go through digital, you name it, every other entity…And then they'd be like, I think there's $3 for experiential. And now it's wild. It's totally the opposite where everyone is thinking about how does the customer experience the product?” On why she wanted to pursue an executive MBA  “ Well, if I'm going to be able to exist as this person who started a company and it is successful, I'd like to feel confident enough in a room of other people who run businesses and know what I'm talking about. And I do know for myself, but I've always done it by learning the hard way or by learning from other people that we've hired. And I think that I wanted to know that what I had done was right.” The surprising lessons she gained at Haas “ That's one of the greatest things that Berkeley gave me. I thought I was coming for the operations. I thought I was coming for the finance, but actually I was coming for politics and power and difficult conversations. And I can think of like 12 different classes where I'm like, oh my God, that's what I came to Berkeley for.” On where she’s headed next  “ I have always thought of myself more as a builder, then this like visionary, you know, futurist if you will. And so I know that my skillset is around building tinsel into a sustainable model at scale within this holding corporation. That's what I'm excited to do. I'm excited to see the right teams and the right people and things sort of moving in the right direction and taking it from where we were post acquisition, which was still nothing to sniff at, you know. But I think there's just a different level of complexity and growth that's there. And I wanna see it through and I wanna make sure that Tinsel is an entity that will stay on and continue.” SHOW LINKS: * LinkedIn Profile [https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-castelli-9b210662/] * Tinsel Experiential Design [https://www.tinseldesign.com/] Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations [https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations]