Haas Innovations Shine in Big Ideas @ Berkeley

Grand Prize Winners, Cashify

A team of Haas Undergraduates won the Big Ideas @ Berkeley grand prize and two other Haas teams took first place in their categories, all emerging from an original field of 160 teams and 550 students across 75 majors and 5 UC campuses.

Cashify, a team made up Shuonan Chen, Justin Chu, both BS 13, and Virgina Chung, BS 12, took home $7,500 for winning the Financial Literacy category and $5,000 in grand prize money for their plans to develop an online “edu-tainment” platform designed to teach new students about finances.

As part of the Cashify curriculum, users will complete tasks for points that can be put toward purchases, such as campus supplies or event tickets. “We’ve all seen fellow students really struggle with their finances,” said Chu. “Our goal is to reach as many minds as possible and make learning about personal finances accessible, fun and useful.” (Read more about Cashify in this post on the Undergraduate Student Blog.)

Emmunify, First Prize in Maternal & Child Health category

Emmunify, a team made up of MBA students Sanat Kamal Bahl, Anandamoy Sen, and Erik Krogh-Jespersen, all second-year students in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program, and members from the Schools of Information and Public Health, won first place in the Maternal & Child Health category and took second in the grand prize competition. Their venture simplifies the immunization process for villagers and health workers in rural India through SMS text and voice messaging technology and has the potential to decrease the number of preventable child deaths. (Read about this team’s win in the UC Berkeley Digital Health Hackathon.)

AMASS Media, with Haas team members John Chang, Clayton Yan, and Hannah Yang, all BS 12, and Carolyn Kao, BS 14,  won in the Creative Expression for Social Justice category. AMASS will connect nonprofits with amateur and early-career videographers seeking to build portfolios to create a way for both to advance their agendas and bring greater public awareness to social justice issues.

Now in its sixth year, Big Ideas @ Berkeley aims to encourage student engagement with the world, helping them develop innovative projects with the potential to solve pressing societal problems in communities at home and abroad. The competition is made possible through the generous support of key donors, including the Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation.

Cashify photo L. to R.: Judge Andrik Cardenas, Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership; Haas Undergrads and Cashify team members Justin Chu, Shuonan Chen, and Virginia Chung; Team Mentor David Williams, UCB’s Financial Aid and Scholarships Office; and Judge Andrew Rudd, chair of the Rudd Family Foundation.

Emmunify photo: Emmunify’s Berkeley MBA students are Sanat Kamal Bahl (far l.), Anandamoy Sen (3rd from r.), and Erik Krogh-Jespersen (far r.), all MBA 14. They are pictured with their Public Health partners Jessica Watterson, Professor Julia Walsh, and Emily Murphy.

First-year MBA Students to Second-years: You are HAASome!

A wave of appreciation is sweeping through the full-time Berkeley MBA program; Some 80 small bears were given by first-year students to thank second-years who have had an impact on their time at Haas. Noa Elan, Jasen Bell, and Anthony Valente, all MBA 14, were behind the ursine appreciation campaign, which came with a “You are HAASome” tag.

“We really wanted to thank second-years and, at the same time, build their commitment to staying engaged with the school and our own commitment to being involved with the upcoming class,” says Elan. “They went beyond themselves to help us and we will do the same.”

Sarah Morra, MBA 13, received a bear from first-year student Ellen Vanderwilt. “At Haas, your work never goes unnoticed,” says Morra. “Your classmates make sure you feel appreciated: anything from a hug after class, to a nomination for a scholarship award, to receiving this Haasome Bear from Ellen.”

Robbie Lizares prepares to part with his bear

Robbie Lizares, MBA 14, gave a bear to Minnie Fong, MBA 13. “We were both the only ones from the Philippines in our classes, so it was natural for me to seek her out,” says Lizares.  “Meeting her was like finding a piece of home…someone who understood me well in a very different place.”

Says Elan, “I joined Haas because I saw the four Defining Principles in every aspect of the school and have only realized, now that I am here, that it’s a stronger force that I could have imagined. The culture and atmosphere have really made me flourish.”

Student Energy Innovations Advance in DOE Competition

Alex Wooten, David Hirsch, and Paul Maa in Shanghai representing their venture, [Temporary Energy]

 

Berkeley MBA students are on two teams advancing to the regional finals of First Look West (FLoW), a national clean energy business challenge. Their ideas for bringing solar energy into low income homes and more easily finding ways to make buildings energy efficient will go head-to-head with 22 other competitors at USC on May 7.

Tom Spooner, and Jonathan Lim, both MBA  14, are part of BEEMS, an interdisciplinary Berkeley team pitching Building Energy Efficiency Mapping Services. The startup is based on licensing a an indoor mapping technology developed at UC Berkeley and, according to Spooner, “offers a fast, cheap, and effective service to assess energy efficiency opportunities in existing buildings.”

David Hirsch, Paul Maa, and Alex Wooten, all MBA 13, make up [Temporary Energy], focused on “making solar as easy as renting furniture.” With guidance from solar and energy experts at Berkeley and Haas, the team plans to improve access to solar for low income households by removing such barriers to entry as expensive permitting.

Temporary Energy recently became the first team from Berkeley-Haas to participate in China Europe International Business School’s (CEIBS) Innovate China case competition. Participation offered networking with investors, students, and government officials, as well as a visit to a special economic zone outside of Shanghai to learn about incentives for businesses there.

Berkeley-Haas was also well represented in the 2012 FLoW competition, with Will Greene, MBA 13, and his teammate Will Regan, a Berkeley Physics PhD candidate, winning the $40,000 third prize for Xite Solar, which has developed a new class of solar cells that could make solar a major source of energy production.

Five Things: Women in Leadership (WIL) Conference

Keynote speaker Heidi Roizen

1. Leadership: Co-chairs Ruth Duggan and Jane Wong, both MBA 13.

2. The mix: Among the more than 400 attendees was a nine-year-old, who asked speaker Heidi Roizen, venture partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, “How do you get better at your job?”

3. Themes: What paths are you driven to bend? Is dreaming big and being a leader selfish?

4. Inspiration: Amanda Pouchot, founder of Levo League, an online community of professional women, challenged the audience to “ask for more” on Equal Pay Day (which was April 9), and Roizen shared war stories from the male-dominated VC world of the 1980′s, then inspired the audience by sharing how she negotiated a four-fold increase in compensation.

5. Perspective: “Today gave me a lot to think about.”–comment from male attendee.

Five Things: Business of Healthcare Conference

Conference Co-Chairs Tara English and Darya Rose with Steve Burrill

Each year, more than 1,000 students, academics, and industry professionals build knowledge and expand networks at conferences organized entirely by Berkeley MBA students. This series will take a look at recent conferences, starting with the Business of Healthcare:

1. In charge: Co-chairs Tara English, Darya Rose, both MBA 13.

2. In attendance: A mix of about 30 percent students, 50 percent professionals, and 20 percent academics/other. People from more than 120 different organizations come, split evenly between small companies and large ones that include Kaiser, Genentech, and UCSF.

3. Questions: How are companies helping consumers manage complex healthcare decisions? How are organizations changing business models to adapt to increasing consumer choice? And who will consumers ultimately choose to meet their healthcare needs?

4. Answers: Keynote speakers Steve Burrill, CEO of the life sciences financial services firm Burrill & Co.,and  Ken Shachmut, EVP  & CFO of Safeway Health, a company founded upon the supermarket chain’s experience in controlling healthcare costs, were joined by attendees, and a host of experts in tackling healthcare’s big questions.

5. Food for Thought: 85% of people who look at their genetics with @23andMe (a personal genomics co.) choose to share their data. An Assumption that people cling to privacy is wrong.

Just another Wednesday in the Berkeley MBA Program

Guest Blogger Kyle Rudzinski, MBA 14

A Day in the Life at Berkeley-Haas

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At Berkeley-Haas, we’re “overwhelmed by opportunity.” Every day is filled with something new.  Something different. Some way to grow. There’s nothing special about the day chronicled below. Just a another Wednesday in beautiful northern California.

6:00 a.m.     Wake up to “Suit and Tie.” Get the day going right.

6:02 a.m.     Eat a Berkeley breakfast. Yes, it involves granola and fresh, local, organic, non-GMO fruit.

6:24 a.m.     Head to Hearst gym’s rooftop pool. Way behind on training for the Berkeley-Haas swim from Alcatraz in April.

8:00 a.m.     Berkeley breakfast part two. Plug into the world… meaning spending way too much time on Flip Board and Facebook. Check out the day’s calendar.

8:27 a.m.     Watch Khan Academy video on macroeconomics. Finish macro readings. Feel up to speed.

9:18 a.m.      Bike to MBA Lounge. Meet classmates Samantha and Aisha (from Canada). Refine and prepare our macroeconomics presentation.

10:03 a.m.   Scurry to the Bank of America forum to dispense “invaluable” career advice to Paul, an undergrad leader of the Net Impact club.

10:19 a.m.    Remember I had no clue what I wanted to do at 22. Send Paul a follow up email reaffirming he’s headed in the right direction because, well, he has a direction.

10:20 a.m.    Collaborate with Professor Omar Romero-Hernandez and my Tesla Motors consulting team–Shelley and Eileen from the Goldman School of Public Policy, Vu from the graduate Chemical Engineering program, and Bart (from Belgium), a fellow MBA–on our carbon neutrality strategy.

11:09 a.m.    Slip into Strategic Corporate and Social Responsibility class just before it starts. Thankful for “Berkeley Time” (classes start 10 minute after the hour).

11:17 a.m.    Listen to Kellie McElhaney, founder of the Center for Responsible Business, connect sustainability and value creation in branding. A positive message to achieve positive CSR ends.

12:30 p.m.    Chat about my summer internship projects with Alumna Kimberly Petska of Dow.  Feel encouraged that big companies make scalable, positive impacts on the planet–and that I have a summer offer.

12:48 p.m.    Get inspired by Salman Khan at the International House with 400 classmates. The Khan Academy founder shares his dream and results to change education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.

1:43 p.m.     Pledged to donate to the Haas Social Impact Fund, a fund in which students promise to give 1 day’s summer internship salary to support classmates interning with nonprofits. Received free CREAM* for the pledge. Great trade. * CREAM serves ice cream between two fresh baked, warm cookies. The store on Telegraph Ave has a line around the block all the time.

1:55 p.m.     Review that macroeconomics presentation one more time. Head to class.

3:17 p.m.     Nail the presentation. Sam and Aisha demonstrate unflappable poise. Every day my classmates impress.

4:05 p.m.      Catch up on emails. Hang out with classmates Kate and Richard (from Australia) in Bank of America Forum. Brad (second year MBA) stops by to set up a carpool to drive us to the Design and Innovation Strategy Club’s tour and happy hour at Stanford’s D-School on Friday.

4:37 p.m.     Chris Curtin, Senior Vice President for Marketing Strategy and Innovation at HP regales us with HP’s re-branding strategy and tagline, “Make it Happen.”

5:56 p.m.     Chat with Chris about HP’s sustainability and marketing integration alongside Professor William Pearce (former Chief Marketing Officer at Del Monte and Taco Bell).

6:02 p.m.     Reflect on no more first semester FOMO (fear of missing out) as I’ve found my own groove at Berkeley-Haas. Tonight I’m skipping the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative, Entrepreneurs Association, and Marketing Club happy hours and a presentation at Haas on Social Bond Markets because other opportunities abound.

6:13 p.m.     Head to Berkeley Law with classmates Lindsay and Steffanie to pick up Jan (from Trinidad and Tobago) for dinner.

6:14 p.m.    Tiny puppy on campus briefly derails our journey.

6:17 p.m.     Stop. Breathe. Admire the beautiful sunset over the Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. Smile because living the California life is good.

6:29 p.m.     Eat authentic Latin America cuisine at Platano in downtown Berkeley with nine classmates. Plan our itinerary for a Spring Break trek to Cuba. Thank you, Berkeley-Haas independent study opportunity.

8:02 p.m.     Stroll to Haas Pavillion to meet Haasies for the Cal-Stanford basketball game (Go Bears!). It’s the first basketball game for classmates Vivek (from India) and Sandra (from Bulgaria via England). Exciting game.

9:38 p.m.     Brand management teammate Zeke (from Argentina) reminds me I need to finish demand forecasting for our team paper on a pharmaceutical case.

10:58 p.m.    Rush home. Turn in the assignment 2 minutes before deadline.

11:03 p.m.    Receive pearls of wisdom from MBA/MPH roommate Ashlee on the Southwest Airlines and Zara cases for legendary professor Terry Taylor’s operations class.

11:08 p.m.    Briefly catch up with my other roommate, Katie (we’re working on our third degree together after undergrad at University of Virginia and Langley High. Virginia’s well-represented at Haas!) and neighbors Jenn and Sakshi.

12:07 a.m.    Write this blog. Go to bed happy because it’s the people at Haas, my friends and classmates, that make it matter. Plus, tomorrow’s another day.

Backstage: Salman Khan’s Meet-up with MBA Education Club

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The student-led spirit at Haas recently resulted in a Dean’s Speaker Series event featuring Khan Academy founder Salman Khan, whose simple YouTube tutorials to help young cousins with homework exploded into a “one-world schoolhouse” with 3,900 lessons viewed more than 230 million times.

With an introduction made by Bryan Wong, MBA 14, Co-presidents of the Berkeley-Haas Education Leadership Club (ELC), Erica Butow and Tom Pryor, both MBA 14, took on the initial outreach and legwork to connect with Khan. The Dean’s office then helped to make the talk a Dean’s Speaker Series event—attended by more than 400 people. (Catch Khan’s lecture in the Haas video room.)

Butow introduced Khan before the lecture and says, “While I was thinking on what to say, I started to wonder how this was possible. How was I able to come from Brazil, from a non traditional background, and suddenly be there introducing Salman Khan to the Haas Community?”

“Thinking about it, I got to the core of what I am passionate about,” says Butow. “All of this was only possible because one day I was given opportunities and these opportunities opened doors, including Haas. As with most of us at Haas, I want to make sure I don’t forget about those who are not given the same chances.”

Khan stayed after his lecture to meet with members of the Education Leadership Club in a more intimate setting, an experience called “amazing” by ELC member Mike Ciccarone, MBA 13.

“At one moment, Sal Khan was trying to describe the way in which he thought virtual education might impact the labor market, and you could tell he was going into ‘teacher mode’ like in his videos,” says Ciccarone. “He asked for a piece of paper to diagram on and I was lucky enough to be sitting next to him. He drew a few scribbles in my journal to illustrate his point, and only afterwards did I realize that I now had an original Salman Khan teaching aid. I’m thinking of getting the page framed.”

“For someone like me, who wants to build a career working in the education space and bringing the lessons learned at Haas to bear on the problems of education equality, getting to meet Sal Khan was nothing short of getting to meet a celebrity or a hero,” Ciccarone says.

Butow says Khan exemplifies the mission of the ELC. “We believe that in order to have the impact we want, we need to multiply the effect we could have on our own by empowering others who will empower others and so on. We believe education has the greatest potential to change lives and break the cycle of poverty.”

Adds Butow, “We are really thankful to Deans Lyons and grateful for being part of this incredible and student lead community that keeps opening doors for us.”

Winning Approaches: First AND Third Place, Kellogg Biotech & Healthcare Case Competition

First place winners Yelena Bushman, MBA 13, Kristian Lau, MBA/MPH 13, Ken Su, MBA/MPH 13, Brian Feth, MBA 13, Ji-Hong Boo MBA/MPH 13

The competition: Kellogg Biotech & Healthcare Case Competition, held on Jan. 26.

The outcome: Haas teams placed first and third.

The teams: First place: Yelena Bushman, MBA 13, of the Evening & Weekend MBA Program; full-time MBA students Ji-Hong Boo, Kristian Lau, and Ken Su, all MBA/MPH 13; and Brian Feth, MBA 13. Third place: In third place were Nick Mascioli and Darya Rose, both MBA 13; Anthony Baldor and Chris Burke, both MBA 14; and Alana Tucker, MBA/MPH 14.

The Field: A total of 38 teams applied, from which 10 teams were selected to compete: two teams each from Haas, Booth, and Kellogg, plus teams from Harvard and Cambridge.

The challenge: “We were asked by a large pharma to value the lead drug in development at a smaller biotech acquisition target,” says Brian Feth. “The drug was in development for obesity and had a number of risks that made the valuation not straight-forward. “

The winning approaches: Team Goldenbear Biosciences, which placed first, built a bottoms-up valuation model based on narrowing the potential patient population to an addressable market and ultimately to revenues. “Given the short timeline, and the nature of the deliverable (powerpoint presentation), we realized that the ability to communicate the process clearly would be far more important than getting every detail of the model perfect,” says Feth. “We spent the early part of the week preparing and reviewing the model together, and the latter half of the week building the story and populating slides. We did make sure to sense check assumptions and try and triangulate various assumptions against each other. It was clear that some teams had not done this by the unrealistic valuations they presented.”

What made them winners: “We were told by the judges that we had the best overall mix of logical valuation methodology, communication style, strategy, and patient understanding,” says Feth. “One judge told me that we built the model and told the story in exactly the same way that they would at Abbott/AbbVie.

The H factor: “Confidence without attitude helped us to present our findings and answer questions candidly and with confidence, as we would with a client or management,” says Feth. We were noted for discussing the “patient journey” which is something that has roots in the course Problem Finding Problem Solving, as well as being discussed regularly in pharma companies as a key element of their customer focus. Tucker says skills from PFPS and Leadership Communication also played a role in the third-place team’s strong showing and in their ability to put together a succinct and compelling story. “Most importantly,” she says, “we worked well as a team to test one another’s assumptions and come to consensus, which Haas emphasizes throughout the curriculum.”

Why it matters: “The increasing rates of obesity in the US are driving much of the increasing healthcare costs – obesity is one of the huge problems facing our generation that will require path-bending leaders to solve.,” says Feth.

Random Acts of MBA Kindness

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Kyle Rudzinski was reminded by a recent Facebook post of the power of asking for what you want. The first-year full-time MBA student had been taking a (brief) break from studying for his Accounting final when he saw a class Facebook page exchange in which Charlie Hughes, MBA 14, put out a call for classmates to join him at a local dance competition. Kate Morris responded that this opportunity was on her bucket list.

This got Rudzinski thinking about the resource pool within the Berkeley MBA Program–a group of smart, connected people also highly inspired by the school’s Beyond Yourself Defining Principle. “At how many other points in your life are you part of such a concentrated body of talent?” he says. “It seemed like a perfect opportunity to sync wish lists with random acts of kindness.”

So, Rudzinski launched Haasies Helping Haasies, an initiative to do just such syncing. His classmates submitted more than three dozen wishes (funneled anonymously through Rudzinski for the time being) within five days. He’s putting out the asks during this week of giving thanks and will then pair Haas colleagues to aid one another in aspirational goals. These include learning to surf and and learning to make fancy French pastries, attending the Oscars, and meeting Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

“This is really community-owned” says Rudzinski, whose own aspiration for the year is practicing influence beyond authority. “I’m just a conduit to help build our community.”

Watch this space to see wishes come true!

Update: Rudzinski posted the wish lists on Sunday at noon. As of 8:30 Monday morning, 11/19, 158 offers covering 52 out of 57 requests have come in. As he notes, “that’s pretty cool.”

photo credits: LizanneG via photopin cc

Michael Dawes via photopin cc

Dave_B_ via photopin cc

Vetted: Jeff Allen

This week we are showcasing students at Haas who are veterans of the U.S. military. Today, meet Jeff Allen, MBA 13, from the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program:

Service: Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army and Washington National Guard.

The path to military service: “I grew-up near Fort Bragg, NC, during Vietnam, saw the difficulties military life put on the soldier, family and community, and remember thinking, ‘I will never serve in the Army.’  But, as I grew, I saw wonderful examples of Service and it instilled a sense of duty. I went on to gain acceptance into West Point and then into Army Aviation. My active duty service was primarily at Fort Lewis, WA, and ended with a deployment to Operation Desert Storm.”

Invaluable experience: “Following active duty, I began a 20 year career in financial services practicing as an advisor with Merrill Lynch, McDonald Investments, and UBS. After establishing my practice, I rejoined the Army through traditional service in the Washington National Guard. I balanced a dual career during which I worked through two bear markets and two deployments—and some rewarding experiences. In 2005 my WA Guard unit mobilized to help in Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. In 2010, in my final military role, I volunteered to mobilize to support four deployments drawn from my Guard unit, looking after soldiers downrange, their families at home, and rebuilding a leadership team to train those who did not deploy. God bless the citizen soldiers and their families.”

B-school because:  “Sometime during the turbulent decade that began in 2000, I got the crazy idea to conduct a career ‘pivot.’ I wanted to prepare myself for life’s next adventure and needed to retool and hone my management skills.”

Chose Haas for: “Its distinctive leadership in strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation, which challenge executives to challenge the status quo.  Most people do not realize that military leaders are seldom told how to accomplish the mission. Berkeley-Haas is an excellent environment in which to practice leadership while being a free thinker.”

Opportunity capture: “Through the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program, I have built strong connections with people who enhance my learning experience with their skills and will forever be a part of my network. My past career was very local and I now need to be better connected on a national or even global level. The resources and people willing to help at Berkeley, Columbia, and West Point are endless and there is a welcome mat out at most American corporations for the talent and leadership veterans can bring.”

Meet other Haas vets:

Brandon Doll, MBA 14, U.S. Navy

Stephanie Knoch, MBA 13, U.S. Navy

Robert Shaye, MBA 14, U.S. Coast Guard