Career Advancement: VP of Product Management, FreeWheel

FreeWheelin’ VP Nick Ionita shows off the Blue and Gold

Student: Nick Ionita, MBA 13

Working as: Vice President of Product Management at FreeWheel, a B2B software company that provides advertising and revenue management tools for premium entertainment companies delivering their content online (ESPN, MTV, CNN, etc).

The path: Ionita joined FreeWheel as a product manager and was promoted to product director just before starting the Berkeley MBA Program. “When I joined, FreeWheel had about 20 people – we’re now up to 170 globally. While earning my MBA I was promoted to VP of Product Management and joined the company’s executive team. My experience at Haas played a very big role in that.”

Thrilled to: “Work with major media companies who are expanding their traditional television businesses online.” Ionita’s role has grown from product strategy and development to playing a larger role in the organization’s operations. “Start-ups face some unique management challenges when they start to grow.  Maintaining a loose, open culture while beginning to layer in the organizational process and structure required to continue scaling is a difficult balance.”

FreeWheel because: “Five years ago I was working as product manager at a large media company in Chicago. Every visit to SF for industry conferences made me realize that we were just sitting on the sidelines reacting to what was happening out here. I knew my next step had to be relocating to the Bay Area and I created a short-list of requirements: 1) Join something early stage where I had opportunity to be impactful, 2) learn from an experienced founding team, and 3) help solve a problem that I believed in. It was important to me that I join something that would help move an industry forward.”

Networked: “Working in the Bay Area you meet Haas alums at companies big and small. I constantly leveraged my Haas network for introductions to clients and partners as FreeWheel was growing, and now get many of the same requests from other alums building companies in the space.”

Inside FreeWheel: “I recently hung a poster above my desk (there are no offices) that says ‘Work like a Captain, Play like a Pirate.’  I think that sums up the work culture here perfectly.”

Best advice: “At work I made sure to discuss courses I was currently taking or planning to take and how I believed those were lining up with career goals I was setting. People (including your boss) don’t know what you’re learning and how that’s applicable to what you’re doing day to day unless you talk about it. Make your MBA work for you now, don’t wait until you’ve got your diploma.”

MBA 12s at Work: The Strategic Side of Gucci

Grad: Eamonn Courtney, MBA 12.

Working as: Business Analyst to Gucci President & CEO, Patrizio di Marco in Milan. “At a high level, my role is to support Mr. di Marco with analysis that enables him to make data-driven decisions on strategic business issues. In practice, my responsibilities range from ideating on new services that can enhance customer experience to evaluating the financial productivity of our stores across the world.”

Gucci because: “Gucci’s management team is incredibly accomplished. The opportunity to work closely with these industry talents directly out of business school is truly special.” Courtney also appreciates Gucci’s active adaptation to the new ways clients shop and interact with brands.

Fabric cutting in Italy for ready-to-wear

Inside Gucci: “I travel to HQ in Florence quite a bit for work. When I’m there my colleagues and I will sometimes head over to product development to watch Gucci’s artisans at work. On one visit, the artisans happened to be making Blake Lively’s shoes for the Gucci Premiere commercial, so we were able to get a sneak peek before the rest of the world!”

Job search strategy: “Following my heart. I had to wait until mid-June for my offer from Gucci , which was incredibly stressful at times, but I knew it was what I wanted. I can’t tell you how it felt when I finally got that call.” Mock interviews were one tool Courtney used to prepare. “The Career Services staff has an adept lens through which to view you as a potential candidate since they are constantly talking to recruiters to understand the qualities that really resonate with interviewers.”

Classroom lessons in action: “One that I consider almost every day—and studied in Leading People with Prof. Don Moore—is bias and how it can impact data and behaviors. I frequently come across qualitative studies produced from numerous sources, and for each it is necessary to critically consider the source and how perspective might bias what they say. Otherwise, taking action on the data could be quite detrimental.”

The BILD approach:  “As an MBA, there are skills that are simply expected of you, and rightfully so. Thus to create unique value for your company you must be able to innovate. PFPS is an asset to Berkeley MBAs because the skills taught can differentiate you at any company, in any position, at any stage of your professional career.”

The Milan life: “Shopping. Milan is world-renowned for design across the board—fashion, industrial, etc.—so there are amazing local shops for all sorts of products. The people in the shops here also have incredible passion for their craft, so you can learn a tremendous amount at the same time.”

One of Courtney’s favorite shops in Milan–in addition to Gucci, of course!

How an Evening and Weekend MBA Student Moved from Idea to Acquisition–in Eleven Short Months

Amit Paka is not a man who wastes time. Three semesters into the Evening & Weekend MBA Program, he realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur. And in 11 short months, he hatched an idea, relocated, launched a venture—and sold it to eBay.

When Paka, MBA 12, began his MBA studies, he was a senior program and product manager with Microsoft, working in online advertising with Bing. “I entered the Haas program to broaden my perspective and explore all opportunities that were out there,” he says of an open-minded approach. The Seattle-to-Berkeley commute for Saturday classes was challenging, he acknowledged, but worth it.

Courses and seminars taken during Fall semester of his second year, such as Entrepreneurship and Competitive Strategy, became the game changer for Paka, introducing him to new ideas, frameworks, and people. “Becoming part of an entrepreneurial universe leaves an impression on you,” he says.

Launching a Mobile Conversation Platform

The impression made on Paka led him to take even more entrepreneurship classes, network extensively, at least once a week whether in Seattle or San Francisco, and to come up with an idea and a game plan. By the end of his second year in the Berkeley MBA Program he left Microsoft and relocated to the Bay Area, ready to commit to Flockish, his idea for a mobile conversation platform. “Flockish combines the status feed concept of Facebook with the location awareness of Foursquare to create conversation among people gathered in the same locations, such as a concert or a sporting event,” says Paka.

“I felt this was the right space, a big enough market and that I had the expertise to execute on it,” says Paka. eBay apparently agreed: Their event ticket site, StubHub, purchased Flockish and snapped up Paka to head their mobile apps division. In his new role, Paka was able to scale StubHub’s mobile apps, releasing a new iPad app that Apple featured on the App store.

Paka says one of the most important things he learned at Haas is to Question the Status Quo and to ask questions of other people. “If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to go talk to customers, you have to go talk to your investors,” he says. “You can’t just have an idea and hope that it will somehow become a successful product.”

A Full Entrepreneurial Education

Just how you approach those investors and customers matters too. Paka took Confidence Without Attitude, another of the Haas School’s four Defining Principles, to heart in presenting himself and Flockish to the entrepreneurial community. “When VCs connect you to other VCs, they put their reputations on the line,” he says. “It’s a very close-knit group, so people will hear about it if you come across as anything other than genuine, clear about your goals, and free of arrogance.”

eBay’s purchase of Flockish meant that before he even graduated, Paka engaged in a full entrepreneurial education–from idea generation to launch and all the way through the due diligence required for an acquisition. “I learned a lot about IP and trademark infringement,” he says.

Paka says that since he’s launched Flockish and joined eBay, “Mind-blowing opportunities come up every day.” The most recent one took him from StubHub to a group product manager role with PayPal’s Digital Wallet product team, a group he believes is well positioned to develop and scale the smart-phone-as-wallet. The rapid pace of personal recognition and capture of opportunity mirrors what Paka sees around him. “In this valley you have to keep moving,” he says.

MBA 12s at Work: Chevron Technology Ventures

Feriante conducts a site inspection in Kona, HI.

Grad: Jarom Feriante, MBA 12

Working as: Business Development Analyst with Chevron Technology Ventures. “I champion the integration of new technologies into Chevron’s organization,” he says of his work analyzing  promising startups and developing utility scale solar projects to test their products.

Most excited to be working on: “Developing the most sustainable and cost effective energy resources of the future!”

Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV) because: “I sought the Berkeley MBA because I wanted to make a larger impact in the sustainable energy industry. Although I have an entrepreneurial background, transition to Chevron was welcoming. “I work on a small team and have a lot of flexibility in choosing how best to drive value for the organization. The role is very entrepreneurial and fits my work style.”

Inside CTV: “I’m based in Houston, but have managed projects in Argentina, where I led a team to identify strategic electrical enhancements for a Patagonia oil field, and in Hawaii, where I manage the engineering and development process for a utility scale solar R&D project.”

Networked: Feriante often encounters Haas alums while interacting with Bay Area clean energy startups. “This has helped to establish connections and more quickly reach a level of trust with new organizations.”

Job search strategy: Feriante participated in company presentations and conferences to network and learn about organizations, finding that he was able to focus on management consulting early in the recruiting season and energy companies in the late season. “Interestingly, I ended up in an internal energy consulting role.”

The BILD approach:  “I’ve been surprised by how often I use processes learned in Problem Finding, Problem Solving  and Haas@Work to understand and address business needs. Procedures I’ve learned at Chevron have added even more structure to identifying, framing, and analyzing opportunities.”

Living the Houston life:  Feriante is on the road a lot for work, but says that Houston’s airport access (and favorable weather) also work well for his passions–rock climbing and year-round motorcycle riding. “The best thing about Houston, though, he says, “is its people.”

MBA 12s at Work: Honest Tea

Welcome to MBA 12s at Work, a periodic series on the new career launches of the Berkeley MBA class of 2012.

Grad: Jenny Burns, MBA 12.

Working as: Brand Manager with Honest Tea in Bethesda, MD, responsible for all bottled tea and “ade” (e.g. juice) products. Her role includes product development and innovation, packaging, retail marketing and partnerships, and brand advertising.

Most excited to be working on: Helping develop a new line of zero-calorie sodas called Honest Fizz–the company’s first foray into carbonated drinks. “I feel such a sense of ownership and pride over the finished product.”

Honest Tea because: “I went to Berkeley-Haas specifically to work for a small, sustainable food or beverage company. I’m now in the exact role I described wanting in my admissions essay.”

Inside Honest Tea: “After 15 years (and acquisition by the Coca-Cola Company), our R&D lab is still located in our office, right next to the employee kitchen. I’m often greeted by boiling tea and wonderfully fragrant smells as I grab my breakfast each morning.”

Best career search strategies: Burns attended industry trade shows to stay on top of trends, new products, marketing tactics, and recent corporate acquisitions. “I was able to speak like an insider during interviews.” Mentoring and open office hours with the MBA Career Management Group provided “invaluable professional guidance before interviews and during negotiations.”

Classroom lessons in action: A Stonyfield Yogurt case from Wasim Azhar’s Channels of Distribution course detailing the structure and incentives of channels in the food industry helped Burns tailor Honest Tea’s bundle partnerships, marketing materials, and discounts “to better meet the needs of each of our key retailers and its shoppers.”

The Berkeley Innovative Leader Development (BILD) approach: “I took Entrepreneurship for my experiential learning class and the tools for developing an investor pitch have proved applicable to my work at Honest Tea. Managers are often too busy and impatient to deal with a lot of ‘process,’ but you still need to get everyone aligned before getting too far down a path. I’ve found creating mini pitch decks with a few key visuals and actionable insights are the best way to sell ideas up the chain.”

Living the D.C. life: Drinking wine and dancing to French pop music at an embassy party with classmates Asher Burns-Burg and Chelsea Tanaka felt “like such a ‘D.C.’ way to spend a Saturday night.”

 

Students Explore Finance on Bicoastal Treks

Felipe Gonzalez enjoys NYC pre-trek

Felipe Gonzalez, MBA 14, devoted one week in October to his future in finance, participating in two Haas School treks: the Wall Street trek to New York for investment banking, organized by Steve Willis and Mor Ben Efraim, both MBA 14, of the Haas Finance Club; and the LA trek for investment management, organized by Investment Club Co-Presidents Chao Zhang and Matt Therian, both MBA 13.

Gonzalez, who previously worked as a portfolio manager in Santiago, Chile, describes his career as “quant focused” and is pursuing his MBA to strengthen management and leadership skills. While he is now focused on investment management, Gonzalez participated in both treks. “When else do you get this kind of opportunity to network and explore such a wide variety of finance roles?”

Here are notes from his East/West, IB/IM experience:

Why he went: “To learn about the different jobs an MBA could do in the financial industry. And to compare New York and LA to San Francisco to see if I could picture myself living in either place.”

Culture matters: Gonzalez, who chose Haas for its culture, says he was “amazed” by the differences among the banks. “The cultures and ways of expressing themselves were very different. You could almost feel J.P. Morgan being the large ‘number 1 bank;’ how the rapid growth of a relatively new investment banking business has affected Wells Fargo; and the culture of utmost high achievement at Goldman Sachs.”

Fourteen hours a day with whom? “Almost every bank and investment management firm stressed a ‘no jerks’ (another word was sometimes chosen) policy. This definitely breaks the Hollywood personification of the Wall Street banker and even my own previous perceptions. These are long days and you’d better have nice people working with you.”

Candid views of the IB landscape: Bill Rindfuss, executive director of strategic programs for the finance faculty group, says the Wall Street trek provides students with exposure to the global finance capital and the headquarters for most firms. Students meet with  alumni and other professionals working in product groups and industry coverage groups that may not be represented in West Coast offices.  “We even got to meet with the co-head of investment banking at one firm, an alum who shared a very objective and candid high-level view of the IB landscape and outlook,” says Rindfuss.  “San Francisco is home to some very appealing activity within IB, including tech and healthcare coverage, M&A, and IPOs. But it is also eye-opening for students to see the scale and variety of opportunities in the finance capital.”

Wall Street trekkers between banks

Big Deals in the Big Apple:Gonzalez agrees and further rounded out his Wall Street experience by meeting with the Latin American fixed-income desk at Deutsche Bank. He also grabbed a quick lunch with a preoccupied friend from J.P. Morgan’s Latin American M&A team, who, it turns out, was in the middle of this $2.6 billion deal.

 LA Celeb Spotting–Finance Style: “We visited three companies, one of them being PIMCO. Founder Bill Gross is a huge fixed income guru and some of us saw him walk by when we visited the trading floor,” says Gonzalez. “I’ve been reading his market comments for the last six years and seeing him was incredible!” (Read more about the LA trek here.)

What now: “The treks definitely helped me make up my mind on where to look for a summer internship,” Gonzales says. “Now, I continue networking and keep working on my thank-you emails.”

LA trekkers at PIMCO

 

Learning in Store: Retail Trek Yields Consumer Insights

Wendy Pratt explains the lay of the land

One recent Wednesday morning 17 MBA students traded statistics for…shopping.  The students were getting a look at what goes on in stores behind the scenes, as part of a Career Management trek led by Wendy Pratt, a Haas career advisor specializing in marketing and consumer packaged goods (CPG).

Pratt, who brings over 12 years of experience building brands and launching new products in the CPG world, is walking the aisles of a local Target store and Safeway grocery store to share insights on how products get developed, packaged, discounted, and placed on store shelves. The students have a variety of reasons for participating: Some are preparing for internship interviews with CPG powerhouses. Some are exploring broader applications.

Kyle Rudzinski, MBA 14, is transitioning from clean energy policy to clean energy business and says the trek helped him realize “how truly powerful marketing is.” Bronson McDonald, MBA 14, hopes to validate strategies employed by his family’s food manufacturing business (producing canned ackee, Jamaica’s national fruit). “I’ve seen the challenges in getting shelf space and market share for a new food brand,” he says. McDonald is also seeking insights for his own entrepreneurial plans for a venture transforming waste into a resource for food productions.

Bronson McDonald (l. with Andy Rios) gleans insights for his family’s business and for his future entrepreneurial plans

Stephanie Curran and Allie O’Brien, both MBA 14, are interested in CPG careers. Curran, in fact, is preparing for an interview the following week and “wants to learn more about how to get into the mind of the consumer from a brand management perspective.”

O’Brien came to Haas after working in energy consulting. She enjoyed the marketing components of her energy work, but likes the idea of focusing on products that consumers not only connect with daily, but connect with emotionally. She’s also interested in being “the head of a business within a business” and in having the responsibility for profit and loss that comes with brand management.

Moving through Target, the students learn about entry point marketing (capturing consumer loyalty at the outset of a major life change, such as having a baby), category captains (those brands with #1 share who control much of what happens on shelf space and merchandising), and key trends, such as seasonal merchandise—this against a backdrop of cookies and tortilla chips done up in black and orange for Halloween.

Perfect test subjects, the group finds themselves unable to resist the lure of well-presented merchandise, stopping to browse plush baby toys, men’s shirts, and plaid PJ bottoms. Eliza Rosenbaum, MBA 14, leaves with a Cal hoodie. “There was just no time to shop in Fall A and I really needed something for Big Game,” she explains. O’Brien makes her own brand selections, leaving with the coffee and kitchen sponges on her roomate’s shopping list–along with a few impulse purchases.

“The trek is a really interactive way to teach and discuss the importance of merchandising, shelf presence, packaging, and all other aspects of the marketing mix,” says Pratt. “The best way to learn the basics of marketing and discuss trends in consumer behavior is to see how CPG companies handle the marketing mix on the ‘front line’ as consumers see it.”

MBA Internships: Google

Here’s an update from Pablo Molinero, MBA 13, on his product marketing internship with Google’s mobile ads team in Mountain View. In his latest post, he discusses everything from sushi contests to all-hands Q & A sessions with Larry and Sergey (Page and Brin, that is). As the internship winds down, Molinero realizes that he won’t have time for everything, but says, “That’s a great sign.”

 

Learn more, in Pablo’s latest post for Google’s Diary of a Summer Intern.

MBA Internships: Citigroup

Benny Du, MBA 13, celebrated 200 years of Citi by volunteering to refurbish a park on the Upper West Side and entertain kids for the Fresh Air Fund in Brooklyn

Student: Benny Du, MBA 13

Interning with: Citigroup, NYC, as part of the Digital Strategy and Channels Team at Citi Cards.

Thrilled because: “Citi is truly a global brand.” Also, since this year marks the 200^th anniversary for Citi, Du was able to take part in the celebration.

 Can’t believe he’s getting the chance to: Meet and interact with many senior leaders and executives, such as Jud Linville, CEO of Citi Cards. “Also, I’ve already had an in-depth discussion on the future of payments with the executive responsible for the Citi—Google Wallet partnership.”

The Berkeley MBA toolkit: Du has been using the observation and framing skills learned during PFPS class exercises. “I have also consulted with Sara Beckman during my time here. The framework that she provided of ‘use, usability, and meaning’ has been helpful in figuring out how consumers engage digitally through various devices, touch points, and functionalities; and determining potential opportunities for Citi. 

Inside Citi: “The summer associates were given a core values card (along with our name badges) as reminders to ‘be bold and curious,’ and ‘think and act like an owner.’ These definitely remind me of the Haas Defining Principles.”

Advancing career goals by: Gaining exposure to a wide variety of functions, such as traditional e-mail marketing and digital media strategy, along with “a front-row seat on applying innovation and cutting-edge technology to a consumer-facing business.”

MBA Internships: Google

Pablo Molinero, MBA 13, has posted an update on his summer as a product marketing intern with Google’s mobile ads team in Mountain View. In his latest post, he discusses his aim of learning all he can about business management and applying new skills in “a cool tech company that improves the world.”

He’s digging deep into questions like: How can Google improve user’s experience in mobile? How can Google serve the most relevant information and ads to its users? What should be the value proposition for all Google stakeholders (advertisers, publishers, app developers, and users)? As he puts it, “So much to do in so little time!”

Learn more, including a fun Google fact in Pablo’s latest post for Google’s Diary of a Summer Intern.