Jon Sebastiani and his team came into the 2011 Berkeley Lean LaunchPad class with several key observations, Haas Lecturer Steve Blank writes in Forbes:

• Snack foods were a large ~$35 billion but the moribund food category was starving for innovation and modernization
• Meat snacks were a $2.5 billion subcategory of snacks. So there was plenty of data that proved that Americans loved to snack and loved meat snacks.
• There was an opportunity for a new company “Jerky 2.0.” in the snack food market
• Jon believed his competition was the conventional “Meat Guys” (the existing beef jerky companies).

Read more of the article here.

Less than a month after arriving at Haas, Tim Durbin, MBA 10, decided to get in shape and attempt his first half-marathon.

About a year later, Durbin was hooked and running full marathons.

Yet no one, not even Durbin, could have expected his newfound love of running would evolve into a record-breaking global challenge.

On Jan. 23 in Sydney, Australia, Durbin became the lone American of 12 runners to complete the 2015 World Marathon Challenge, in which competitors run seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days.

Starting Jan. 17, Durbin boarded a plane every day for a week, heading to Antarctica, Chile, Miami, Madrid, Morocco, Dubai, (pictured), and Sydney. Tapping extreme willpower and years of training, Durbin spent the entire time either running or flying, using his flight time to rest his body as much as possible.

At one point, Durbin had to run two marathons — one in Madrid and the other in Marrakech, Morocco — on less than seven hours of rest.

“Everyone hit the wall hard in Morocco,” Durbin said. “But once we finished that, we knew we were over the hump.”

All these marathons and travels around the world may not have been possible without Berkeley, where Durbin began running again. He recalled the many miles he logged in Strawberry Canyon and on other Berkeley trails.

Durbin says his time at Haas changed his life in several ways: he forged lifelong friendships, studied abroad for the first time, and embraced the “confidence without attitude” Defining Principle that he still holds close.

“That “Confidence Without Attitude” culture is something that I have really taken to heart,” Durbin said. “I always try to keep it in mind through the course of my daily life.”

After finishing the last leg in Sydney, the 31-year old management consultant took a week to rest.

Durbin, who paid for the marathons from his savings, also raised money for a cause that’s important to him: the Jimmy V Foundation for cancer research. He ran in honor of several family members and Haas colleagues who fought cancer.

In the wake of finishing the World Marathon Challenge, Durbin is on to new challenges. He hopes to run 24,901 miles — the length of the Earth’s equator — by 2022.

By Seung Y. Lee

Patrick Awuah, MBA 99, has received the 2015 Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award for his work as a path-bending educational leader in Ghana. The annual award, given to a UC Berkeley alumna or alumnus with a distinguished record of service to his or her country, is one of the university’s most prestigious honors.

“Your contributions to Ghana exemplify Berkeley’s highest values,” Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks wrote in a March 16 letter to Awuah. “Your work to bring international recognition to Ghana by founding Ashesi University has made you one of the most renowned citizens of Ghana. The range of impact is extensive and has significantly impacted the well-being of the Ghanaian people.”

In the same month, Awuah was also named to Fortune's list of the world's 50 greatest leaders in 2015—joining Pope Francis, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. The list honors "extraordinary men and women who are transforming business, government, philanthropy, and so much more." 

Awuah founded Ashesi University in 2002, after graduating from Haas. While at Haas, he came up with the idea to build a university in Ghana and turned it into a project in the school's International Business Development (IBD) Program. Ashesi means “beginnings” in the African language Twi, and the name embodies the school’s ambitions. “We’re trying to train leaders of exceptional integrity, who can lead a renaissance in Africa,” Awuah said in a 2012 article in Berkeley-Haas magazine. “There have been times when it has seemed like Mission Impossible, but magic is happening.”

In 2009, Awuah won the Aspen Institute's John P. McNulty Prize, a $100,000 grant that recognizes the most outstanding, innovative, replicable, and self-sustainable projects to address social problems. In 2012, Haas honored Awauah with the school’s Leading Through Innovation Award, established to celebrate Haas alumni who embody the school’s emphasis on innovative leadership and serve as exemplars to others in the Berkeley-Haas community.

Awuah grew up in Ghana, leaving home in 1985 with $50 in his pocket and a full scholarship to Swarthmore College. He rose through the ranks at Microsoft from engineer to program manager. The birth of his first child inspired him to shift his focus back to Africa and consider how he could make a difference there.

With Ashesi, Awuah aimed to create a new kind of liberal arts university focused on quality, ethics, and personal empowerment; a university that would spark new enterprises, new solutions, and a model for other universities in Africa. Since its founding, the university has built a 100-acre hillside campus and graduated hundreds of students. Under a 10-year plan, Ashesi’s goals included recruiting more students from Africa beyond Ghana; expanding academic programs to include engineering and applied sciences, management and economics, and law and society; and planning for succession.

The Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award includes a cash prize of $15,000, an engraved medallion, and paid travel expenses to the awards presentation, to be held at University Commencement May 16, 2015. Established in 1964 by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Haas, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Peter E. Haas and Mr. and Mrs. Richard N. Goldman, the award acknowledges their parents’ devotion to the university and their interest in international affairs.

This is part of an occasional series of articles spotlighting students and recent alumni who are working with Berkeley-Haas to start a new business or social enterprise.

WeFinance
Willy Chu, MBA 15
Co-founder and CEO

Though crowdfunding is becoming a crowded space, WeFinance is the first platform focused on truly peer-to-peer loans, co-founder Willy Chu says.

“Many students are paying seven to 8 percent on their student loans—even higher if you’re international—and they have living and moving expenses,” Chu says. “They’re low-risk borrowers but their credit scores don’t reflect that, and they can’t refinance until they have more credit history. Meanwhile, a peer lender in these students’ network could earn four percent or more on their extra savings.”

WeFinance launched with two critical resources. First, it has a software platform built by co-founder and CEO Eric Mayefsky, a Stanford econ PhD grad and ex-Facebook product manager who spearheaded the concept. This platform fully automates disbursements and repayments between borrowers and lenders, allowing both parties to rest easy that payments are made on time. Second, WeFinance has been tested by Chu’s network of fellow Haasies, a dozen of whom have signed on as guinea pigs seeking funding.

Ton Chookhare, MBA 14, used the platform to refinance some of his higher-interest student loans, raising $5,000 in just a few weeks and lowering his interest rate from 8 percent to 4 percent. He already had accepted an offer with Kaiser Permanente, and was working on a side project involving custom suits made in his hometown of Bangkok, Thailand. “I think many people will be surprised at how willing people in their network are to offer financial support, especially when they’re getting much better returns while supporting someone they know and trust,” he says.

Chu says when he came to Berkeley-Haas, he thought he might end up working for a startup—but had no intention of launching his own. His thinking evolved while taking Entrepreneurship with Prof. Toby Stuart and Lecturer Rob Chandra. His new path began last summer when a Stanford MBA friend saw an email from Mayefsky seeking help with the venture. After a few months of working well together, Chu—who previously worked at Credit Karma and Kiva—became a co-founder. He’s focusing on marketing, partnerships, and growth while Mayefsky develops the technological infrastructure.

“I’ve benefitted from starting this in my second year, after I had a strong base, and I’ve been able to piggyback on my coursework and lessons learned from my peers who launched businesses last year,” he says. “In particular, New Venture Finance with Asst. Prof. Adair Morse has been useful.”

Chu’s goal is to expand WeFinance to 40 schools within a year, beginning with Stanford, Harvard, and Wharton. In addition to MBAs, the company will focus on law and other top master’s and undergrad program students.

Read more about WeFinance in TechCrunch.

California Artesian
Stewart Wells, EMBA 15,
Founder and CEO

Stewart Wells pulled three parts of his life together to form startup California Artesian: convenience stores, artesian water, and time spent in Asia as an F-16 pilot.

Wells, chief operating officer of a gas station/convenience store chain, uncovered a natural artesian aquifer during a routine well drilling on his company’s property. The water tasted surprisingly good and-analysis later proved-was very pure.

“Our artesian water, sourced from 7,000 feet elevation in the Sierra Nevadas, has a much softer and smoother taste than any type of purified or spring water because it has incredibly low mineral content,” he says.

Wells thought the water had immediate commercial potential.

He determined that he could sell the ultra-pure water in two markets: Northern California natural food stores and Asian markets, where he saw a demand for high-quality water and products from California during the time he spent time there in the Air Force.

Wells—who is aptly named for a CEO of a water company— is taking full advantage of his classes at Haas to launch California Artesian. “Three instrumental classes were Finance, which allowed me to change my business model and estimate cash flow; Marketing, which gave me incredible insight into consumer preferences; and Strategy, where I assessed and dissected the competition.”

Another pivotal experience was the EMBA program’s Silicon Valley Immersion Week, led by Professor Toby Stewart, where students visited companies such as Facebook, Google, and Airbnb and talked face-to-face with company founders. “The founders were very candid, sharing stories about how they put their money on the line,” he says. “Sometimes they’re failing and trying again, sometimes succeeding. It was a priceless experience.”

TINE
Vik Thairani, CEO and co-founder, and Nivas Chervirala, CTO and co-founder, both MBA 13

Vik Thairani and Nivas Chervirala formed the idea for a startup over a unique libation—a bottle of their very own smart wine. The two, who met in Lecturer Naeem Zafar’s Entrepreneurship class, created a wine label that consumers could scan on their smart phones to grab information about a wine’s quality and authenticity.  The team’s original startup, which focused on wine labels, was a semi-finalist in the 2013 Berkeley Startup Competition.

That original wine idea has since evolved into a mobile application called TINE, (pronounced TINY), which works with TINE tags that the company designed that they mail out to consumers. “You can stick a TINE tag on anything, scan it with the TINE app, and add a video or audio message,” Thairaini explains. “When someone else scans the tag with the TINE app, your message instantly plays on their phone and you get notified. Think Post-it note meets YouTube.”

The TINE team earned a slot at UC Berkeley’s startup accelerator SkyDeck and is now producing TINE Tags that can be stuck on anything from a resume sent to a hiring exec to a birthday present to add a personal happy birthday song. The company has raised close to $1 million, including investments from a former Goldman Sachs partner, and Founder.org, a nonprofit run by Michael Baum, founding CEO of Splunk.

With that support, Thairani and the TINE team is focused on growing the company.  “One of the reasons I came to Haas was entrepreneurship—to meet the people and gain the skills I needed to form a company,” says Thairani. “It worked out perfectly.”

Honeit
Nick Livingston, EWMBA 14
Co-founder and CEO

After spending 10 years on all sides of the recruiting industry, Nick Livingston understood the frustrations of trying to interview and hire effectively from hundreds of resumes: You miss potential job candidates who are weeded out by keyword. You lack the time or resources to screen all candidates who could potentially be great.

“Most companies today are adamant about hiring for soft skills and culture fit,” says Livingston, the former director of global recruiting for TubeMogul, the digital branding company founded at Haas. “They are looking for talent that is enthusiastic, passionate, and well-spoken, but 85 to 90 percent of applicants are declined before any of those competencies can be considered.”

To address these pain points, Livingston founded Honeit with senior engineers James Craft and Kim Duong, who shared his frustration with today’s interview process.

The company developed a real-time live interview platform that helps agency and in-house recruiters streamline the candidate screening and submittal process.

Here’s how it works: Recruiters use the system to conduct live interviews with job applicants. Recruiters can then share recorded highlights from the calls with clients and hiring managers, to give them a better sense of the candidate’s enthusiasm, personality, and professional aptitude. “This has the potential to be a real game-changer in time and costs for companies” Livingston says.

Job seekers can also leverage Honeit's Interview Marketplace to book industry experts, who will conduct realistic “mock” interviews that can be used to help attract potential employers during their own job searches.

The company—currently part of SkyDeck, UC Berkeley’s startup accelerator—secured $120,000 in startup funding and is now preparing for a seed round, Livingston says. It's also partnered with the Hult Business School, and General Assembly, a programming, business and design boot camp. These platform partnerships allow students to conduct interviews with university’s alumni to help their graduates get hired.

One of the most valuable resources for Honeit, Livingston says, is SkyDeck. “Through SkyDeck we have access to great advisors who answer questions we might not be able to ask typical investors. That’s a pretty powerful resource.”

-Karen Sorenson and Laura Counts

Education pioneer Patrick Awuah, MBA 99, founder of Ghana’s Ashesi University, has been named a fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Awuah, 50,  is one of 24 fellows to receive the so-called “genius grant,” awarded to people “who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.”

Awuah overcame many obstacles to launch Ashesi University in 2002 as the first Ivy League-style school in his native country. He had arrived at Berkeley-Haas after nearly a decade at Microsoft, and was looking to do something more. He developed the idea for Ashesi in the International Business Development (IBD) program.

The nonprofit university’s mission is to educate ethical, entrepreneurial leaders who will help transform Africa.

The MacArthur Fellows Program awards “no strings attached” grants to extraordinary people. The fellowships come with $625,000 stipends paid out over five years. This year’s “genius award” winners also include University of California, Berkeley, Prof. Peidong Yang, a chemist who is trying to capture carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into a sustainable transportation fuel.

“These 24 delightfully diverse MacArthur Fellows are shedding light and making progress on critical issues, pushing the boundaries of their fields, and improving our world in imaginative, unexpected ways,” said MacArthur President Julia Stasch. “Their work, their commitment, and their creativity inspire us all.”

Awuah certainly personifies commitment and inspiration. He left Ghana in 1985 with $50 in his pocket and a full scholarship at Swarthmore College. He rose through the ranks at Microsoft to become a program manager, but after the birth of his first child he decided to turn his focus to making a difference in Africa.

"Being a father of someone who was a member of a new generation of Africans I felt I needed to return and be a contributor to Africa's rise for the sake of my children and for the sake of my children's children," Awuah said in his MacArthur announcement video (below). Most problems Africa faces are related to leadership, he said, noting that some of the leadership is corrupt. "I felt if we could change the way that that group is educated then we would change the continent," he said.

Above: Evening & weekend Berkeley MBA students, pictured with Awuah, on a consulting trip at Ashesi in 2014. They were the 10th Haas team to consult at the university.

It took extraordinary persistence to found Ashesi, which required Awuah to question Ghana’s status quo—dominated by large public universities and rote learning. Ashesi’s graduates are continuing to buck the status quo: while an estimated one-third of African professionals leave Africa, nearly all of Ashesi’s grads have stayed.

In 2012, as Awuah celebrated Ashesi’s 10th anniversary, Haas awarded him the school’s Leading Through Innovation Award. “Patrick Awuah has gone beyond himself, questioning the status quo with a bold mission to develop a generation of ethical, entrepreneurial leaders with the courage to transform a continent,” says Dean Rich Lyons. “We couldn’t be more proud of his vision and tenacity.”

Awuah was named to Fortune's list of the world's 50 greatest leaders in March 2015—joining Pope Francis, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. The list honors "extraordinary men and women who are transforming business, government, philanthropy, and so much more."

Three other new MacArthur Fellows have UC Berkeley connections. William Dichtel, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University, received a Ph.D. from the College of Chemistry in 2005. John Novembre, a computational biologist and associate professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago, received a Ph.D. in 2006 while working with Montgomery Slatkin in the Department of Integrative Biology. Gary Cohen, a cofounder and president of Health Care Without Harm in Reston, Virginia, studied at UC Berkeley between 1983 and 1984.

"I hope that being a MacArthur Fellow helps me to connect with other people who are moving the needle in the world and this will help further the work I'm doing," Awuah said.

Watch Awuah's announcement video here:

Joseph Jimenez, MBA 84, the CEO of Novartis AG who has positioned the company to anticipate future health care trends and to make momentous strides against various forms of cancer, will be honored as Business Leader of the Year at the 14th Annual Haas Gala on November 13.

The award recognizes members of the Berkeley-Haas community who have achieved prominence in their fields.

Since assuming the helm of Novartis in 2010, Jimenez, (pictured), whose expertise was previously in corporate marketing and consumer goods, has streamlined the largest company in Europe by market value to focus solely on pharmaceuticals, eye care, and generics. Last year, the Basel, Switzerland-based company saw net sales of $58 billion USD, and Jimenez has committed billions to research and development. Novartis currently has over 25,000 patients enrolled in 340 active global trials for promising cancer therapies.

Jimenez’s leadership and vision to solve one of the world’s most formidable challenges have earned him Berkeley-Haas’ highest honor. Previous recipients of the Business Leader of the Year Award include Janet Yellen, Haas professor emeritus and chair of the Federal Reserve, and Paul Otellini, MBA 74, the former CEO of Intel.

“Though not a scientist, Joe was an inspired choice to run a pharmaceutical giant,” says Rich Lyons, dean of Berkeley-Haas. “It’s his analytical skill at balancing short- and long-term goals, his quiet drive, and his outstanding ability to nurture the right talent that have allowed him to Question the Status Quo and re-envision the industry. He has the confidence and expertise to lead Novartis to deliver where society needs it most and is an example for us all of our Defining Principles.”

Read more about Jimenez, his influence on the pharmaceutical industry, and his connections to Berkeley-Haas.

Three other alumni will also receive awards at the Gala. Danae Ringelmann and Eric Schell, MBA 08s, will receive the Leading Through Innovation Award. The duo propelled the crowdfunding movement when they launched Indiegogo, one of the first crowdfunding sites, with co-founder Slava Rubin in 2008. (Kickstarter, Indiegogo’s chief rival, launched a year later.)

Ringelmann and Schell (pictured),  began working on Indiegogo while Berkeley-Haas students and used their Haas connections to develop the company. To date, Indiegogo has hosted over 300,000 campaigns in 224 countries and territories.

And the company’s growth has been exponential. Funds raised on the site in the past two years have increased 1,000 percent. Crowdfunding itself has disrupted the world of finance. Forbes reports that in 2010, global crowdfunding was an $880 million  business. In 2014, that figure rose to $16 billion and is estimated to more than double this year to upwards of $34 billion.

Read about Ringelmann and Schell and how they’ve revolutionized an industry.

Also at the Gala, the annual Raymond E. Miles Service Award will be presented to Lucky Sandhu, BS 96, MBA 15, the president and co-Founder of Reliance Financial. Sandhu has long been a committed volunteer for Berkeley-Haas, serving on the Berkeley-Haas East Bay Chapter Board of Directors since 2007. He led the chapter as co-president from 2009 to 2011, when it twice won the Chapter of the Year Award.

The event, to be held at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, will kick off with a reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner, an awards presentation, and a dessert reception.

The Big Give 24-hour campus-wide online fundraising blitz, kicks off on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 9 p.m. PST—and Haas is aiming to beat its 2014 results.

During last year's inaugural Big Give, Berkeley-Haas raised $561,000 from 651 donors campus-wide. Overall, Big Give donors contributed $5.3 million, in the form of 7,336 gifts, to support students, faculty, and campus programs.

This year's fundraiser, themed "Think Bigger," includes competitions that foster friendly rivalry between Berkeley schools and departments based on most money raised as well as highest participation rates. Individual donors can also compete by posting creative photos—including pets and babies—on social media.

“Haas had a fantastic turnout at last year’s Big Give and we’re hoping that everyone is gearing up to top that at this year’s fundraising event,” said Michelle McClellan, assistant dean of Berkeley-Haas Development & Alumni Relations. “Big Give is a perfect way to show support for our programs, students, and faculty and bring attention to the important role philanthropy plays in keeping Haas a top-ten school.”

To spread the word, Berkeley-Haas Dean Rich Lyons grabbed his acoustic guitar and recorded a music video on campus. The full video is here!

The central campus produced a video based on the "Think Bigger" theme, which features students, alumni, and faculty members.

Big Give contests include:

• Big Slice: Schools and programs that raise the most money during the Big Give get the biggest pieces of the pie.

• Big Bang: Schools and programs with the highest donor participation rate during the Big Give win big prizes.

• Big Countdown: Hour-long contests in a variety of categories.

Posting about the Big Give on social media? Use the #CalBigGive and #haasome hashtags together. Have questions about donating? Click here.

Berkeley-Haas raised just under $700,000 during the 2015 Big Give, a 24-hour campus-wide online fundraiser held Nov. 19.

With a total of 561 gifts, Berkeley-Haas donors topped last year’s total of $561,000. UC Berkeley raised a total of $5.5 million across the campus from 8,149 gifts.

“We are so thankful for the tremendous support and enthusiasm we received from all of our generous donors this year,” says Michelle McClellan, assistant dean of Berkeley-Haas Development & Alumni Relations. “The entire Berkeley-Haas community came together to support programs, students, and faculty, making this year’s event even better than the last.”

This year's fundraiser—themed "Think Bigger”—included competitions that fostered friendly rivalry between Berkeley schools and departments based on the most money raised, as well as the highest participation rates. Individual donors also competed with creative photos on social media, where people posted “Think Bigger” thought-bubbles filled in with their own ideas on how Berkeley reaches beyond itself.  

To help with the effort, Dean Rich Lyons broke out his guitar for a music video. (below)

Berkley-Haas placed second among all schools and departments, just behind the College of Engineering. The feat earned the school $22,600 in extra "Big Slice" funds, designated for schools with the most money raised.

If you missed the Big Give, it’s not too late to donate.

Students, students, faculty, and staff wrote 535 letters of appreciation last month to the thousands of donors who ensure that Berkeley-Haas carries on its tradition of excellence.

Donor Appreciation Week is celebrated every January to acknowledge that tuition covers only half the cost of running the school. Philanthropy supports one-third of the other half. Berkeley-Haas also has donors to thank for its new $60 million North Academic Building, which is 100 percent privately funded. The building is expected to be completed in early 2017.

Here's a sampling of some of the letter writers' sentiments, as well as photos of a few of those who stopped by the letter-writing tables in the Bank of America Forum to express their appreciation.

Your generous support is not only important to sustain quality research. It sustains quality life. Thanks to your donation I can support my wife and two daughters Cristina (2) and Teresa (5 months). We talk a lot about having real impact. I hope this gives you a tangible measure of the impact you make.  
—David Echeverry, PhD student, Real Estate (2017)

As a graduate student instructor in our Haas undergraduate program, I am constantly blown away by the maturity, quality and ability of our students. Then I get to know their stories and am inspired by the diversity, both economic and social, of students in one of the top business schools in the world. Thank you for continuing to support the University's public mission, without which nothing would be possible.
—Christian Kaas, MBA16 

Thank you for supporting Haas! Your donations really make a difference in continuing to provide a top-notch educational experience for our students. Speaking from personal experience as a member of the Haas admissions team, being able to talk about the wonderful resources available when speaking to prospective students really makes a difference in my recruitment conversation. Thank you for all you do!
—Chelsiah Scouras, EWMBA Admissions Offic

Being a Haas student has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. The professors, my classmates, and opportunities that Haas has given me have been incredible. Thank you for your help in continuing to give me the best possible business education. Because of your support, I've been able to get my dream internship at Goldman Sachs while learning skills to help me succeed and thrive! —Anonymous

By Charles Cooper
 
As Chris Hulls, BS 06, watched the chaos that unfolded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, an idea for a new kind of business emerged.

Hulls’ idea—which was the kernel for startup Life360—was to create some sort of location sharing application so people could locate each other in the thick of an emergency.

“I thought that mobile could be a real use of technology to help families stay connected,” he said.

In an entrepreneurship class at Berkeley-Haas, Hulls wrote his business plan for a web-based system to allow families to prepare for emergencies. He developed and tested the idea at the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation's entrepreneurship lab, a business incubator for startups.

More than 80 million families registered

Seven years later, Life360 is a growing startup tucked away in 55,000-square-foot building in the the tech corridor on Market Street, which also happens to be Twitter’s first San Francisco headquarters.

The company makes a free location-sharing mobile phone app that helps families and friends keep track of one another through private “circles” that display each member’s whereabouts on a smartphone map. In 2014, the company got a big boost, through a partnership and $25 million investment from home security giant ADT.

Life360's CEO Chris Hulls (left) and Chief Business Officer Itamar Novick 

While it’s still considered an early-growth-stage company, over 80 million families have registered with the service since its founding in 2008. The venture capital community has also taken notice, pouring slightly more than $76 million into the company.

Hulls, who grew up in Marin, joined the air force after high school and also served a tour of duty in Afghanistan as a member of a C-130 team. But he was always interested in starting a business. After finishing his stint in the service, Hulls returned to the Bay Area with the intention of getting a degree at Berkeley and eventually becoming an entrepreneur.

“This is in my blood,” Hulls said. “I’m a business-y guy.”

"A real impact on peoples' lives"

While growing the business, CEO Hulls tapped his Haas network to strengthen management ranks, connecting with Itamar Novick, MBA 12, now the company’s chief business officer. A native of Israel, Novick was working as a senior associate at Morgenthaler Ventures while he was finishing his MBA at Haas. Mark Goines, MBA 76, an angel investor in Life360, introduced Novick to Hulls. Novick said he was intrigued by the company and wanted to wait for the right opening.

“I love that Life360 makes a real impact on people's lives, keeping families safe and connected when they are apart,” said Novick.

After graduating from Haas, Novick helped put together a group of investors to buy out a co-founder who was leaving the company. He joined in 2012 as an employee and stakeholder.

Hulls says they make an effective team. “If you have him take on a project he will grind it down in a piece by piece like a woodpecker until he wins," he said. "I'm probably a bit more creative but also a lot more erratic. So we are a good combo.”

Novick said he draws on his education often while helping to run Life360.

“I don’t think that I could have been effective in my job without going through the Haas experience,” he added. "Haas helped me to really think about innovation and new business opportunities and quantify them. All those tools that I learned were invaluable in helping me reach where I am today."

Photos by Jim Block

By Krysten Crawford

Probal Banerjee had a hunch. It was Day 3 of “The Innovative Organization,” a semiannual course for executives at Berkeley-Haas, and the participants had dived deeply into one of the most cutting-edge companies in Silicon Valley: mobile game maker Niantic, which spun out of Google last year. On that June day, the New York Times happened to have posted not one, but two, stories about Niantic and its forthcoming game, Pokémon Go.

Banerjee and other program participants had spent two intensive days studying Niantic, the internal startup’s break from Google, and its CEO, John Hanke, MBA 96. The group of about 20 execs—which included Banerjee, a business intelligence architect at Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, and top-level managers from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, RAND Corporation, and Gilead Sciences, to a name a few—had all come to Haas to learn how to innovate.

Some had signed up for the Berkeley Center for Executive Education course—taught by Jerome Engel, who founded the school’s world-renowned Lester Center for Entrepreneurship two decades ago—looking for fresh ways to work within their companies. Others had come because they had startup dreams of their own.

Would you stay or would you go?

The question for students was whether Niantic’s spin-off from Google had been the right move for both companies, the employees behind the games, and Hanke. Students had all read a hot-off-the-press 14-page case study written by Engel—recently published as a Berkeley-Haas Case Study—and they had discussed at length the pros and cons of the move.

As he sat in the back of the Helzel Boardroom, Banerjee’s hunch was that the man seated to his left, wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and an untucked button-down, was Hanke. But Hanke wasn’t on the agenda and nobody had mentioned he might be there. The prospect was both exciting and nerve wracking, he recalls.

That’s because Hanke, MBA 96, is an A-list celebrity in Silicon Valley. A serial entrepreneur, he embodies the spirit of innovation at the heart of the region’s success. Among his many successes: co-founding Keyhole, which developed the technology that became Google Earth, Maps, and StreetView. Hanke then led Keyhole through its acquisition by Google in 2004, and guided the search giant’s 2,000-employee “geo division” through iterations of its mapping products. He founded Niantic inside Google in 2010, and built a team that’s at the forefront of the convergence of technology’s most dominant trends—mobile, maps, social media, and gaming.  

Hanke was dubbed “Google’s Greatest Idea Man” by Inc. magazine in 2012. All this, years before Pokémon Go exploded on the scene.

Engel pointed out that what makes Hanke so successful is not only his ability to look at the larger trends in the economy, society, and deduce what's really happening. Hanke also has a special quality: “People who own the opportunity have repeatedly invited this guy to be their adult supervision. He’s seen as leader who can make big decisions, and they are willing to accept him as a leader,” Engel says.

The Reveal

As it turned out, Banerjee guessed right about the inconspicuous stranger. Just as the participants were voting on whether they would have struck out on their own or kept Niantic in the fold, Engel called out to the mystery man. “Which side are you on? Should Niantic stay with Google or go?”

Hanke stood up and gestured, somewhat sheepishly, “Go.”

“Oh my god,” Carole Cuffy, vice president of communications at HM.Clause, the world’s fourth largest seed company, recalls thinking when she realized that Hanke was in attendance. “This is amazing!”

Hanke, left, gets a round of applause

What followed was a remarkably candid interaction. Hanke spoke plainly about the enormous leg-up Niantic got as part of the Google behemoth, including an instant global footprint thanks to Google’s vast resources and engineering talent. He was equally upfront about the personal, structural, and operational drawbacks he and his team experienced as part of a massive organization whose main line of business isn’t gaming.

Niantic’s multiplayer games are based on a new entertainment model that relies on augmented reality or A.R., which superimposes virtual objects onto physical ones to lure players off their couches and into the real world. Niantic’s first game, Ingress, has been downloaded more than 15 million times in more than 200 countries. Niantic went solo last summer, and—in conjunction with Nintendo—released Pokémon Go last week. In its first week, the game looks to be the most downloaded app for both Android and Apple phones ever.

The decision to spin Niantic out of Google was, Hanke explained, “incredibly challenging, [although] in retrospect it’s ridiculously obvious that that was the right thing to do.”

Front-Row Seat to What's Next

Banerjee calls Hanke’s appearance the highlight of the five-day program—which also delved into the major trends driving 21st century innovation, the different forms innovation can take, the venture capitalists' perspective, and companies that have successfully embedded innovation into their DNA.

Roy Brown, manager of business pursuits at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, echoes that sentiment. “I’ve reviewed hundreds of business case studies and tried to put myself in the situation, but nothing brings a case to life like having the actual entrepreneur speak about the critical decisions,” he says.

For Engel, the Niantic case and Hanke’s experience as a professional entrepreneur highlight why Silicon Valley is a cluster of innovation.

"Certainly John, and dynamic entrepreneurs like him, are the heroes of our innovation culture. But his accomplishments demonstrate something even more profound than entrepreneurial excellence: What’s extraordinary about entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley is the way large companies and young companies collaborate to accelerate innovation.”

It’s “that process of open innovation that makes Silicon Valley unique. It is absolute magic,” Engel says.

Engel, right, listens as Hanke shares insights with the class

By Krysten Crawford

Victoria Fiore, MBA 12, was drawn to Berkeley-Haas for its track record of cultivating future business leaders who make a social impact.

Today, she’s become one of those leaders.

As director of brand strategy & marketing at Emeryville, Calif.-based baby and kid's food maker Plum Organics, Fiore works for a company that is helping to redefine what it means to be a socially responsible business in the 21st century.

Victoria Fiore, MBA 12, at Plum Organics' Emeryville headquarters.

Plum Organics and other companies that have embedded sustainability into their DNA will be celebrating and mentoring at the first-ever “Best for the World Gathering” at Zellerbach Hall on Sept. 8 from 11 am to 4 pm. Attendence is free to students, faculty, and staff with a Cal ID at the door. An evening awards ceremony, performances, and happy hour will be held 7 pm to 11 pm. Tickets are $20 for all UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff with the promo code gobears.

The event will showcase B Corporations—a designation granted to companies that meet rigid sustainability requirements set by a nonprofit overseer called B Lab. 

Organized by the Center for Responsible Business (CRB) at Berkeley-Haas and B the Change Media, the publishing arm of B Lab, the Best for the World event is expected to draw some 1,500 attendees. Featured speakers include Deval Patrick, managing director in impact investment at Bain Capital and the former governor of Massachusetts, as well as CEOs/co-founders of Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, The Honest Company, Revolution Foods, (founded by Kristen Groos Richmond and Kirsten Saenz Tobey, both MBA 06), New Belgium Brewing, and many others.

B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to milk, and achieving the status isn’t easy. These companies must meet standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Out of about 40,000 companies which have applied, only about 1,800 have been granted certification.

"A growing number of companies are realizing that if they want to be around in 10 or 20 years sustainability has to be embedded in how they operate,” says Seren Pendleton-Knoll, program manager for the Center for Responsible Business, which was founded in 2003 to redefine business for a sustainable future. "Sustainability must be key from the C-suite on down."

Married more than 50 years, Susan Chamberlin, MBA 87, and her husband, Steve, are partners in an ambitious effort to improve local schools.

Though technically retired, they remain committed to doing what they’ve done throughout their careers: building. For more than four decades, as a highly successful real estate developer and architect respectively, their tools were steel, glass, and concrete.

Now they employ different building materials but have similar goals. Where once they created places for people to live and work, today they’re focused on building innovative facilities and providing them to organizations running schools that expand minds and hearts. It’s an educational experience that’s inspiring (and even fun) for hundreds of middle- and high-school students in the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

“We believe all kids should have the same chance to attain their dreams,” Susan says.

Spearheading their educational philanthropy is the Chamberlin Family Foundation, which was created in 2006 with a simple yet powerful mission: invest in the people and ideas that will vastly improve K–12 public education, particularly where inequitable opportunities impede student potential.

For their efforts bettering the lives of others, Susan and Steve Chamberlin have been named Berkeley-Haas’ 2016 Business Leaders of the Year, the highest honor the school bestows.

Read more in Berkeley-Haas Magazine.

Beginning with the new year, two Berkeley MBA alumnae and senior Haas leaders are moving into new leadership posts.

Haas Chief Strategy & Operating Officer Jo Mackness, MBA 04, will take the top human resources role on the UC Berkeley campus, serving as Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources. Taking her place on an interim basis at Haas is Courtney Chandler, MBA 96 and Assistant Dean for the Evening & Weekend MBA Program.

Mackness and Chandler took a few moments to answer some questions on their new roles.

Jo Mackness, MBA 04

Why were you interested in taking on the role of Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources?

I'm a product of the UC system (my undergrad degree is from UCLA, my MBA is from Berkeley-Haas), and I’m both passionate about and dedicated to supporting the institution that has given me and so many others a rich springboard for professional and personal growth. I’ve always been committed to using my career to create positive social change, and because UC Berkeley is such a powerful social mobility engine, moving into a role that more directly supports the entire university was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.  

What will be your top priorities in your new role?

My first priority will be to lean on the Haas Defining Principles and do a great deal of listening (Students Always) and gathering of data (Confidence Without Attitude). While I have a bias toward action, and I plan to move forward on time-sensitive/urgent issues, I’ll be setting strategic priorities only after I get a better sense for the unique assets, areas of opportunity, and any gaps that may exist within the HR organization—and in the places where HR touches other parts of the university.

You’re a full-time Berkeley MBA alumna. How did Haas prepare you for this leadership role? What are some of the skills you gained from the program that you bring to the job?

The most important thing I learned at Haas is that culture matters, and working with people who share your values is the most important thing to look for in a company or organization. Even way back when I was admitted to Berkeley-Haas, before our Defining Principles were codified, Pete Johnson and his admissions team were looking for people who exhibited confidence, without any attitude, and they welcomed my unique voice (I wrote about my electric-blue wig—a “most prized possession”—in one of my essays!). I, and many of my classmates, sought and landed a Beyond-Yourself, social-impact role upon graduation. Haas, back then and today, reinforces that while we are all different, it’s that diversity of thought, cultural context, and experience that brings a richness to our community. It’s our shared values that create a safe place for people to show up as themselves—as Berkeley Leaders—to thrive as individuals, collaborate within and across teams, and contribute their very best to our organization. This is what I learned at Haas, and it underpins how I approach leadership and the type of organizational climate I try to create.

Courtney Chandler, MBA 96

Why were you interested in taking the Interim Chief Strategy & Operating Officer/Senior Assistant Dean role?

I am deeply connected to this school and believe wholeheartedly in what we do here. So, when (Dean Rich Lyons) presented the opportunity to me, I jumped at the chance to touch areas of the school in new and different ways. I am particularly interested in being part of the decision-making process school-wide, as well as problem-solving and generating big ideas for areas that need it. Finally, I am looking forward to working closely with our campus partners as UC Berkeley goes through this transitional period.

What will be your top priorities?

I am sure my priorities will change as I get further into my role, but a top priority now is to continue the momentum around our Strategic Business Plan. Jo has done amazing work on this and my goal is to continue to execute on our strategies. We still have many great things to accomplish as a school and I am excited to help make them happen.

Beyond that, I plan to be a student first and learn as much as possible. One thing that energizes me is bringing people together, whether in groups or across organizations. Having worked at all levels of the school in staff roles and having worked closely with faculty while running the EWMBA program, and having experienced Haas as student and an alum, I hope to bring a unique perspective to the dean's office.

What are some of the skills you gained from the Berkeley MBA program that you bring to the job?

As an MBA student at Haas, I was incredibly fortunate to have amazing professors (Rich Lyons, Andy Rose, Jenny Chatman, Ben Hermalin, Richard Stanton, and David Vogel, to name a few), and extraordinary classmates (go Class of 1996!). So, my time as a student had a profound impact on me. I think most importantly it provided me the opportunity to gain new perspectives. My classmates and I were some of the first students to inhabit what we now know as our Berkeley-Haas campus, and having this wonderful space contributed to our strong community and culture. I know our new building will do something similar for our students today. While our Defining Principles hadn't yet been articulated when I was a student, they were still very much a part of my experience and would absolutely describe the culture we had back then. This culture prepared me to take on new challenges confidently and tackle difficult situations by learning and listening.  Additionally, it helped me hone my creativity and fascination with new ideas while being able to create connections between seemingly disparate circumstances. My hope is to bring all of what I learned as a student and since graduating to my new role as Chief Strategy & Operating Officer.

This article is part of an occasional series spotlighting students and recent alumni who are working with Berkeley-Haas to start a new business or social enterprise.

IDbyDNA
Co-founders:
Guochun Liao, EMBA 14, MS 01 Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence, PhD 01 Genetics/Bioinformatics, President and CEO
Martin Reese, PhD 00, Computational Biology, Chairman

Let's say you’re sick and you go to your doctor, who makes an educated guess about what’s wrong, ordering a test that may or may not provide accurate or timely answers. 

Guochun Liao, EMBA 14, believes there is a better way.

Liao, the co-founder of IDbyDNA, is using big data analytics based on Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to dramatically improve the speed and accuracy of pathogen detection for infectious diseases.

The core of IDbyDNA’s technology, called Taxonomer, improves universal microorganism detection through a "metagenomic analysis" platform. Simply put, the company is using search algorithms to compare short DNA sequences from patient samples to millions of reference sequences. The software quickly identifies all known viruses, bacteria, or fungi in the sample.

Just a few years ago, that type of detection required large amounts of input and hours or days of time. Taxonomer, however, can complete the process over the web in minutes.

“It’s like Google for the DNA space,” Liao says.  “We can detect many different pathogens at the same time—it’s a much more comprehensive approach.” The technology promises to not only improve individual patient diagnostics, but could also lead to faster public health responses during infectious disease outbreaks.

The company attracted $9 million in Series A financing last fall, led by ARTIS Ventures, with additional support from ARUP Laboratories and other private investors. It hopes to launch a sequencing-based test for infectious diseases this year.

Liao co-founded IDbyDNA in 2014 while enrolled in the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. He met his co-founder, Martin Reese, while conducting pioneering human genome research at UC Berkeley in the late 1990s. They joined with two colleagues from the University of Utah to form the company.  

Liao says he drew on his Berkeley-Haas experience in several ways. Lecturer Maura O’Neill’s New Venture Finance course and Silicon Valley Immersion Week with Professor Toby Stuart were key influences. “During our week in Silicon Valley, I saw different companies at different stages and gained a much better understanding of how startups work,” Liao says.

Fellow Haas students also helped him with the company launch: More than ten percent of Liao’s classmates participated in the company’s seed round.

Improved patient diagnostics may be just the beginning for IDbyDNA. Other potential Taxonomer applications Liao envisions include the analysis of microbes in the soil to help improve crop resistance to disease; fast, accurate responses to food contamination outbreaks; and new and expanding fields involving the human gut microbiome.

SapphirePine
Co-founders:
Adam Pugh, FTMBA 18
Sandra Lupien & Sam Schabacker, both MPP 18
Carlin Starrs, MS Forestry 17, BS Forestry 11

Photo: Left to Right: Adam Pugh, Sandra Lupien & Sam Schabacker

Sam Schabacker, a graduate student at the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy, was on a backpacking trip in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains when he noticed the thousands of dead trees that have been killed by bark beetles.

Schabacker knew the damaged wood, which has a unique blue- and green-streaked grain, could be made into beautiful furniture. He also knew a market for it already existed in Colorado, where he once lived and made the furniture for himself. Bingo: the idea for a startup was born.

Together with full-time MBA Student Adam Pugh and MPP candidate Sandra Lupien, with the advice of MS Forestry candidate, Carlin Starrs, they founded SapphirePine (formerly called Sierra BlueFlame Woodworks.)

“The combination of drought and beetle-kill has resulted in a mass die-off of pine trees in California’s mountains,” says Pugh. “Our company is dedicated to addressing wildfire, safety, and climate emissions hazards by giving new life to some of the 100 million dead trees as handcrafted furniture and other wood products.”

The company was recently selected to receive a Dean’s Seed Fund grant, which provides $5,000 and office space to early stage Berkeley-Haas startups. SapphirePine is also currently competing in this year’s Global Social Venture Competition, and recently advanced to the second-round regional semifinals.

Pugh says he’s already applying his business school course experiences to the startup.

An entrepreneurship course with Lecturer Kurt Beyer last semester taught him the value of getting frequent customer input for their product and business at many stages, he said.

The Global Social Venture Competition has also been helpful in forming the team’s ideas, and for pairing them with Steve Payne, a partner at Architect Partners, who serves as a mentor, he said.

Lendsnap
Co-founders:
Orion Parrott, EMBA 14, CEO
Mike Romano, EWMBA 12, BA 03, mass communications, vice president of business development

By the time he was in high school, Orion Parrott was mowing lawns to invest in mobile homes.

But both Parrott, EMBA 14, and his dad, a long-time real estate investor who guided him, were frustrated by the complexity of mortgages: the mountain of bank statements, tax returns, W-2s and pay stubs required to get one.

Years later, it’s no surprise to find Parrott working to solve the mortgage problem through his online startup, Lendsnap.

Lendsnap, which launched in July and has more than $500,000 in funding, streamlines document collection and updating for lenders, boosting the productivity of loan officers by up to 50 percent and shortening the time required to approve a loan, Parrott says.

“Loan officers spend a third of their time chasing borrowers to turn in documents,” he says. “We link to people’s financial accounts and get the original documents from banks, brokerages, and places like H&R Block and Turbotax with the permission of borrower. All the data you would have been sending anyway.”

Parrott said participation in the EMBA program’s Silicon Valley Immersion Week, led by Prof. Toby Stuart, gave him inspiration for his startup. “Seeing what people go through and accomplish to get a business off the ground was fantastic exposure and really thrilling,” he said.

Lendsnap, which now has nearly 100 loan officer users, recently received funding and support from the Y Combinator accelerator.

Parrott said that Y Combinator helped him to build a strong network of investors and got him focused. “They have a relentless program focused on weekly progress,’ he said. “As a startup, your six-month plan doesn’t matter if you’re not going to be around in six months.”