On this episode of OneHaas, learn about the incredible, globe-spanning career journey of alumna Ann Hsu, Founder and Head of School at Bert Hsu Academy. From high tech to yogurt to revolutionizing the approach to public education, this double bear’s story is not one to miss!

Born and raised in Beijing, China, Ann moved to the U.S. with her family at age 11 but has always maintained a strong cultural connection to China. After getting her Master’s degree in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley, she moved back to China and launched into a successful career in high tech. When the need arose to add more business acumen to her skillset, she knew Berkeley Haas was her best option for an MBA.

Ann’s latest career pivot has been into education, where she’s opened the first American-Chinese bicultural school in the U.S., named in honor of her father, Bert Hsu.

Ann joins host Sean Li to discuss the exciting ways they are reimagining education at the Bert Hsu Academy, how her Berkeley degrees have supported her career journey, and her advice for current MBA students and young alumni. She also shares her memories of moving to the U.S. as a young girl in 1978, her family’s history in China, and how her own bicultural experience has shaped her career and worldview.

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

On her assimilation to American culture

“ I remember a discussion in class and they were talking about china, the bowls and plates. Well, I thought they were talking about the country of China. And I raised my hand, I said, ‘I'm from China.’ Yes, I knew the word, but I didn't know that we were talking about plates and bowls china and not the country of China. That's what I mean by cultural assimilation or Americanization. It took me four years.”

On where the idea for a Chinese-American bicultural school came from

“ I thought back to my own experience of going to school in China and the U.S. and then watching my sons go to school in China …and about what's good about the Chinese education approach, what’s good about the American ones, what’s bad about each. And I thought, I want to combine the Chinese education philosophy, approach and practices with the American ones because both have pros and cons. And if I'm going to design [a school] from scratch, I'll just pick the good ones. The pros!”

On her decision to name the school after her father

“...It came to me that the person who embodies the bicultural and bilingual Chinese American experience, whom I have the utmost respect for, is my father. And he was bicultural, in addition to being bilingual. He not only survived, but thrived in both China and in the United States because he understood [the culture] and could really thrive in both cultures. And I thought, that should be the goal. I want all of our students to be able to do that.”

Her advice to current MBA students

“ MBA students, they fret about,what should I do [after MBA]? Which job should I take? What career should I pursue? what I tell them is that you only have so much information. You're never going to get complete information, and you're never going know whether that decision you made is the right decision. So what you do is you take all the information you have, make a decision, and then make that the right decision.”

• LinkedIn Profile
• Bert Hsu Academy Website

On this special episode of OneHaas, Dr. Jennifer Chatman, Dean of the Haas School of Business, shares her career journey and her hopes for the future of Haas.

Dean Chatman is not just a double bear, with an undergraduate degree and PhD from Haas, but has called UC Berkeley’s campus home for most of her life.

In this interview, she chats with host Sean Li about growing up in an academic family, how her father, a Berkeley professor, inspired her to pursue a life of learning, how following her curiosity led to a pioneering career studying organizational culture, the enduring relevance of Haas' defining leadership principles, and why she thinks the future of Haas is very bright indeed.

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

On passing the baton from one Berkeley professor to another

“ So I remember being out here just before I was about to start and my dad was just about to retire. We had lunch somewhere on campus and we were sitting on the steps of Harmon gym… and a student walks by and looks up and says, ‘Hi, Professor Chatman.’ And my dad looks at this student and he looks again. He said, ‘I don't recognize that student.’ I said, ‘Yeah, Dad, that's one of mine.’ So that was the official passing of the baton.”

On finding a passion early on for social psychology

“ I've always been fascinated by social interaction. And I remember in high school…I always loved to type up surveys and then I would go give them to people. I’d give them to my parents, I’d give them to my sisters. I’d give it to my friends, like, what did you have for breakfast? And, you know, A, B, C, or D. Right? And, I just found that sort of calculating of what people were doing and what were the similarities across people and what were the ways in which they diverged. I found both of those things very, very interesting.”

On the importance of trusting and leaning into your curiosity

“ I think the advice is trust your curiosity and trust what gets you excited and passionate and figure out a way to lean into it, and develop a pathway that involves the things that kind of get you up in the morning. You know, career paths are very, very long and you wanna be doing something that's interesting to you. That gives you energy and it's actually something I really admire and love about our Haas students. There is not one Haas student that I've ever run into who is anything less than completely fascinating. Every single one of our students is interesting. They have a unique and distinctive story. They have really wide ranging interests. I find it just a profound distinction that we're privileged to have this community of super interesting, passionate students.”

On her hopes for the future of Haas

“ I just think that this is a really incredible moment for our school and we're so full of ideas and our students are so capable and eager and brilliant. They are defining the future and I think that our humanity as well as our skills in leveraging technology, but it's our humanity that's going to allow us to flourish into the future. And I'm just really excited about that.”

• LinkedIn Profile
• Haas Profile
• Professional Website

In honor of Veterans Month, the OneHaas Alumni Podcast is pleased to welcome Cory Boatwright to the show. Cory is a Senior Advisor of Workforce Development, Strategies, and Programs for Hiring Our Heroes.

Growing up in a working class home in Chico, California, Cory always knew he wanted to go to college, but coming from limited means made that a challenge. So he decided to start his career by first joining the military – a decision that sparked a lifetime passion for service and social impact work.

Cory tells host Sean Li how his time in the Air Force prepared him for a successful career in business, what it felt like to fulfill his childhood dream of attending Haas, and how he’s giving back to the veteran community through his work at Hiring Our Heroes.

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

On how the Air Force prepared him for a career in business

“ I always knew that I wanted to be like a business person, right? And I kind of just made up this person, this fictitious person of who I wanted to be. And I took characteristics of people from books, magazines, shows, and stuff like that, of who I wanted to be as a business person. And so one of the things that I thought was like, okay, well, a business person has to be able to be a public speaker and speak in front of people…And so I was like, well, how do I do that? I don't have the skills to do that. So I joined the Air Force as a military broadcaster. I was like, I'm just gonna throw myself into this.”

On his switch from the investment banking world to military programming

“ There's a role that came open at LinkedIn to build out their military recruiting programs. I had zero experience as a recruiter. I wasn't a recruiter, but I was like, I'd really like to work with the military community. And so I talked to a friend of mine who owned a nonprofit… And he’s like, Cory, what do you do for free? And I was like, I help vets get jobs and get into school. And he’s like, you should figure out how to get paid to do that.”

On fulfilling his longtime dream of attending Haas

“...Immediately I was with my people and I was like, no doubt I'm coming here.  Just a huge sense of belonging. I went there and basically I was able to, between like the core courses, which every one of them really resonated with me, I loved the curriculum of the program, but also when it came to electives, I was able to build out a learning path for myself that was more geared towards buying a business than it was doing a startup.”

On the work he’s doing at Hiring Our Heroes

“ They come into our ecosystem and we're making sure that we're getting them to the places that they need to be. For instance, if somebody has a housing issue, they don't have housing or they're about to lose their housing, or they can't pay their utility bills, like that person's gonna be really difficult to help get a job because their basic needs aren't being met at that moment. And so we make sure that they're gonna get to the right people to be able to help them fix that issue and then come back into our orbit so that we can help them connect to meaningful employment. Not just jobs, but like jobs that matter, jobs that are gonna be sustainable, jobs that are gonna have good wages and benefits and stuff like that.”

• LinkedIn profile
• Hiring Our Heroes website
• Cory’s book recommendation: HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company