Haas Student Ambassadors

Born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, Jay was a Midwesterner through and through before he started at Haas. Deciding to pursue his undergraduate degree close to home, he received his BS in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis. Outside of the classroom, Jay served as president of a men’s nonviolence group called 1-in-4, and worked as both a freshmen resident advisor and a teaching assistant. After graduating, he headed a few hours north to join the Human Capital practice at Deloitte Consulting in Chicago. During his four years at Deloitte, Jay had the opportunity to work with some of the largest retail and consumer products companies in the country as they tackled issues of organizational design and strategic change.

Looking to see if he would enjoy life as much without the sub-zero temperatures and record-breaking snowstorms, Jay decided to venture outside the Midwest to pursue his MBA. He was drawn to Haas for its tight-knit culture, its focus on environmentally and socially responsible business, and the amazing students and faculty he met during Days at Haas. Jay is now on the Conference Committee for the Global Social Venture Competition and is an active member of Net Impact, in addition to working with the Buchanan YMCA of San Francisco as part of the Berkeley Board Fellows program. He is also trying to make the most of his time in the Bay Area by going on hikes in the nearby hills, learning how to ski up at Lake Tahoe, and exploring San Francisco’s best microbreweries as a member of the Beer Club.   

Jess was born in Martinique but grew up in Raleigh, NC where she attended North Carolina State University for undergrad before moving to Spain for a year to learn Spanish and teach hip hop dance classes.  Once back home in NC, she put her finance degree to work at Wachovia Capital Markets in the domestic Fixed Income division underwriting CLOs.  After two years, Jess moved into the Global Financial Institutions group where she worked with clients in emerging markets to raise funding in the global debt capital markets.   

Jess’s passion for international business and strategy initially guided her to Haas through the BILD curriculum and classes like International Business Development (IBD) and Social Sector Solutions (S3).  Haas’ hands-on learning environment and small class size were two big selling points.  Jess was convinced that Haas would be home after getting to know her future classmates at Days at Haas.

In addition to being an HSA, Jess is the VP of Professional Development for the Women in Leadership (WIL) club, and is involved in the International Development and Enterprise Club, the Consulting Club, and the Latin American and Hispanic Business Association (LAHBA).  She also had the pleasure of participating in a Human Capital case competition in the fall, where her team took home second place and spent a great weekend in Nashville, TN.  When she’s not at school, Jess is most likely enjoying the great outdoors with her dog and/or her husband (who’s also a classmate at Haas), dancing, or getting lost in San Francisco.

Richard was born and raised just two miles from campus in Albany, CA.  He stayed close to home for college and graduated in 2006 from UC Berkeley with a degree in Economics and a minor in Music.  As a junior, he spent a semester studying Art History in Paris where he developed a love of French culture and cuisine.  For the five years between his Berkeley studies, he worked for Triage Consulting Group in their San Francisco office.  His hospital reimbursement projects sent him throughout the Western US including Seattle, Napa, Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Kansas City, and Montana.  Richard left Triage for business school in order to transition sectors within healthcare from providers to the life sciences.     

As a dual degree MBA/MPH student, Richard chose to join Haas because of its strong healthcare program, the experimental learning courses, and the school’s close-knit culture.  It was also impossible for him to pass up an additional two years of student tickets for CAL football.  On campus, Richard is active in the Haas Healthcare Association as the VP as Academics and one of the logistics coordinators for the club’s annual Business of Healthcare Conference.   

Outside of the classroom Richard enjoys sampling the culinary gems of the Bay Area and planning his next international trip with his wife, Hilary.  As a Bay Area native, he also enjoys acting as the local tour guide for many of his classmates.    

Ignacio grew up in Spain, where he earned his Mechanical Engineering degree from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Following an internship in 3M Spain, he attended Cranfield University in the UK and earned an MSc in Automotive Product Engineering after completing his thesis in collaboration with Jaguar. He then joined Toyota Motor Europe's technical center in Brussels, Belgium, as a Project Engineer. After completing their Graduate Development Program, he was offered an 18-month transfer to Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan, where he joined the Chassis Engineering division and worked on the development of vehicle brake systems.

It was Berkeley's strong ties to the Cleantech field that drew Ignacio to the Berkeley-Haas MBA. Always interested in the state of the Automotive industry and its evolution, the school's focus on entrepreneurship and renewable energy represented a plainly unbeatable opportunity. Building on his own Days at Haas experience, Ignacio is looking forward to giving back to the Haas community through his role as an HSA.  Ignacio is also actively involved in the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC), and Design, Innovation & Strategy Club (DISC), where he is co-chairing the annual DISC conference. Outside of class, he is a certified windsurfing instructor and a cooking aficionado:  passionate about food and wine.

Flora has always called the San Francisco Bay Area home. She first came to Berkeley as an undergraduate, where she majored in Business Administration and Psychology and minored in Education. It was at Cal that Flora first realized that having career in business and having a positive social impact could go hand in hand. After graduation, Flora spent three years in Deloitte Consulting’s technology practice. In her time at Deloitte, Flora developed a deeper understanding of the complexity of large-scale technology projects and learned to identify and manage their unique challenges. In the year before Haas, she put these skills into practice as an Education Pioneers Analyst Fellow placed at Aspire Public Schools. At Aspire, Flora was on the technology team where she found an ideal niche at the intersection of process, product and users.

Flora was drawn to Haas’ inclusive, student-driven community and saw it as a place to learn and develop both as a student and as a professional. Visiting a class as a prospective student and interacting with the community, she (corny as it may sound) truly saw the four defining principles in action. In addition to being an H.S.A., Flora is Co-President of the Net Impact Club and a member of the Haas Tech Club (HTC), Women in Leadership (WIL), and the Education Leadership clubs. One of the highlights of her first semester was representing Haas on the East Coast at this year’s Education Technology Case Competition. The team proudly brought back a first place win!

Though familiar with the Berkeley campus (she was an undergrad tour guide, after all), she is still discovering new sights, sounds and experiences on campus each day and is thrilled to be able to spend another two years in Berkeley and to do so with a refreshed perspective.

Agustina was born in Mexico City, but she mostly grew up in Buenos Aires (where her family is from) and Guadalajara, Mexico. After graduating from high school, Agustina moved to the United States to pursue an undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. At Penn, she explored a wide array of academic interests and earned a B.S. degree in Economics from the Wharton School.

After college, Agustina joined Young & Rubicam, a global communications agency, as an Analytic Brand Planner in New York.  Just prior to coming to Haas, Agustina worked as a consultant at Prophet, a strategic brand and marketing firm. At Prophet, she had the opportunity to work across a diverse range of clients, geographies and business challenges for almost five years.  A growing interest in social enterprise and a desire to explore marketing roles outside of consulting led her to purse an M.B.A.

Agustina chose Berkeley because she wanted to be part of its tight-knit community and was strongly drawn by school’s commitment to innovation and social impact.  In addition to being an HSA, Agustina is Co-President of the Marketing Club, and an active member of the Haas Consulting and Women in Leadership (WIL) clubs. The Elite 8 Case Competition is certain to be a highlight of her time at Berkeley (who wouldn’t love spending 30 hours straight in a room with four people and dancing at 3.am. just to stay awake?) Outside of school, she enjoys exercising, meditating, and watching what could be considered a dangerous amount of reality TV.

Andrea was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in where she lived prior of coming to Haas. Passionate about Brazilian culture and national celebrations she is bringing some of her “bossa” to the Bay Area.

She received her first undergraduate degree in International Affairs from Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo. Besides being a student athlete (volleyball and swimming), the university played an important role in consolidating her desire of an international career. With a passion for marketing, she decided to pursue a second undergraduate degree in Business and Marketing at ESPM – SP. Over that period she refined her interest in international marketing (especially branding strategies).

Andrea then started her career at Procter and Gamble, working as an intern in trade marketing. She confirmed her passion for the CPG industry, but decided to expand her professional skills further, and joined Banco Real ABN Amro as an institutional trainee. Andrea worked in different areas such as Strategic Planning, Human Resources, and Finance . In the end, Andrea decided  to establish her career in marketing, focusing mainly in the growing middle income segment. She is a self-proclaimed “people-person” and as such saw managing a team as her greatest and more rewarding achallenge.

With 4 years of work experience and a constant desire of learning tools that would enable her to take the next step towards an international career (preferably in the entertainment industry), she decided to attend the Haas MBA Program. The school’s culture, the student empowerment and the creative environment caught her mind and heart. At Haas, Andrea is the Co-President of the Marketing Club, VP in the Digital Media and Entertainment Club (DMEC) and International VP in the Sports Management Club. Besides all her commitments Andrea found time to plan a trip to Las Vegas with 180 of Haas MBA students as well as a trek to Brazil during the winter break.

Matt was born and raised in Seattle, Washington.  He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara where he majored in Business Economics and minored in Sports Management.   During his time at Santa Barbara, Matt was an accounting teaching assistant, and also had the opportunity to study abroad at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.  Upon graduation, Matt decided to stay in sunny southern California and went to work at Deloitte in Los Angeles as an auditor.  After obtaining his CPA, Matt moved back to Seattle to help his Native American Tribe with finance and business development.  While at the Puyallup Tribe, Matt presented financial updates and forecasts to the Tribal membership, and started the first financial literacy camp for the Tribe’s youth.

After two years at the Puyallup Tribe, Matt desired to obtain his MBA from Haas to advance his finance and business development skills.  He was attracted to Haas because of its tight knit culture of exceptional individuals, small class size, general management curriculum, and amazing alumni network.  In addition to serving as an HSA, Matt is a Consortium Fellow, and a member of the Technology, Social Impact, and Finance clubs.  Matt is also the VP of Finance for the Sports Management Club and the captain of the Haas softball team.  After Haas, Matt plans to go into corporate finance. 

Although she now spends her holidays at her parent’s home in Idaho, Gloria was born and raised in Sunnyvale, CA and attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in business economics and minored in accounting.  She graduated in 2007 and joined Citigroup’s Los Angeles office as an investment banking analyst.  After the financial crisis cut her career in banking short, she decided it was time for something new and took a job at BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P., a small-cap oil and gas company, leveraging her background in finance to manage investor relations.  A year into her job at BreitBurn, Gloria decided that perhaps her true calling was in marketing, so she applied to business school to facilitate a career switch, develop her management skills and build a larger network.  Tired of the Southern California sunshine, she considered a move to the East Coast for a change, but Berkeley won her over with its amazing sense of community and its friendly, down-to-earth and inspiring student body (and sunshine’s really not so bad).   

In addition to serving as VP Admissions of the MBA Association, Gloria is also a member of Women in Leadership (WIL), Marketing, and Haas Technology clubs, as well as the General Management & Strategy Club.  She hopes to intern in a marketing position with a consumer goods or technology company next summer and, while at Haas, looks forward to traveling with her classmates (starting with Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore during winter break), and attending as many concerts at the Greek Theatre as possible.