On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, meet Brittany Jacob, a former news anchor turned senior consultant at Deloitte thanks to her career-transforming experience at Berkeley Haas.

Growing up in Texas, Brittany fell in love with theater and the arts, a passion that propelled her to a career in journalism. For Brittany, community is at the heart of everything she does – a passion that shone through while she was at Haas when she decided to create the podcast, Belonging@Haas.

Brittany joins host Sean Li to chat about her upbringing in Texas, what she learned during her time as a news anchor and reporter, what brought her to Haas, how she’s now using her MBA to shape stories, and how she built community through Belonging@Haas.

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

On her time in the news biz

“Imagine, I was lugging around a tripod, a camera, setting up my own interviews, doing my interviews, going back, editing them, writing them, and then setting up my live unit so that I can go live. And I did all of that by myself at the beginning of my career. So when you think about reporting… It was nothing fancy or pretty. It was work and you got into the industry because you loved what you did.”

One of her fond memories from her time at Haas

“ It felt like we were like 17 years old again – we were in the car on our commute to Berkeley for our accounting quiz, and we're like going through our flashcards and I took a moment to realize, I was like, how crazy is this? We're all in our thirties and we're running through flashcards on our way to class for accounting.”

On her pivot from journalism to consulting

“ I didn't wanna just tell stories. I wanted to shape them. And so that curiosity led me to Berkeley Haas and just really expanding my storytelling into strategy while still rooted in community and impact.”

On the creation of the podcast, Belonging@Haas

“A big part of it was like, how do we leave a legacy that lives beyond this year … and we ran a survey of all of our peers, like, what do you want? Do you feel like you belong? What do you wanna see from the classroom? What are your needs? And we really went through that survey to understand our classmates, like we had two years on this campus to make an impact. And so, we heard them loud and clear. They wanted to hear from their peers. And what better way than a podcast being able to listen on the go while you're cooking, while you're working out, when you're on the flight. Everyone messaged me like, we're downloading this before the winter break to listen. But really it was about giving a voice to students.”

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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.”

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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.”

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