On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, meet Christina Cairns, an international development professional who spent over 10 years at USAID and now helps expand financial access to under-capitalized business owners and entrepreneurs through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

With a background in international relations and environmental science, Christina joined USAID as a Foreign Service Officer in 2012 where she worked on climate change adaptation, clean energy, wildlife conservation, and improving economic conditions in places like sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Wanting to expand her financial knowledge, she decided to go back to school and pursue an Executive MBA at Haas in 2020.

Christina chats with host Sean Li about her family’s deep roots in California, the challenging and inspiring work she’s done through various roles, including her time in the Foreign Service, the critical and often overlooked work of USAID, the impact of recent U.S. policy shifts, and her current role at the DFC.

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

On growing up as a fifth generation Californian

“ I grew up in the foothills near Sequoia National Park and from an early age was raised running around in the orange groves and going up to the mountains. Every summer, my dad would take my two older brothers and I backpacking for a few days and give my mom some rest before she started teaching school again in the fall. And I think that really shaped me in many ways: my love for the outdoors, appreciation for nature, cold, clear water, fresh air.”

On the recent policy shifts that have affected USAID

“I think a lot of Americans had no idea what USAID was until they heard about it in the news this February when it was ripped apart. And they were told that it was an agency that had been corrupted and was basically full of waste and fraud.

So I would advise people to do their own research. There was actually something called the DEC [Development Experience Clearinghouse] where we put all of the project information, where all of your taxpayer dollars were going for USAID work, into this database. It showed who the contractor or grantee was, which are the main forms of how we got money out the door at USAID, and what that money was spent on. I would encourage people to go look at the current data on foreignassistance.gov and to see what your taxpayer dollars were spent on.”

On her role with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation

“ What we do is we put in place these risk reduction mechanisms or incentives for financial institutions to take on more risk. To lend to a farmer who doesn't have title to their land but is still farming it because of antiquated titling systems or whatnot, or to women who can't legally own land because it has to be in their husband's name. So, how are these people going to get a loan? We help facilitate or work with the banks, and a lot of times, microfinance institutions to open up their lending aperture and get capital to people who will make really good use of it.”

On her efforts to continue the impact of USAID’s work

“ A former USAID colleague and I have submitted a proposal for funding to categorize all of the terminated climate projects that were started by USAID, with very basic information: what country was it in? What sector? Who was the local partner? What was the project aiming to do? How much financing or funding did it need? We want to put all that information into a platform for donors, foundations, impact investors, multilateral organizations like the World Bank or others, and ask, ‘Are you interested in continuing any of this work? This is work that has already been designed and vetted by the U.S. government, not to mention all of these people who are working on these programs are available if you would like them to continue the work.’ ”

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On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, meet alum Shinghi Detlefsen, president of Wholesome Story and CEO of ExpandFi.

Shinghi’s entrepreneurial spirit at a young age propelled him into a successful sales career with experience at major tech companies like Google and Amazon. After beginning his higher education at Berkeley City College, he transferred to Haas and a world of opportunity opened for him.

Shinghi chats with host Sean Li about finding his entrepreneurial drive as a kid, the organizational lessons he gleaned from working at Amazon and Google, how he launched Wholesome Story with his wife, and why he believes everyone has the power to be the change they want to see in the world.

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

How his entrepreneurial spirit began from a young age

“ We moved to Virginia when I was like seven from California, and I remember we were doing a yard sale for like selling stuff before we left and I was in charge of the money and selling things and I still remember being a little kid like, I loved that. I loved selling things and making money. And it always was in my interest sphere. And like, even when we moved to Virginia…I was mowing lawns, making money. I think my parents also raised me with that type of mindset where there are no handouts. You don't just get money from your parents, you need to go earn it.”

Lessons he learned from Amazon’s corporate culture

“Amazon is a written culture, so there are no PowerPoints…You don't have a presentation where some guy stands up in front of everyone and talks about it. Everything's in a doc, so I had to learn how to write and that has been the most valuable asset that I've learned from Amazon. I still use it today. I try to have my own team lean into writing versus presenting just because it's so much more tangible and it also forces you to think very clearly.”

On leaving Amazon to take Wholesome Story to the next level

“ It was absolutely liberating…At Amazon, like you could really just work your ass off or any corporation and you can get 10% more in salary. And in a business you could work a thousand percent more and you can make a million percent more. It's like that return on your time and your effort is so much higher in entrepreneurship if things work out.”

His advice to budding entrepreneurs

“ I would focus on – aim to be a millionaire, not a billionaire. And I think, again, going back to that barrier mindset where you have the Googles and the Facebooks and that's who you want to be growing up. That's like a one in a billion chance of you hitting that, right? And a lot of people will spend a ton of time, they'll do a startup, they'll raise a ton of money, they'll be diluted to the point where they would've been better off becoming a millionaire. And so like my point to everyone is that there are million dollar opportunities everywhere, and it's simple. It's like you can create a million dollar business and you just take a problem, a small problem, and you solve it.”

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• Medium Article: “E-commerce Wars — and how the US is losing.”

In celebration of Pride Month, the OneHaas Alumni Podcast is honored to have Laurie Reemeyer, a sustainable mining consultant, share his journey.

For much of Laurie’s early career in the mining industry in Australia, he kept his identity as a gay man separate from his work. But after more than a decade of hiding this key part of himself, he decided it was time for a fresh start in the form of an MBA degree at Haas.

Laurie chats with host Sean Li about his struggles with accepting and embracing his sexuality in a traditionally conservative environment, the pivotal role Haas has played in his life, how he’s giving back through Q@Haas, and how he’s working to make mining more sustainable through his consultancy firm Resourceful Paths.

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

How going from mining in Australia to Haas changed his life

“ I think with Australia, by the time that I left, things were changing. I was safe in the cities…I was not feeling safe at all to come out at work. And really that's where Berkeley was a fundamental change in my life because when I came to Berkeley, I just came out the first day I was there. And that was such a liberating experience compared to that feeling of suppression and separation that I felt in the mining industry in Australia.”

On the work he’s doing with Resourceful Paths

 ”When we talk about helping you mine responsibly, what I'm really talking about is how do we do things in ways that minimize environmental impact that are more socially acceptable? How do we incorporate practices that reduce energy use, water use, that reduce footprint, those types of things.”

On living authentically

 Being your full self to whatever extent you can and recognizing that in the LGBTQ+ community, that's really primarily the journey of coming out. And that's something that people have to do at their own pace. It's a unique journey for everyone. And we can't necessarily live authentically completely straight away because there may be issues around physical danger, around social pressures, cultural issues, et cetera, which you've gotta navigate through. But that's very important that people, you know, feel that they can be themselves, be their true selves to the largest extent they can.”

On being a good ally

“Are we showing up, firstly? Are we showing up authentically? Is it about supporting the community or is it about ourselves? So if we're showing up because we just want to feel good about ourselves, et cetera, well, sorry, that's not enough. It's not okay actually. I think allyship has to be something much deeper and I think you're gonna stand with those people and support them authentically when the time gets tough or not.”

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The OneHaas Alumni Podcast is pleased to welcome Keith and Kenneth Tsang, who are not only identical twins, but also had identical triple majors at UC Berkeley – political science, psychology, and business.

After being born in the Bay Area, Keith and Kenneth moved to Hong Kong where they spent the first formative years of their childhood. Growing up in a family that prioritized education and exploration, the twins developed a strong sense of curiosity for the world around them. It’s this curiosity that sparked their desire to pursue not one, but three majors for their undergraduate degrees at UC Berkeley.

Keith and Kenneth chat with host Sean Li about how they applied those three majors to careers in entrepreneurship, lessons they learned from growing up in Hong Kong and then reacclimating in the U.S., and how their career journeys have taken shape thanks to a healthy dose of staying curious and making friends.

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

Kenneth on why their decision to add business as a second major

“ I think we were just blown away from the beginning, like, wow, all this business stuff is completely different from your history class and your chemistry classes in high school. It felt practical and relevant. And I think we were hooked pretty early on. And I think, to be honest, I think Keith and I are a bit competitive, and then I think with Haas, some people might know, the undergraduate is competitive and we figured we can do this too. So let's get in on this game and succeed here.”

Keith on how the brothers identify entrepreneurial opportunities

“ I've worked in all kinds of businesses and industries, obviously venture capital, then you have Nest with thermostats. I've also worked at LinkedIn and Meta, big companies, but also small companies doing housekeeping double-sided marketplace and robot delivery pizza. So it's a little bit of everything. But part of that is just being open to what's interesting, like do you see value here? Like are you able to have an impact? So that's like the first checkbox you're looking at: can you actually do something that is influencing change? And the second part of it is just being able to be open with your network… like you're talking to people and you're learning about these things and when something catches your interest, you just learn a little bit more and see whether you have a role to play in that. So I think that's, at a high level, that's what it really is, being open to these opportunities.”

Kenneth on being a student always

“ …Just to plug the Haas values, just being student always, I think the learning never stops. And I think that curiosity sort of kept us going. And in hindsight, I think a lot of these things are hard to plan. They're kind of serendipitous, but I think if you're open to learning and then having that curiosity is what sort of led us down these paths that we've taken.”

Keith on how their parents nurtured their curiosity early on

“ They definitely provided us with different opportunities to explore our interests – playing different sports, soccer, baseball, being in the Boy Scouts, which I think was actually one of the best experiences. It was kind of where we were able to just experience all kinds of things like archery, horseback riding, stuff like that, and just try different things. And I think that really is important for setting that foundation to be curious always, is that you are able, you're comfortable being in new situations and after the first time you realize that's enjoyable, you do it a second time, it's still enjoyable and you just keep it up. But I think if you were in a situation or environment where that is limited, you're always being constantly told no, I can very much see how that could be hampered.”

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On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, meet leadership coach Jeremy Guttenplan, a double bear with an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Haas.

After years working in the data science and risk management fields, and holding top leadership positions at Wells Fargo and Capital One, Jeremy realized he wanted to spend more time coaching and developing his team than playing corporate politics.

Jeremy chats with host Sean Li about how he made the pivot to coaching, explains the nuances between coaching, counseling, mentoring, and advising, and gives Sean a taste of his coaching style with an emphasis on the impact and return on investment personal development work can provide.

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

On his journey from data science to strategy, and discovering coaching as a career path

“ I would get into these jobs that'd be very specific, very narrow focused. And I had a way about me that I would create a T shape out of every role I'd end up in. So, you know, where they wanted me to do a certain thing and go really deep on something, I’d learn everything around it, connect all the dots together, you know, and make it really broad. Also, I generally master the one thing they wanted me to do pretty quickly, and then I'd get bored and wanna figure everything else out. And I was doing that in every job I was in.”

On how the birth of his son propelled him to pursue coaching

“I wanted to be a father, but I was also afraid I wasn't gonna be a great one. And there was a day that it hit me that, you know, I'm having a son and I'm gonna be his male role model. And it was like a bucket of ice water got dumped on my head. It just woke me up. It woke me up out of this, whatever life I had been living up to that point, it wasn't what I'd want my son to look up to. I didn't see myself as a role model. A lot needed to change and a lot of that was about accepting myself.”

On the definition of coaching

“ Coaching is not about right or wrong, good or bad. There's nothing bad or wrong about that.  Coaching is about noticing it, asking yourself, is this getting me what I want? Like what I really want, what I say that I want right now? I might wanna be right about something, but what do I really want? And so that's what I ask my clients: Is that getting you what you say that you want? You know, thinking that other thing's gonna be better than this thing. And you know, the answer is always no. And it’s an interruption tool to see that, ‘Hey, wait a minute, I have everything I need right now in this moment. I am already a whole complete, perfect human. And I can still aspire to be an even greater version of myself.’”

On the ROI of coaching

“ A coach can accelerate your journey to your freedom, your happiness, your fulfillment, whatever that is. You know, whether it's in your relationships, whether it's in your job, whether it's with your finances, your relationship with money. The sooner you take care of these things, the more of your life you're gonna live, right? You might even live longer, because you'll be putting less stress on yourself.”

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For women’s history month, the OneHaas Alumni Podcast is pleased to welcome Olivia Chen, a Haas undergrad alumna and the co-founder of Twrl Milk Tea.

Like so many of the best entrepreneurial ventures, Twrl was born out of a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic. With boba milk tea shops closed, Olivia and her co-founder Pauline Ang were finding ways to still enjoy the treat at home while also making a version of milk tea that prioritizes quality and pays tribute to their Taiwanese and Chinese heritage.

Olivia joins host Sean Li to chat about being raised by immigrant parents from Taiwan, her career journey from Haas to Twrl, and Olivia dishes on all the ways her on-the-go milk teas are taking the boba industry by storm.

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

On her family’s deep Berkeley roots

“I actually am,  I would say, like a Berkeley baby, because we were in the Berkeley family housing units, there are baby photos of me playing on the playground. And so Berkeley has always been a really big part of my identity because my family, my dad are Berkeley alums. And so, my parents were really, really proud when I actually was accepted into Berkeley. And so being kind of from the Bay Area, you know, when relatives came, the first place we'd take them would be Berkeley to go see the campus. And so when I got in, it was kind of a no-brainer that I would be attending.”

Lessons on entrepreneurship from her parents’ career paths

“ How the evolution of entrepreneurship goes is, you know, you climb one mountain, but you're at the bottom of another hill. And so you just keep climbing these mountains and then you just hope you can peak at an amazing peak. And so that is literally entrepreneurship. That is also the journey of an immigrant, right? Like, you go through these ebbs and flows of mastering language or mastering cultural norms.  And so those types of skills that I've seen my parents persevere with, they have been very, very motivating.”

On what makes Twrl stand out

“ What makes our canned drinks unique is we're the first to bring nitro infusion to the tea category. We're the first to bring pea protein. And so there's very little innovation in the last 30, 40, 50 years of the tea category. So we are literally the first tea brand out of all these big players out there to bring nitrogen infusion, to use pea protein. So it has actually changed a lot of things that are happening in the tea category itself.”

On how Twrl got its name

“ Twrl is a really special name for us because we, you know, think about our heritage and our origin. And an emperor was walking through a garden holding a hot cup of water and a leaf twirled into his cup and that's where the first brewed tea was born. That's the origin story. And we'd love to kind of say that, you know, our brand is steeped in history, but we're twirling for the future. And so we're really excited to share a little bit more about ourselves. And we're really, really proud of our heritage as Taiwanese and Chinese Americans.”

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• Podcast Rec: How I Built This with Guy Raz

OneHaas is pleased to welcome Yael Zheng, class of 1992, who is a seasoned marketing executive with two decades of experience in the tech industry. She’s served as the Chief Marketing Officer for companies like Bill.com and VMware, and has sat on seven different boards including MeridianLink and UC Berkeley’s  Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.

Yael moved to the U.S. from China when she was a teenager and found herself drawn to the world of engineering. After getting an undergraduate degree at MIT, she felt like her true calling was elsewhere and decided that business school was the best way to find it.

Yael chats with host Sean Li about finding her passion for marketing at Haas, her family’s experience emigrating from China after the Cultural Revolution, and some of the top lessons she’s gained from serving as a Chief Marketing Officer and now a board member.

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

On coming to the U.S. from China in 1981

“ When I came to this country, I went to New Jersey and was finishing up the last few years of high school. And it was such a completely weird experience. Eyeopening would be an understatement. And I remember going to a local supermarket and finding the shelves just full of stuff like everything was stocked with stuff, and I was telling my sister like, oh my gosh how could there be so much stuff in the store? You know, of course, I came from a country back then, stuff was still kind of scarce.”

On the misconceptions of what a Chief Marketing Officer does

“ It's not about just taking a product and then, you know, go put out a website and some blogs and whatever, some market advertising. I mean, that's kind of the tactic. [But] far more important and far more interesting is to really figure out, behind all the tactics, [the product market fit i.e. what customer problems need to be solved and how big and how pressing,] what strategy you need to adopt, how you price it, how you package it.”

On the importance of doing your homework on a company before working there

“ I've known people who kind of feel like, oh, you know, you seem to have got pretty lucky with several companies that have really gone somewhere. I think luck is definitely a big part of it. But I think like anything, as we all know, you improve your luck or increase your luck by really doing your homework ahead of time, right? You try to see, okay, this company is really trying to attack a problem that's really big. A lot of customers, right? A lot of businesses feel the potential pain. And so there's a really potentially big opportunity to try to solve that problem.”

On being a board member vs. an operational executive

“ I think that we are constantly reminded as board directors that it's not our job to actually run the company. That's the job of the leadership team, the management team. We're supposed to provide oversight and governance. So having been an operator for many years, you know, I have to constantly remind myself nose in and then fingers off. So it's our job to ask questions and ask good questions to help the management team to make sure that they have the right strategy in place and that they're executing effectively.”

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The OneHaas alumni podcast is pleased to welcome to the show Heather Rascher, the Senior Manager of Global Strategic Partnerships and Business Development at Abbott.

Growing up in Sacramento, Heather’s connection to UC Berkeley and Haas runs deep. After getting her undergraduate degree in economics and English from Cal, Heather went on to work in the investment banking sector, before deciding to return to Haas in pursuit of a more meaningful career path.

Heather joins host Sean Li to chat about her California roots, her passion for supporting public institutions like UC Berkeley, how she gives back through board service and mentorship, and what led her to her fulfilling career in the medical devices industry at Abbott.

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

On her passion for public education

“ I just am a huge believer in the ability of education to be transformative to people. And it was really a big thing that was transformative for my family – on my dad's side in particular. So when my dad's family came over from Mexico, his grandparents didn't have any education at all. They had about third to fifth grade education. When they came over here, one of the things that was really important to them was that their kids were able to get an education. Even though they never learned English, they were really clear that their kids had to not only go to school, but they had to go to college. And so all of their kids graduated from college.”

On what drew her to healthcare and Abbott

“ I just love working on things where there's a tangible benefit to many and an identified problem that it's a tough nut to crack. Even if I can solve one tiny piece of it, so the piece that I'm addressing is through the lives of diabetics and it's still meaningful and I can see that difference, not just in shareholder value, but in meeting diabetics who are using our products, that's what is so exciting to me.”

Lessons she’s learned throughout her career

“I personally think it's better to work for a good manager and a good organization than work on something that's sexy. You can have both, but I think if you have to make a trade off, I've definitely had bad managers and I knew it and I just thought, Oh, but I'm getting red flags, but this opportunity seems too good and, or I'll be able to work with them. And it's true that you can work with them, but you may not thrive.”

On the Somos Haas initiative

“What we're trying to do is help people understand that you can come and get a business degree at Haas. It's attainable. And here's the way that you can do that. And then helping other organizations see the value of having diverse candidates apply that are all equally qualified. And so I think it's even more important now that there are organizations where people can feel a sense of community that are connected around a cultural identity, but also a singular purpose to be able to have a community that's focused on just supporting one another and driving a community that is oriented towards helping ultimately elevate, at least our objective is to elevate people of Hispanic origin in the business world.”

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• Book Rec: From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks
• Berkeley's BIG GIVE