Center Alumni
Many Haas alumni are leading corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts at a diverse array of companies, as well as integrating CSR strategies into traditional brand, marketing, strategy, and finance roles. Through them, we hope we are fulfilling the Center’s mission of creating a new generation of business leaders who are knowledgeable about and committed to CSR.
Check out the profiles below of our alumni who are using their MBA and CSR education to make an impact.
Brand Management / Marketing
Corporate Social Responsibility
Seth Bindernagel - Mozilla Corporation
Marcus Chung - Gap, Inc.
Marcy Scott Lynn - Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Finance
Doug Young - MicroVest Capital Management LLC
Human Resources
Social Entrepreneurship
Kristin Groos Richmond - Revolution
Foods, Inc.
Kirsten Saenz Tobey - Revolution Foods, Inc.
Strategy
Amy Dickie - Sea Change Management LLC & California Environmental Associates
Pareen Shah - Orchard Supply Hardware
Renu
BhattJob
Title: Human Resources Leadership Development Program
– Associate
Company: Wells
Fargo
Biography:
Renu Bhatt grew up in Wayne, New Jersey and attended Davidson
College in North Carolina, where she majored in History, with
a concentration in International Relations. After graduation,
a project with Accenture brought Renu out to the Bay Area,
where she fell in love with the climate and the people. When
Renu left Accenture, she moved west, but continued to work
as an IT consultant in fast-paced, small business environments.
Eventually she decided an MBA from Haas would build her foundation
to be a business leader. Haas’s program in corporate
social responsible business in particular would be a resource
for helping her learn how to have triple bottom-line impacts
throughout her career. During her summer internship, she got
first-hand CSR experience working with the Chief Compliance
Officer of Altria Group in New York City. She worked on initiatives
to improve the compliance and integrity program as well as
to devise stakeholder engagement strategies at Phillip Morris
and Kraft Foods. While at Haas, Renu also participated in
the Haas Student Ambassadors, Net Impact, the South Asian
Business Association, and the McDonald’s Research Fellows
Program. Currently, Renu is in a management rotational program
at Wells Fargo Bank within the Corporate Human Resources group.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center
enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
I entered Haas wanting to learn more about CSR and
innovative career paths to implement what I learned. While
enrolled in Kellie McElhaney’s Strategic CSR and Projects
course, I discovered a very traditional business field where
strategic CSR was just beginning to be untapped – internal
CSR or – Human Resources. In my previous experience,
HR appeared to be a very transactional discipline. But, through
class projects, my summer internship (which I got through
Professor McElhaney’s class), and informational interviews
with CRB contacts, I learned that HR can indeed be a very
strategic and a valuable business partner. It made complete
business sense. When an organization attracts and retains
the right talent by rewarding and empowering employees in
both traditional and creative ways, it builds loyalty and
passion, thereby motivating strong business results. Strategic
HR has real bottom-line impacts. I am proud to be part of
Wells Fargo’s Corporate HR team, where I absolutely
apply hard business skills and impact enterprise team members
everyday.
Without Professor McElhaney’s guidance and without CRB-sponsored
projects, I might not have discovered my current career path.
In my current role, I am a strategic consultant to Wells Fargo’s
HR group. Participation in the McDonald's Research Fellows
Program, for example, gave me experiential learning opportunities
that honed my consulting skills which I use everyday.
What
is your advice to current and future students who are interested
in CSR?
Use your time in the program and your status as
a student to the max. Talk to professionals in the industries
and roles that interest you. Learn what they do and what path
they took to get where they are and what skills and experience
they think are essential to being successful in their roles.
It will help confirm what you want (or don’t want).
Also, as a student, reach out to senior executives. They are
generally willing to take your calls. Offer your services
– an educated MBA student with lots of experience already
under the belt, yet looking for experiential learning opportunities
– for free! Who could say no? It could lead to an internship,
a full-time opportunity, the job of your dreams. Best of luck!
Seth
Bindernagel
Haas MBA 2006
Job Title: Mozilla Community Resource Guru
Company: Mozilla
Corporation
Biography:
In July 2006, Seth was hired by the Mozilla Corporation
to create Mozilla's community resource and giving program.
Prior to Mozilla and attending the Haas School, Seth worked
at Ashoka, a global nonprofit organization focused on advancing
the field of social entrepreneurship by building a global
community of Ashoka Fellows. These Fellows find new ideas
to solve critical social problems in our society. In addition
to Ashoka, Seth worked for a presidential campaign in 2004,
did a fellowship for a U.S. Senator, and spent time working
for Davidson Capital Group as an associate for their team.
He learned about Davidson Capital during two years of finance
at Morgan Stanley. Before working, Seth attended Cornell University
and graduated in 1999. While there, majored in Agriculture,
Resource and Managerial Economics and ran cross country and
track. He loves sports and if you can find him, he'll be up
for any athletic challenge you can throw his way.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center
enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
My experience at Haas greatly impacted how I think
about integrating business and society. Because of Berkeley,
I don't believe that corporations have to exclude philanthropic
ideas from their business development initiatives. Mozilla
is at the forefront of this thinking as a corporation. But,
it was the Haas School of Business the defined this idea for
me and then fortified it with continual class work, group
projects, and internship opportunities. I owe a lot of my
critical thought development in the field of socially responsible
business to the Center for Responsible Business at Berkeley.
What is your advice to current and future students
who are interested in CSR?
I would try hard not to lose perspective when it comes time
to enter the work force. When everyone else is touting their
perceived high paying job offers, it is important to not lose
focus of why choosing a career in socially responsible business
is so critical. I found that pay scales were not different.
Often, people who have chosen a more traditional career path
will describe their day-to-day without luster or excitement.
But, those Haas students who have chosen a career in CSR,
social entrepreneurship, or socially responsible business
are enthused about their work and are the new leaders in this
burgeoning field. Corporations serious about the field look
at Berkeley as a beacon for new leaders and I have benefited
greatly by sticking to my goals and principles.
Marcus
Chung Job Title:
Manager, Social Responsibility Strategic Planning
and Communications
Company: Gap,
Inc.
Biography:
Marcus Chung joined Gap Inc. in May 2004, with a focus on developing an integrated, holistic, company-wide CSR strategy. As Manager of Public Affairs, Marcus helped to develop the company's CSR strategy and played a key role in producing the company's 2004 Social Responsibility Report. In his current role as Manager of Social Responsibility Strategic Planning and Communications, Marcus continues to drive the company’s CSR strategy and to manage Gap Inc.’s CSR reporting efforts. In addition, he is responsible for engagement and outreach to the Socially Responsible Investment community. Prior to earning his MBA at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Marcus worked as a Senior Research Manager at the Corporate Executive Board, a best practices research and consulting firm based in Washington DC. Marcus graduated with honors from Wesleyan University where he majored in English and in French literature.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
Haas and the Center for Responsible Business provided me with the opportunity to explore varied aspects of CSR and exposure to CSR challenges and topics in a number of different industries. This foundation in CSR has ably prepared me for my current role as a CSR practitioner in a global corporation.
What is your advice to current and future students who are interested in CSR?
Strategic CSR is very much about how companies conduct business. You can have a positive impact on society no matter what business function you work in. You don't need to be in a CSR department to be a CSR practitioner!
Amy Dickie
Haas MBA 2007
Job Title: Associate
Company: Sea Change Management LLC and California Environmental Associates
Biography:
Amy Dickie is an associate the Sea Change Management LLC focusing on financial and business due diligence. She also serves as an associate at California Environmental Associates where she works on conservation program strategy and conservation finance. Prior to joining CEA and Sea Change, Amy spent several years at Investors' Circle, a national network of angel and institutional venture investors using private capital to promote the transition to a sustainable economy by investing in early-stage companies that have a social and/or environmental mission. She has also worked with several mission-driven start-up companies and at JPMorgan's Bay Area Equity Fund, a double bottom-line venture fund investing in San Francisco Bay Area's low and moderate income neighborhoods. Amy has a BA in History from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa), and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, where she served as co-chair for the Global Social Venture Competition.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
I am using the skills I gained at Haas every day, both in my work as a strategy consultant to environmental foundations and non-profits and an investment professional for a conservation- oriented venture fund. The fundamentals of finance and accounting are critical to my work at the Sea Change Fund, and the concepts and analytical capacity I gained from strategy, marketing, and economics classes are useful across all of my work. The classes and extracurricular activities offered through the Center for Responsible Business provided a valuable framework for understanding the intersection of business and environmental, social, and governance issues, and, more importantly, the confidence to take on new challenges and opportunities in this rapidly expanding field.
What is your advice to current and future students who are interested in CSR?
The MBA is a practitioners degree and CSR is a nascent industry with little academic history. The combination launches students quickly into learning by doing. The CRB does a fantastic job of creating opportunities of all kinds for students to participate in the field of CSR. Take advantage of these opportunities! They are the best way to learn about CSR, build skills, and determine the what aspect of the field you want to help propel after graduation.
Kristin
Groos Richmond
Haas MBA 2006
Job Title: Founder and CEO
Company: Revolution
Foods, Inc.
Biography:
Kristin Groos Richmond founded Revolution Foods to provide
healthy, fresh, high quality food and nutrition education
to public school students. While finishing her MBA at Haas
in 2006, Richmond and her partner Kirsten Tobey wrote the
Revolution Foods business plan, ran a pilot program in Oakland,
and secured funding and a partnership with Whole Foods. Today
Revolution Foods serves breakfast, lunch, and snack daily
to public school students in the Bay Area.
Kristin began her
career as an investment banker at Citigroup. After spending
four years in corporate finance, she moved to Nairobi, Kenya
to co-found the Kenya Community Center for Learning, one of
the first special education schools in East Africa. Kristin
also served as a Vice President at RISE, a nonprofit dedicated
to recruiting and retaining quality teachers in public schools.
She serves on the Board of the Global Social Venture Competition
at Haas and is an Education Pioneers Fellow. Kristin has a
BS from Boston College and an MBA from UC Berkeley.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center
enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
My experience at
Haas and with the CRB was instrumental in every way in achieving
my dream of starting Revolution Foods. While at Haas, I met
my business partner Kirsten Tobey, connected with CRB advisors
including Kellie Mc Elhaney and Will Rosenzsweig, and took
the time to conduct the intensive market diligence and business
planning necessary to launch after graduation. Now that Revolution
Foods is officially launched, my leanings from Haas influence
my thinking and decision making on a daily basis on issues
ranging from growth, fundraising, and operations to sales
strategy. Our commitment to building a socially responsible
company has provided the foundation for establishing key pillars
of Revolution Foods including rigorous food quality standards,
livable wages and benefits for all employees, and green business
practices.
What is your advice to current and future students
who are interested in CSR?
There is so much opportunity in the field of CSR.
Don’t be afraid to pursue existing and potential opportunities
for CSR roles and launching CSR-driven companies. The CRB
at Haas offers a premier program in CSR so take full advantage
of the resources the department has to offer while you are
pursuing your MBA. Use your learnings from Haas to craft your
own approach to CSR which will be invaluable in your career
development. Innovative and thoughtful strategies in CSR will
be welcomed by the market and a commitment to CSR will enhance
your opportunities whether you pursue the field in a direct
or indirect fashion.
Haas MBA 2007
Job Title: Senior Corporate Responsibility Analyst
Company: Brown-Forman
Biography:
Rob Kaplan is a Senior Corporate Responsibility Analyst at Brown-Forman, maker of over 30 spirits and wine brands including Jack Daniels, Finlandia Vodka, and Fetzer Wines. He focuses on developing corporate responsibility, communication, and brand strategies. Rob graduated with an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. While a student, he studied general management and concentrated on brand management, corporate responsibility, and social entrepreneurship. He also was co-president of the Haas Chapter of Net Impact. Rob was one of a small group of student bloggers who reported from the Skoll World Forum at Oxford on The Social Edge, an online publication on social entrepreneurship. On two separate MBA teams, he won the Leeds Net Impact case competition and the JP Morgan Good Venture Competition. Prior to business school, Rob was Communications Director for Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California, a nonprofit advocating for increased public investment in education and crime-prevention, and as a political consultant for M&R Strategic Services in Washington, DC.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
As with many professionals in corporate responsibility, I’ve had a non-traditional career path. But, attending the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and studying at the Center for Responsible Business were the most important and influential factors. Receiving an MBA helped me transition to the private sector from the nonprofit and public sector. But, it was Professor Kellie McElhaney at the Center that taught me the mechanics of corporate responsibility and introduced me to Brown-Forman during her capstone course. I was part of a team that consulted for Fetzer Wines where we helped the brand build the case for a green marketing strategy. That project launched into my summer internship and fulltime job from Brown-Forman’s corporate responsibility group.
What is your advice to current and future students who are interested in CSR?
Corporate responsibility is a highly competitive career because there is increasing demand among business professionals who want to feel better about contributing through their work and low supply of opportunity. First, I would suggest students gain as much information that they can about what a CSR job is really like: read as much as you can, try to find a practitioner to talk to, and maybe go to a conference. There are a lot of misconceptions and I’ve found that the grass can seems greener on the other side of the road. You have to be comfortable with the minority point of view and incremental change. Huge accomplishments are rare and you often have to compromise. Often, you may have more impact by trying to incorporate CSR-values into a traditional business function, than in a CSR role. What kind of role would make you happier?
Second, try building a list of companies that you would like to work for in this area that matches with your interests and passions. If you don’t care about technology, then you should focus your efforts elsewhere. At some point, you are going to have to make the case why you are the right fit and authentic passion for the company’s mission wills set you apart. Then, start tracking their CSR efforts and news clippings. Are they missing something? What could they do better? Reach out to the CSR Director if you have an interesting idea or suggestion.
Third, I would think about how you can leverage your existing skills to get your foot in the door. Even if you go to business school, your resume is still your resume. For example, I packaged my background in political communications as a unique fit for the hybrid marketing-CSR job that I have today. You may have to work two or three degrees removed from direct CSR to build the experience for the job you really want.
Jo
Mackness Haas MBA 2004
Job Title: CSR Integration Leader
Company: Ernst
& Young
Biography:
Jo Mackness works to pursue opportunities to build and communicate Ernst & Young's sense of purpose through embedding elements of Corporate Social Responsibility into core EY processes and activities. Prior to EY, Jo was a human capital consultant working in the US and the UK, primarily serving professional services and financial services firms on transactions, corporate governance and executive compensation issues. Jo holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business. She continues to work closely with the Center for Responsible Business at Berkeley where she was a teaching assistant for both undergraduate and graduate classes in the area of corporate social responsibility. Jo is also a national board member of Net Impact, a network of new leaders who are using the power of business to make a positive net social, environmental, and economic impact.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
I created and then "landed" my current job through Haas and the Center. EY engaged me and three of my MBA classmates through Professor McElhany's CSR projects class, we created a blueprint for what CSR could look like at EY, I stayed on as a summer intern, and then part-time during my second year, we presented to EY's board the following December, and I was hired to help start the CSR team upon graduation!
What is
your advice to current and future students who are interested
in CSR?
Try to get a job that is not traditionally CSR and try to
integrate elements of CSR into your role - it's the best way
to spread the word!!
Eddy
Reif Job Title:
Product Manager
Company: Amazon.com,
Inc.
Biography:
Eddy was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela where he studied Production Engineering and worked in both marketing and consulting functions before attending business school. He chose the Haas School for his MBA because he wanted to learn how to mesh technology and making a difference in the world - two of the school's strengths. He learned about both these things and much more while at Haas! Eddy now lives in Seattle, working as a product manager in the very fast paced e-commerce space at Amazon.com.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
It gave me the tools and skills to identify how to make a case for more socially responsible practices in a company. Amazon does a lot of great things, but there is still so many opportunities that without my preparation at Haas I would have never been able to identify.
What is your advice to current and future students who are interested in CSR?
Go for it! It is not easy, but make use of this unique opportunity to work on the leading edge in what could perhaps be one of the most important innovations of an era!
Kirsten
Saenz Tobey
Haas MBA 2006
Job Title:
Founder and COO
Company: Revolution
Foods, Inc.
Biography:
As a Bay Area native,
I have spent most of my life living and working in California.
Founding a company to provide healthy meals to Bay Area schools
made a lot of sense to me, and the Center and Haas gave me
the launching pad and tools to make it happen. I co-founded
Revolution Foods to provide healthy, fresh, high quality food
and nutrition education to public school students. My partner,
Kristin Groos Richmond, and I wrote the Revolution Foods business
plan while we were at Haas. Today Revolution Foods serves
breakfast, lunch, and snack daily to public school students
in the Bay Area.
At Haas, I co-led the Net Impact chapter and served on the
leadership team of the Global Social Venture Competition.
I also served as a McDonald's CSR Fellow and represented the
Center in two ethics and social responsibility case competitions
at other business schools.
Prior to Haas, I
led a public health campaign for Earthjustice and managed
experiential education programs at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts,
in Ecuador and in Mexico. I have an AB from Brown University
and an MBA from UC Berkeley.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center
enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
I met my business
partner, Kristin, at Haas, as well as benefited from the advice
and guidance of several Haas professors and classes. Between
Kellie and Will Rosenzweig, both Center board members, we
were connected with a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and
funding opportunities that helped us to get this company off
the ground. Several courses I took at Haas (Marketing Research,
New Product Development, Social Enterprise Development, Accounting,
Financial Modeling, Organizational Behavior) provided me with
the actual skills that I put into action every day as the
founder and COO of a startup company.
What is your advice to current and future students
who are interested in CSR?
The Center provides an incredible number of opportunities to get hands- on experience with CSR, and I would encourage students to participate in as many of these opportunities as possible. Taking Kellie's CSR project class introduced me to my first hands-on CSR project at Nike and provided the context for my whole personal approach to CSR, so I would definitely recommend starting your Haas career with that course. Volunteering at CRB events and conferences, and participating in case competitions on CSR-related topics are also great ways to get to know the Center staff, CSR community, and your classmates who share similar interests. And of course, become an active Net Impact member!
Marcy
Scott Lynn
Haas MBA 2006
Job Title:
Corporate Social Responsibility Program Manager
Company: Sun
Microsystems, Inc..
Biography:
Prior to graduate
school, Marcy worked for eight years as a crisis and issues
management consultant to large, multinational companies, three
of which were spent managing the communications programs around
Nike's global manufacturing, corporate responsibility and
related issues. She came to Haas in 2004, where she was involved
with the MBAA (as VP Community), Net Impact and the Global
Social Venture Competition. Marcy participated in the Haas
International Business Development Program, working with a
team to develop a business plan for an eco-tourism resort
on Easter Island. For her summer internship, she worked in
Budapest, Hungary with the American Chamber of Commerce to
promote corporate responsibility in the emerging markets of
Eastern Europe. During her second year at Haas, Marcy was
an intern at Symantec for the company's newly appointed Director
of Corporate Responsibility. She also collaborated with Prof.
Kellie McElhaney and a classmate on a research study examining
the connection between CSR and women in the business sector.
In September 2006, Marcy began working at Sun Microsystems
starting up the company's corporate social responsibility
initiative. Marcy actively volunteers and raises money for
a variety of Bay Area nonprofits, and she is also a recreational
endurance athlete, having completed numerous triathlons (including
Ironman) and several marathons.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center
enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
The classes I was able to take, the people I met, the projects
on which I worked, and the research I conducted while at Haas
and in connection with the CRB have given me invaluable resources
on which I regularly rely in my role as Sun's CSR Program
Manager. Whether talking to Sun's Senior Vice President for
Human Resources about corporate responsibility as one possible
component of a retention strategy for female employees, developing
our company's first CSR Report, pitching our corporate investment
committee on including a socially responsible investment option
in our company's 401(k) plan, my Haas and CRB network and
experiences are helping me bring CSR to life here at Sun.
I know that I will continue to tap into this incredible community
over the course of my career.
What is your advice to current and future students
who are interested in CSR?
The best advice I can offer to current and future students
interested in CSR as a career path is to make sure you have
a well-rounded MBA experience. It is great to focus your MBA
on getting hands-on CSR experience by doing independent studies
and a CSR-related internship, for example. However, it is
equally important to take those “traditional”
MBA classes – financial modeling, managerial accounting,
market research, etc. - because it is these classes that are
going to enable you to look at CSR through a wide lens, giving
you the perspective you need to create a combination of social
and business value at your company.
One other bit of advice I might share is to learn the art of listening. Listening is much harder to do than talking, but can be much more valuable in a corporate responsibility function within a company. When you enter an MBA program, there is so much time to think and talk about corporate responsibility and get caught up in the creativity and enthusiasm swirling all around you. Once you are out of the cocoon of your MBA program and into the “real” world, people tend to (1) have much less time for grand discussions about corporate responsibility and (2) there are likely to be more people that have no idea what CSR even is, let alone how to engage in a dialogue about it. Figuring out who's who at your company – who are the CSR champions? Who are the skeptics? Who are simply too busy to have spent much time at all thinking about it? it is imperative that you make the CSR conversation inviting to whomever wants to join it – not just the die-hard believers or the outright skeptics. Listening is the best way to engage others in a discussion about corporate responsibility because it allows you to know where to even begin the discussion.
Pareen
ShahJob Title:
Manager, Strategic Initiatives
Company: Orchard
Supply Hardware
Biography:
Pareen Shah grew up in Sterling Heights, Michigan,
and he earned his undergraduate degree in business administration
from the University of Michigan. He then ventured west to
work for the Clorox Company, at first in finance & accounting
and then in brand management. After two years at Clorox he
thought he had enough of corporate life, so he left the business
world to pursue a Master’s degree in Social Policy at
the London School of Economics. Although he intended to pursue
a career in policy-making after graduation, while at the LSE
he came to the conclusion, quite ironically, that business
– not government – holds the key to creating and
delivering social value. After graduating from the LSE he
took a job in online marketing with BananaRepublic.com,
part of Gap Inc. While at Gap Pareen decided that an MBA from
Haas – particularly due to the classes and experiences
offered by the Center – would be the right next step
down the path of creating and delivering social good through
business. While at Haas, Pareen interned with the consulting
firm AT Kearney, was involved with GSVC, and was a member
of the victorious 2005 Elite 8 Brand Management case competition
team.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center
enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
The Haas experience,
and particularly the experience gained through Professor McElhaney’s
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility class, has given
me the confidence to analyze business decisions with an eye
towards CSR. My client in Professor McElhaney’s class
was Hewlett-Packard. My teammate and I developed a business
case for the use of green plastics. In other words, we assessed
how being green is the right thing to do for HP from a financial
standpoint. The experience of applying hard business analysis
to a CSR issue has been invaluable in my current role, where
in only my first 3 months on the job, I’ve been able
to provide input to Orchard Supply Hardware’s CEO and
chief merchandising officer to help shape the discussion of
our company’s approach to being green.
What is your advice to current and future students
who are interested in CSR?
Take a high-risk approach while you’re in school.
There’s never a better opportunity than the one you
currently have as an MBA student to approach senior executives
and business leaders and ask them hard questions about CSR.
Once you leave school you don’t have the “immunity”
that students are afforded – asking the tough questions
becomes much tougher.
Additionally, don’t be quick to judge companies and
industries. It’s easy to label one company or industry
as “good” (e.g. renewable energy, healthy food
retailers) and another as “bad” (e.g. oil &
gas, big-box retailing) from a CSR perspective. Unfortunately
it’s not that simple – CSR is not binary. Every
company has the opportunity to do good, and every company
has the opportunity to do the opposite. Find companies and/or
industries that interest you, and then look for the opportunities
they have to do good, because those opportunities exist even
though they may not always be evident at first glance.
Finally, remember that the credibility of CSR – either
rightly or wrongly – must lie in its business case.
Although it is undoubtedly difficult, try to always remember
to use the language of business – sales projections,
cost savings, efficiency gains, etc. – to make the case
for CSR, because in the end that approach is the one that
will carry the most weight and will draw the fewest objections.
Doug
Young
Haas MBA 2006
Job Title: Investment Associate
Company: MicroVest
Capital Management LLC
Biography:
Doug manages MicroVest’s microfinance investing in Latin America. MicroVest is a $25 million private equity fund providing debt and equity capital to microfinance institutions (MFIs) in emerging markets. As the first private microfinance investment fund in the United States, MicroVest’s goal is to link capital markets to the entrepreneurial poor by expanding the capacity of profitable MFIs throughout the world.
Prior to joining MicroVest, Doug worked as a senior manager with the Ernst & Young Capital Markets in Santiago, Chile, where he managed Chilean cross-border transactions for over three years. He also has experience analyzing microfinance investments for the Rockefeller Foundation’s Program Venture Investments (ProVenEx).
While pursuing his MBA at Haas, Doug initiated a student-led microfinance speaker series. He won the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship’s Best MBA Paper in 2005. Doug has long been interested in volunteer work and participated in student volunteer efforts in his hometown of Baltimore, Mexico, the Appalachians, and in Atlanta with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps where he helped the homeless for a year after college. Doug is a CPA and earned his Bachelor’s degree in accounting at Loyola College in Maryland where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He is fluent in Spanish.
How has your experience at Haas and with the Center enabled you to make an impact in your current role?
Haas and the Center exposed me to the dynamic worlds of CSR, Social Entrepreneurship and Microfinance, which ultimately led me to my current position. My two years at Haas allowed me to lay the foundation on which I rely constantly today. The contacts I developed at Haas through my own efforts and with help from the Center and other programs, will definitely help me in the future – I hope many times over!
What is your advice to current and future students
who are interested in CSR?
Don’t be afraid to take risks. Take charge
of your own career and capitalize on the opportunities before
you. Cultivate the contacts you meet and let them know what
you can offer. Student projects are great ways to show off
your intelligence and personality. Be persistent. Take as
many CSR classes as you can but don’t leave out core
electives either (the more finance the better).
