UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

How Green Can You Go? Five Inspiring Sustainability Initiatives at UCLA

Left to right: Umbrellas with solar-powered charging stations at UCLA Anderson; UCLA’s co-generation power plant; Bruin Bike Share

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Along with the S.A.F.E. Collection Center for household hazardous waste, solar panels atop Ackerman Student Union, the UCLA Bike Shop and bike fix-it stands and air pumps stationed around campus, UCLA is dotted with numerous other green features. Anderson alumna Nurit Katz (’08), UCLA’s chief sustainability officer and executive officer of facilities management, shared these five cool campus interventions you might not know about:

1) The Marion Anderson Courtyard at UCLA Anderson is the perfect place to break for lunch and power down — and power up, as it happens. In 2015, Jason Hsu (Ph.D. ’04), assistant adjunct professor of finance and an Anderson alumnus, generously donated a ZON Powersol umbrella that provides shade as well as three weather-proofed solar-powered USB ports to charge up to three mobile devices at a time as quickly as a wall outlet, day or night. UCLA Anderson immediately purchased three more with help from donations to the Anderson Fund from students and alumni, and has added more since. UCLA was the first UC campus to use the ZON umbrellas. It’s just one of the ways Anderson is thinking in the Next.

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A Latina in Business School: On Being the Bridge

By Amanda Sol Peralta (’20)

National Hispanic Heritage Month always prompts me to reflect on the community that I unwittingly joined when I moved to the U.S. 25 years ago. This fall, as I begin business school at UCLA Anderson, it’s made me recommit to how this community has enriched my experience as an American.

Among activist circles I have often heard that it shouldn’t be the burden of marginalized peoples to explain their experiences or educate others. This is a perspective I understand and respect, but one that differs deeply from my experiences in underrepresented groups (Latinos, first-generation Americans and college graduates, LGBTQ for context). Perhaps this makes sense, considering I have a tendency to pay attention to how I am different. What may equally affect my perspective is the fact that as a Chilean immigrant, I have rarely been in social or professional settings where even one other person shared my background.

California Census Effort Counts on UCLA Anderson Alumna Adriana Martinez

By Paul Feinberg

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Adriana Martinez (’02) believes that every person counts.

And when it comes to the 2020 United States census, it’s her responsibility to make sure every Californian is counted.

In August, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Martinez deputy director of outreach for the state’s California Complete Count effort. The organization’s goal is the development of a strategy for a complete and accurate count of California’s population and the creation of a campaign to reach some of the state’s most difficult-to-reach communities, including residents of rural communities, people with disabilities, the elderly, the homeless and immigrants.

Previously, Martinez spent more than six years with AT&T, where she served as director of public affairs and, later, director of external affairs for California; she also ran an eponymous public affairs consulting group. “I’ve always been really interested in managing and leadership,” Martinez says. “Going back to why I earned an MBA, I really wanted to lead an organization. Sixteen years later, that’s what I was focused on: managing teams, managing budgets, being a convener among various sectors.”

Openness Sets UCLA Anderson Apart

By Lauren Wolfen (’19)

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When I walk into the welcoming, open courtyard at UCLA Anderson, I am inevitably greeted by section mates, group project team members and friends, who have all quickly become some of my most trusted sources of advice, suppliers of a great laugh or a good story, and reliable supporters and motivators who will always go out of their way to help one another.

This is my #WhyAnderson ― the Class of 2019.

Growing up in Los Angeles and working here prior to enrolling in business school, I did not anticipate the tight bonds that quickly form among Anderson peers; but these personal bonds will stay with me more than anything else.

It started during orientation week in early August of 2017, when we arrived as a bunch of people from all over the world, thrown into Korn Convocation Hall together attired in business casual on our very first day of graduate school. No one quite expected that we would be thrown back into the classroom so quickly and assembled into sections and learning teams that would become our families at school.

Daniel Tsai’s Support for UCLA Anderson Is All About Family

By Paul Feinberg

For Daniel Tsai, it's all about family. And love.

Tsai and his brother Richard, together, lead the immensely successful financial services business their father founded and that has become the second largest in Taiwan. His professional achievements are many, but Daniel Tsai makes clear that his family — its strength, unity and closeness — is his most significant accomplishment.

“When I had my family,” he says, “I felt that the most important thing was to make my children feel loved.”

Indeed, the Tsai clan, even with grown children, remains remarkably tight-knit. It includes daughter Iris (’17), a UCLA Anderson alumna and the founder of Esteemed Tea Collective, an Oolong tea importer to the U.S., who splits her time between Taiwan and Los Angeles. Whenever possible, Daniel, his wife Irene, Iris and her siblings still make every effort to be together at meal time.

“We will wait for each other to arrive before we start dinner or lunch (and) I'm always the one who's being called and asked, ‘Where are you, Dad? Are you ready for the meal?” Tsai joked. “I will try to rush home. I ask them to hold on a bit so I can be there to be with them to start the meal together.”