UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

UCLA Anderson Understands the Importance of Diversity, and Businesses Do, Too

By Hugo J. Garcia

UCLA Anderson School of Management recently presented its professional conference Embracing Diversity. The annual conference demonstrates Anderson’s commitment to increasing diversity in its programs and provides business school applicants invaluable insight into what diversity means in today’s corporate world. Industry leaders are invited to address prospective students, and, without exception, they advocate for every business to seek a diverse pool of candidates in the hiring process.

Corporate Commitment

The 2017 event focus on the role of diversity in business school and the corporate world, not only as socially important, but as a factor that leads to greater efficiency. One of the most memorable presentations was on CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace. This initiative is led by CEOs from numerous companies such as Accenture and Deloitte who believe in the strength that diversity brings to their business performance.

The presentation opened with a statement about research that shows “diversity increases creativity and innovation, promotes higher quality decisions and enhances economic growth.” This research has inspired CEOs to actively pursue the diversification of their employment base, creating avenues for businesses to capitalize on the rewards of introducing new perspectives into their company.

UCLA Anderson Veterans Discuss Culture, Transitions and Supporting the Troops

Jared Kerntke (’18) and Hagai (Guy) Nir (’18) currently serve as co-presidents of the Anderson Veterans Association. The organization’s membership cuts across the board to include students from UCLA Anderson’s full-time, fully employed and executive programs. The group’s membership is not limited to veterans of the United States armed forces, vets from around the world are welcome.

The relationship between the veteran community and the civilian population is part of the current news cycle, the country carrying on a very public discussion on what it means to “support the troops.” Nir and Kerntke were gracious enough to sit down with the UCLA Anderson Blog team to share their views on recent events and life at Anderson for those who’ve served.

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Q: To begin, why don’t you both tell our readers about your military careers?

Kerntke: I was in the Marine Corps for six years as a supply officer. I spent two years in Japan, three years in San Diego and one year all over. I joined straight out of college. I did not do ROTC, so I guess it was a little unusual in that regard. It was great. I love the Marines. I got out (of the Marines) in June and I started (at Anderson) in August. (I did) undergrad at Penn State.

Nir: I was in the Israeli Defense Forces. I was born and raised in Israel so there's mandatory service for us, but when you apply to a Special Forces unit you go through a qualification course. I got accepted to the Special Forces so I had to sign up for more years. The Israeli system is a bit different. You don’t go in as officers; rather, we join the ranks and then you get promoted. Then I was selected to go to the NCO course, and after that was selected to go to the IDF’s Officers Academy, coming out as a platoon commander. After three years I was promoted to company commander. Overall, I served almost five years active and seven years reserve, coming out as a major.

Blair Taylor on Bridging Communities of Social Difference

Alumnus Blair Taylor recently participated in Anderson's High Impact Tea series; last year, he spoke at the 2016 Concordia Summit in New York (above)

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By Matt Duyst

Blair Taylor (’90) served for four years as Starbucks’ chief community officer and he is an active embodiment of the Starbucks credo: “One person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time.” The slogan invokes the gradual transition from one to all, from divided to unified.

Taylor, a UCLA Anderson Inspirational 100 alumnus and former CEO of President Obama’s collaborative, cross-sectoral movement My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, returned to UCLA Anderson as a speaker in the High Impact Tea series to remind graduate students of the necessity of this metamorphosis. He underscored the progression of single to whole in an inverse manner, deconstructing the binaries of global and individual from a top-down point of view — from the vantage of a major corporation to the eyes of a single youth.

He posed an outwardly transparent question: “What drives you?” Taylor proceeded to draw a parallel between his present and past selves, returning to that leitmotif throughout the talk and reiterating the value of lifelong persistence. He shed light on the impact that service experiences, like working for a suicide hotline, have had in shaping his ethic of “doing well and giving back.”

Changing the Rules of Inclusion: John Wooden Global Leadership Fellow Anna Goldberg

By Carly Milne

Growing up, Anna Goldberg (’18) often heard her parents say, “Fair is not the same.” As she grew to adulthood, the phrase became a driving force behind her efforts to push for greater equality and equity across society.

“I want to build meaningful relationships that cultivate cultures and systems where everyone can flourish,” says Goldberg, who is the president of Anderson’s Women’s Business Connection. “I will always strive to create more equity for others; but being a white person with privilege, you can create access more easily than others who haven’t had that privilege.”

As one of four UCLA Anderson students awarded a 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowship, it may come as no surprise that Goldberg comes from a line of social activists. Her grandfather, for example, protested alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and was arrested with him. Like the civil rights leader, Goldberg’s grandfather died too young, but his influence on her family remained; when she was just 14, she traveled to Uganda with her mother and grandmother to volunteer for several weeks at a Jewish community village.

Influencing Larger Health Care Issues: John Wooden Global Leadership Fellow Brandon Scott

 

By Carly Milne

When Brandon Scott (MBA/M.D. ’18) began medical school, his goal wasn’t simply to become a doctor. Scott had already cultivated an awareness of how impactful physicians could be in influencing larger health care issues, and he began his education with the idea that he — and other physicians — could influence and improve patient care delivery.

“My number one career interest is compassion in treating patients,” Scott says. “I went to UCLA to become a doctor, and I believe in treating patients with the idea that they can become familiar with the idea of normalcy — not just healing.”

Scott’s focus is reflected in Connecting Californians to Care, the student-run organization he co-founded with two fellow M.D./MBAs. While their mission is to help create access to care, they’re also dedicated to educating clinicians and administrators in professional development beyond the med school curriculum. It’s passion like this, and a unique way of thinking in the next, that made Scott a great candidate for a 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowship.

Leading with Values: Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum’s Journey to Tackle Homelessness in Los Angeles

By Sana Rahim (FEMBA ’19)

Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum realized when she was a dance teacher for young girls that she had a passion for teaching and helping others. Later, as a Ph.D. student at Stanford University, Kellum examined the factors that create stress in ethnic minority youth, such as poverty, academic underachievement and family dynamics. This work inspired her to launch a career in service of others.

Now president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph Center (SJC) in Venice, Kellum joined UCLA Anderson to talk about her professional journey to SJC as well as her key leadership tenets. SJC’s mission is to provide working poor families with the inner resources and tools to become productive, stable and self-supporting members of the community. Last year, the center prepared more than 25,000 hot meals and permanently housed 304 people.

Inclusion Is No Sacrifice: John Wooden Global Leadership Fellow Sana Rahim

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

Sana Rahim (FEMBA ’19) is the recipient of a 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowship, which rewards students who embody Coach Wooden’s leadership ideals and commitment to improving the lives of others. And if, as Wooden believed, adversity is an asset, Rahim has risen to the challenge — primarily in the interest of helping other people.

Rahim is an observant Muslim American whose parents hail from Pakistan. She is a brown-skinned woman pursuing an MBA. She grew up a distinct minority in the Wyoming town of Laramie, and later moved with her family to Naperville, Illinois, where she proudly became her high school’s first homecoming queen in hijab. In adulthood, amid worldwide trends toward divisiveness along political, religious, gender and cultural lines, she has traveled widely and faced her share of prejudice and setbacks.

But the former sales manager for industrial supply company McMaster-Carr says, “Although my ‘roots’ presented me with a number of challenges, they motivated me.” Her immigrant parents instilled in her a great sense of achievement, worthiness and responsibility. These influences protected her from insecurity.

The Future of Health Care? Numbers Tell the Story

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National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 through October 15. UCLA Anderson, in conjunction with the Anderson Latino Management Association and the UCLA campus, recognizes the significant contributions to society among our Latino and Hispanic students, alumni, staff and faculty. Visit Latino@Anderson to enjoy their stories.

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By Paul Feinberg

Integrated Behavioral Health self-describes as a company that specializes in behavioral health plan administration, employee assistance programs, psychological disability management and work-life services. The company works with Fortune 1000 employers, business coalitions, insurance companies, union health plans, HMOs and PPOs.

As corporate controller, Juan Salcedo (’83) is the top finance professional at the company. “I handle monthly reporting, banking and analyzing acquisitions,” he said via phone from the company’s headquarters in Costa Mesa. He also oversees all of the accounting and finance departments.

Salcedo, who did his undergraduate work at Stanford, didn’t enroll at what was then UCLA’s Graduate School of Management with a goal of becoming a corporate controller. His primary objective was to educate himself as to how businesses are run, with a vague notion that someday he’d like to head his own company. While at UCLA, he recognized that his strengths ran more toward finance and analytics as opposed to marketing. He focused on accounting during his last year at Anderson and ended up taking a position with a Big Eight accounting firm.

Strategy Expertise and Insights into Multi-Ethnic Communities Drove California’s Highest Health Care Enrollment

National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 through October 15. UCLA Anderson, in conjunction with the Anderson Latino Management Association and the UCLA campus, recognizes the significant contributions to society among our Latino and Hispanic students, alumni, staff and faculty. Visit Latino@Anderson to enjoy their stories.

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By Paul Feinberg

Elvia Delgado (’99) has spent the last 10 years with AltaMed Health Services, the largest, federally qualified community clinic in the country. “Its mission,” Delgado says, “is to provide health services to the underserved and uninsured community.” The organization has served Los Angeles and Orange County for nearly 50 years.

A Pro-Social Imperative

“AltaMed is mission-centric,” Delgado says. “It’s served over 200,000 patients and provided over a million encounters to a population that in many ways has not had access to health care. We provide health care regardless of ability to pay.”

The AltaMed system has 58 locations in Los Angeles and Orange County and provides health care services from birth to end of life, including prenatal, adult medicine, pediatrics, dentistry and behavioral health. It’s physician-based, not an insurance company.

The Iceman Comments

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National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 through October 15. UCLA Anderson, in conjunction with the Anderson Latino Management Association and the UCLA campus, recognizes the significant contributions to society among our Latino and Hispanic students, alumni, staff and faculty. Visit Latino@Anderson to enjoy their stories.

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By Paul Feinberg

Roberto Sequeira (’07) is pretty used to it by now. While so many of his classmates spend their days dealing with the intricacies of high finance or consulting, he’s selling ice. Assured by a reporter that a forthcoming interview wouldn’t go into anything too deep, he just laughed: “Right,” Sequeira said. “It’s not too complicated.”

Did we say “ice”? Yes, we did.

Sequeira is founder and chief executive officer of Gläce Luxury Ice. The company bills itself as the world’s leading premium-drink ice brand; the product features a zero-taste ice cube that allows consumers to “maximize the beverage experience.” You probably didn’t know that traditional machine ice, typically made with local tap water, may contain impurities and carcinogens that result in lousy tasting ice. Gläce Ice, by contrast, is cleaner and better tasting. Still not sure? Let Sequeira explain:

Q: If I were to ask you for the elevator pitch for your business, what would you say?

Basically, we’re carving out the niche, the top spot in a $4 billion commoditized industry, and the value proposition is simple: While consumers have developed a sense of brand loyalty in just about every other consumer packaged good, ice remained, up until our arrival, an overlooked opportunity. People have preferences in bottled water, vodkas and scotches, but “on the rocks” remained a generic proposition until we came along.