UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Andrea Wade Walks Her Talk as She Helps Alumni Tap into the Lifelong Value of Their MBA

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

In 2016, UCLA Anderson alumna Andrea Wade (’96) celebrated her 20th reunion. “What started out as a way for me to see what old classmates were up to turned into something much more meaningful,” she says. Now, six months later, she finds herself working with UCLA Anderson’s office of alumni relations (OAR) as the director of alumni programming and events to develop the strategy to engage alumni where they live, work, think and play.

A few of her past employers include Creative Artists Agency, Bank of America, e-commerce pioneer eToys and Arthur Andersen, where she worked as a business consultant following graduation from Anderson. She has also worked as a brand marketing consultant, helping organizations and individuals amplify their brand positioning to improve awareness and profitability. Amid that range and variety, Wade is an ambassador for continuity.

“Under the Harshest of Circumstances” Two Veteran Entrepreneurs Launch a Private Security Service

Brian Boggess (left) and Killian Hemmy (center), who teamed up to launch a private security company, mix with other graduates of the intensive Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans at UCLA Anderson

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By Carolyn Gray Anderson

“Information without action is irrelevant, and action without information is ineffective.”

This is how retired U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Brian Boggess sums up the experiences in Logar Province, Afghanistan, that inspired Whitebeam Global, the private security service that Boggess and former U.S. Marine Corps Infantry Officer Killian Hemmy are launching. They recently accelerated their startup in the nine-day intensive Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans. It was the first time UCLA Anderson admitted veterans who came in as a team.

Hemmy had been discharged from service in 2005 and he was working in Afghanistan for the FBI — a client he never imagined he’d have. “Afghanistan was such an uncharted and uncontrolled environment,” he says. “Being able to collect crucial information is one thing, but if you can’t find somebody who can commit decisive action to that information, you’re missing out.”

Boggess and Hemmy feel fortunate that their paths crossed in 2008 when Boggess’ Special Forces unit and Hemmy’s FBI team collaborated on a series of efforts to shut down an extensive IED network around Kabul.

“The relationship that was established was phenomenal because Brian’s team was able to commit to performing action based on what we communicated to them. Because of that, we were able to disrupt the various networks of threats out there — not just threats to U.S. interests but to innocent people across the board,” says Hemmy.

“Afghanistan is an extreme example of having extraordinary capacity for action in a combat environment that is also constrained by local law enforcement,” Boggess says. “Our work together in Afghanistan was a model of interagency cooperation. After 9/11 there was a recognition that the various U.S. agencies and departments needed to have much better communication and interoperability in order to be most effective. We put that concept to work at the most fundamental level — the guys on the ground.”

UCLA Anderson Alumnus Lars Hoffman Takes Flight at SpaceX

Colonel Lars Hoffman as a U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School commandant, standing in front of the F-16 VISTA test aircraft, June 2014

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U.S. Air Force Colonel Lars Hoffman (EMBA ’15) entered UCLA Anderson with the intention of transitioning from the military to private-sector business. Hoffman, who spent a total of 26 years on active duty, envisioned his dream job at SpaceX. He talks about how his UCLA Anderson Executive MBA and the skills he acquired throughout his career — from Air Force Academy through deployment overseas as an officer — contributed to his readiness to join SpaceX, where he has worked as senior director of government sales since 2014.

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Hoffman with a model of SpaceX Falcon 9 at Air Force Space Command, April 2016

Q: Why don’t you tell us about your career in the Air Force and why you decided to attend UCLA Anderson?

I was a pilot my whole career, both reconnaissance pilot and a test pilot, and had two tours in the Pentagon, and a couple tours living overseas.

Coming up on my last few years, I realized that as I transitioned from the Air Force to civilian life, I needed to prepare myself. During my last two years in the Air Force I was assigned to Edwards Air Force Base out in the Antelope Valley, where I was the commandant of the test pilot school. I started looking in the Southern California area for a good MBA program, and quickly found the Executive MBA program at Anderson, which seemed like a great fit. I was able to attend the first year of the two-year program during my last year in the Air Force, and it helped me find my job here at SpaceX, where I finished the second year of the program. So the EMBA program was actually the bridge from my military career to my new corporate career at SpaceX.

Q: Please tell us about your transition from military life to a civilian career.

During the last five to 10 years of my Air Force career, I was in higher levels of responsibility and authority, in command positions with staff and direct reports that were supporting me and working with me in a very formal arrangement, as the military is fairly hierarchical. That was the environment I came from.

In transitioning to civilian life, I was told (by the Air Force at least) that there’s going to be a bit of a culture shock. They said, “You won’t be a colonel with a staff supporting you and it’s likely you’re going to transition into a position where you’ll have to do things yourself, you’ll have to work with peers in a different way.”

It wasn’t so different as some people will make it out to be; but during my interview process at SpaceX, they were asking me a lot of questions about whether I was going to be comfortable working in a very flat and collaborative organization without a lot of formal organizational structure to it. They especially wanted to know if I would be comfortable working with people half my age. I said, “Yes, of course.” I had some experience with that, but my MBA experience helped prepare me for that a bit because I was in a classroom of colleagues and contemporaries who were from different industries.

A Message From the Dean

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Dear All,

Yesterday’s presidential election yielded a stunning result for many, one about which I’m personally very disappointed. That said, my note is not about my own politics, or about your politics, to which we are entitled — it’s about bridging the profound issues that divide our country.

I have been embarrassed by the rhetoric, the tone, and the insults; it is not who we are or should be. I imagine that all of us — no matter where we’re from — will spend some time trying to process what this vote means about our society, what it tells us about individuals’ hopes and frustrations. It is also a stark reminder to leaders in business and elsewhere — current and future — of how our actions have profound effects on our society, and how we must become more engaged as constructive forces of change. To me, this creates greater urgency to our discussion of valuing differences and to reaching out in acts of kindness and understanding to those who feel vulnerable or threatened, to those who suffer in whatever their life journey is, and to those who simply are not as lucky.

Three women of color were voted into the U.S. Senate — that is cause for optimism. Rather than set us back, or produce distance, let us use this moment to create deeper dialogue. Let’s make the Anderson family a model of empathy and respect. I hope the discussions triggered by this election bring us to a deeper understanding of the origins and values of our differences, and thus move us forward as a more thoughtful and considerate community, one that is a source of strength and support to each other. I welcome it if you’d like to reach out to chat. We move forward.

Judy D. Olian
Dean and John E. Anderson Chair in Management

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Welcome, UCLA Anderson MBA Class of 2018

Emphasizing and celebrating the diversity of our community, UCLA Anderson's Dean Judy Olian extends a special welcome to the Class of 2018, who arrived on campus this morning, August 1, 2016.

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To each member of the Class of 2018,

I welcome you into the Anderson family — a remarkably talented, connected and caring global community that is now 37,000 strong and represented in most countries of the world. You are joining a community that is passionate about learning, embodying inspiring qualities of sharing success, thinking fearlessly and driving change.

The time you spend at Anderson will be transformative on many fronts: You will expand your intellectual horizons with prompting by some of the leading intellectual management scholars and practitioners in the world. You will change your worldview, learning in a diverse community of talented and curious peers who bring a wealth of experiences and perspectives to your shared discussions. You will enrich your knowledge of the world through global immersions, conversations with CEOs of trailblazing organizations, and direct engagement with innovative companies. You will be appreciated for the power of your talents by connecting with communities and organizations that are hungry for your expertise and insights. You will look inward to learn about yourself and where you can grow, and you will hone your larger purposes in your life’s journey.

Google’s Nan Boden to Address Executive MBA Class of 2016

UCLA Anderson is pleased to announce that Dr. Nan Boden (EMBA ’11) will deliver the 2016 commencement address to our graduating Executive MBAs on July 30, 2016.

The head of global alliances for enterprise at Google, Boden has spent her career working at the strategic intersection of technology and business. “I would never have ended up in my position — and I mean never — if I hadn’t taken the road through Anderson’s EMBA program,” she said of her MBA experience. “Doing so made all the difference in the trajectory of my career.”

Boden leads the organization responsible for partnering with companies that build their businesses on Google’s cloud, apps, maps and education products. She joined Google via acquisition in 2013 in the division that designs, develops and deploys Google’s data centers, where she handled various strategy matters as well as mergers and acquisitions.

UCLA Anderson Professor Mike Hanssens Pioneered Big Data and Says He Sought to Answer the Question: “How Well Does Marketing Work?”

By Elise Anderson

Dominique Hanssens might well consider UCLA Anderson home, as this is where he has spent his entire academic career, serving in a variety of roles and capacities that include faculty chair, associate dean and marketing area chair. Along the way he has collected numerous honors and awards, authored and co-authored a host of published papers, books and book chapters, consulted with large corporations, served on numerous committees and editorial boards, been interviewed by top broadcast and print media, and expanded his academic horizons as the 2005–07 executive director of the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) in Cambridge. He is a pioneer in the use of what is now known as “big data” in marketing, focusing his research on strategic marketing problems, in particular marketing productivity, in which he applies his expertise in data-analytic methods. Several industries, including hospitality, airline and banking, adopted his research to develop and advance their ongoing marketing strategies.

In November 2015, Hanssens officially retired from his teaching responsibilities, but he is far from relinquishing his ties to the school. Indeed, he remains director of the Morrison Family Center for Marketing Studies and Data Analytics and continues working with and mentoring Ph.D. students. He also continues his research endeavors as Distinguished Research Professor of Marketing at UCLA.

Hanssens took time from his still busy schedule to ponder the years he has spent here on the myriad activities with which he has been involved and the roles he has played as teacher, researcher, corporate partner and groundbreaking analyst in the area of marketing.

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Q: What prompted your interest in marketing analytics?

I first became interested in an academic career during my undergraduate program in Antwerp, Belgium. My interest in marketing analytics was prompted by a former MIT professor who got me thinking of pursuing a Ph.D. in the U.S. But it was while I was at Purdue that a guest lecturer piqued my interest in time-series models in marketing, an area I found fascinating. You need a lot of passion for a topic to make it through a Ph.D., tenure, etc., and I found that I had a passion for this type of work.

Q: You are often asked about your work in the area of big data, but your research and efforts predate that more modernly recognized industry. Where did your work begin?

My research has been focused on answering the question, “How well does marketing work?” It really began with an early project I did with just one sheet of data and a little model to find out how marketing, in this case price changes versus advertising spending could affect brand sales. Consider the fact that just two elements of marketing — sales calls and advertising — represent about 10 percent of the economy. Ours is an $18 trillion economy, so about $1.8 trillion is spent on sales calls and advertising. It’s a huge portion of economic activity.

UCLA Anderson FEMBA Class of 2016: “Be Champions of Change”

It is difficult to adequately express how profoundly UCLA Anderson has impacted my career, my relationships, my global perspective and, most of all, my personal growth. Approaching commencement, I knew I could never sufficiently thank all those professors, staff, students and cherished friends who have inspired me, supported me and launched me onto a path I couldn’t have imagined three years ago. But I knew I wanted to try.

— Cara Bibbiani (FEMBA ’16), Fully Employed MBA Class of 2016 Commencement Speaker

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Thank you faculty, staff, friends and family, those live streaming from around the world, and UCLA Anderson GRADUATES! I am truly honored to have this opportunity today. And I’m told that I must impart great wisdom and knowledge … with only four minutes … which is a truly fitting analogy to what it means to be a FEMBA!

But what is a FEMBA? What is this FEMBAlife we hashtag? Well, we are 36 different nationalities, a global community of doctors and lawyers, managers and bankers, business owners, military veterans, mothers and fathers, with so little time and yet so much faith that we could be something more. We would not settle for the status quo, or the jobs we had, or our healthy bank accounts!

We are leaders who made a conscious decision to sacrifice our time, our friends and our families to become even better leaders. And because it truly takes a village to raise a FEMBA, let’s please have a round of applause for all those who supported us in person or in spirit throughout this journey! And to my own mother, Barbara, I would not be here without your unfailing love and support. You are the reason I succeed.

Three years ago, we came together on a ropes course on this very campus because we believed in embracing change. Some of us wanted to change a job into a career. Some wanted to switch into a new field entirely. Some wanted more change in their pocket and others simply wanted to change their family’s future.

To the Class of 2016: “Remember Your Steps”

“My hope for commencement is to demonstrate how our MBA experience bridged the gap between who we were and who we are today. And while the enduring program at UCLA Anderson shaped our lives, it is the people who surrounded us that made our Anderson experience one to remember.”
— Kelcey Cheung (’16), Class of 2016 MBA Commencement Speaker (watch Kelcey's speech here.) 

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Dean Olian, Dean Weiler, Dean Fraser, Dean Shih, family, friends, faculty, graduates, lost undergraduates looking for Parking Lot 4, ladies and gentlemen:

It is my great honor to present to you the UCLA Anderson Class of 2016. Before we begin, I have a few brief announcements to make:

To KC, Nancy, and all our parents as well as Kelly, and to all of our significant others: your two-year break without seeing us ends today, so be prepared.

To Tracie, Marcie, and all of our siblings: honestly, we can’t believe we made it this far, either.

To former employers at such illustrious companies as Google, Bain and Bank of America: we are grateful for the chance to attend Anderson in order to pursue opportunities at illustrious companies like Google, Bain and Bank of America.

And to everyone in attendance today, who in some way, large or small, helped us navigate the last two years of constant stress and zero income; to the family and friends who traveled from 40 different countries around the world to be here today; and to the professors and staff who tolerated our questions and reimbursed our AMR expenses, there is no way to express our gratitude and indebtedness, except to say thank you.

So, Class of 2016, we did it. We’re done. We survived a kilt-wearing Fuqua Statistics professor, not one but two Tours de Strand, and endless nights of “getting turnt up Mike Fisher-style.” In the coming months, we will begin the next chapter of our lives at pioneering firms in their respective industries, upstart startups throughout the U.S., or the next big entrepreneurial venture. Yet as we face an unknown future and prepare for moments of adversity, I only ask that you remember your steps.

Congratulations to UCLA Anderson Class of 2016: Words to the Wise from Your Biggest Fans

Congratulations to the UCLA Anderson Class of 2016 on all of your accomplishments! We curated a selection of tributes by faculty, staff, alumni and fellow students. As we send off the Class of 2016 with our best wishes, we hope these words of wisdom will help guide you on your future path!

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“Everything is relative: You’ll have incredible highs and some lows. When in a low, ask: compared to what? The school will never turn you away if/when you come back. Even more, your former professors will never turn you away if/when you come back. Take advantage of the implicit lifetime warranty that this statement entails.”

— Romain Wacziarg, Hans Hufschmid Chair in Management and Professor of Economics

 

“If you’re switching industries or functions, it can be scary, frustrating, or even intimidating getting ramped up in your new career. Keep your head down and hustle in the beginning, but remember your leadership abilities and share those with your organizations as you become comfortable. It’s all about the journey, not the starting point!”

— Zubin Davar (’15)

 

“Nurture your Anderson friendships. After graduation, I organized monthly Friday happy hours. I would regularly have drinks with my three closest Anderson girlfriends. During the first glass of wine, we discussed work and during the second, we covered our personal lives. Eight years later, we are still incredibly close.”

— Emily Taylor (’08), Director, MBA Career Education

 

“Never put oatmeal in chocolate chip cookies ... NOT ACCEPTABLE! (The students from my class will know what that means.)”

— Danny Oppenheimer, Professor of Marketing and Psychology