Facebook Develops Tech Solutions to Meet Client Challenges
Gene Alston (J.D./MBA ’97) and his team help businesses grow by building new communities and attracting new customers.
Roll Up Your Sleeves
Kenyan-born Wambui Waiganjo (EMBA ’20) is an M.D. turned management consultant and soccer mom who leads strategic projects from planning to implementation and review processes.
What’s your one-sentence definition of success?
Getting up every day to do something that I’m passionate about, that inspires me, and I can see where my efforts have contributed to changing the world in some way. Fortunately, I get to do that every day at YouTube.
— Connie Knight (’98)
Connie Knight (’98)
Head of Multicultural Content Partnerships, YouTube
Why did you decide to get an MBA?
After establishing a career in law, I knew that I would need a broader understanding of business to achieve my goal of running a media company someday. Entertainment has always been a fascination of mine. It is a platform that allows communities throughout the world to visualize possibilities.
— Segun Aluko ('19)
Segun Aluko ('19)
Business Affairs Executive, William Morris Endeavor
Gene Alston (MBA/J.D. ’97)
VP of Marketing Partnerships, Facebook
Who do you admire most in the business world today and why?
Well, if I had to choose, it would be Colin Powell because he’s an independent thinker and authentic leader. That said, I admire several leaders I’ve worked with over the years for the different superpowers they possessed.
— Gene Alston (MBA/J.D. ’97)
Tazia Middleton ('18)
Certified Financial Planner
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever gotten?
The best piece of career advice I’ve received was actually from my parents. They taught me that it’s important not to count yourself out. Show up and take a chance. You might actually surprise yourself!
— Tazia Middleton ('18)
What lessons have you learned from being a person of color in the business world today?
Be yourself unapologetically; people respect authenticity. Someone before you created an opportunity for you; therefore, you are indebted to help provide a ladder that creates an opportunity for another.
— Jason Cole ('19)
What is the most important skill we should be teaching our students today?
“Empathy. It becomes much easier to make purpose-driven decisions when you empathize with the people supporting and driving your business. As a Black male, I know what it feels like to be marginalized. As a result, I recognize situations were groups are not given a voice, and I am intentional about making sure they are heard. When you get in someone’s corner, you earn an ally. And it was all possible because you were empathetic.”
— Landon Medlock ('18)
Landon Medlock ('18)
Senior Product Manager
Career-wise, where would you like to be in five years?
My answer now is probably completely different than when I came to Anderson. Now my answer is, to be a successful entrepreneur. In an ideal world, I would have had some success in entrepreneurship in the past and I think that I would like to use that as a platform to really focus professionally on companies that are in social impact and the education space.
— Jason Cole ('19)
Have You Heard?
One of the most powerful things about history is that its voice can be heard in each moment of our present. At UCLA Anderson, we seek to amplify this voice, helping each living generation to better hear, remember and reap the benefits of history’s messages. Read on for our students’ latest shouts-out to the black heroes and sheroes who have powerfully influenced their lives.
Consulting
Robert and Shelia Johnson
The Johnsons are the co-founders of Black Entertainment Television, the preeminent entertainment brand serving African Americans and consumers of black...
Robert and Shelia Johnson
The Johnsons are the co-founders of Black Entertainment Television, the preeminent entertainment brand serving African Americans and consumers of black culture. In 1999, they sold their company to Viacom for $3 billion, making them America's first black billionaires.
— Charles F. Fields (’19)
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston wrote the paragraphs that are unreachable by the clever writer, because she wrote from the alchemy of vision that makes a master writer!...
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston wrote the paragraphs that are unreachable by the clever writer, because she wrote from the alchemy of vision that makes a master writer!
— Wambui Waiganjo (’20)
Consulting/tech
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adichie is a powerful Nigerian female writer who advocates for girls and women all over the world. Most recognized for her inspiring TEDx talk "We Should...
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a powerful Nigerian female writer who advocates for girls and women all over the world. Most recognized for her inspiring TEDx talk "We Should All Be Feminists," Adichie has become a symbol of the feminist movement. Adichie's words have even been sampled in Beyonce's iconic female anthem "Flawless." She defines feminist as "a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes."
— Adi Rajapuram (’19)
Community Stories
Accelerating the Rhythm of His Career
In his first year at UCLA Anderson, music industry hopeful Gaelen LeMelle-Brown (’21) learns by example how to share success
Social Responsibility — with Interest
A commitment to affordable housing and wealth-building in minority communities led Natalie Hunter (’20) to earn an MBA
Innovative Health Care Solutions Delivered
With a head for business, Patricia Mathelier (MBA/M.D. ’20) imagines mobile medical services for people of limited means
A Partnership to Champion Diversity in Entertainment
UCLA Anderson’s Center for MEMES partners with Howard University to address a persistent challenge for the industry
Changing of the Guard
Juggling business school and weekends in the California Army National Guard, Rhian Rogan (’20) considers a career in academe
A Diversity of Options
Alumna Patrice Greenwood-Eitner (’04) helps first-generation college students reach the top rung
Celebrating at Full Speed
The Riordan Programs’ 32nd anniversary gala was the “Ride of a Lifetime”
All-Inclusive Embrace
After wrapping UCLA Anderson’s expanded week-long Embracing Diversity initiative, Assistant Dean of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Heather Caruso reflected on the highlights key takeaways
"Bumps in the road are inevitable," says Vicente Capital Partners co-founder Jay Ferguson ('94)
Nike Irvin ('89) knows that "doing good" is simply "doing business"
UCLA Anderson taught Jeffery Keys ('96) you can’t be a wallflower in B-school or business
Community Leadership
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Read MoreHeather M. Caruso
Creating a climate for greater equity, diversity and inclusion at UCLA Anderson
Watch VideoDean Al Osborne
Dean Al Osborne told Poets & Quants how Anderson leverages UCLA's "cluster of brain power" to be an entrepreneurial epicenter
Read MoreJay Tucker ('09)
Center for MEMES' executive director Jay Tucker is a relentless problem solver and unrepentant optimist
Read MoreAndrea Wade ('96)
Andrea Wade walks her talk as she helps alumni tap into the lifelong value of their MBA
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Field Study in African Countries
Whether evaluating new models for microfinance, improving foreign supply chain efficiency or evaluating growth and expansion strategies, UCLA Anderson's pro-social international field study projects make a real, immediate and often profound impact.
Bridging the Digital Divide in a South African Community
UCLA Anderson field study team recommended a viable, affordable internet connectivity solution in KwaZulu-Natal
Confronting Challenges to International ESG Compliance
A UCLA Anderson Executive MBA team steers an environmental nonprofit to pollution solutions for Chinese investors in South Africa
Launching a User-Centric CPAP Device for Newborns in East Africa
Recent graduate delays job opportunity in order to help infants
Local Communities in South Africa Profit from Creative Business Structures
An international immersion course taught entrepreneurial health care executives how prosocial businesses thrive in an age of waning corporate philanthropy
Guest Speakers
UCLA Optimists
On one of the most beautiful campuses in the country, in a global city teeming with energy and brimming with opportunity, risks are taken, doors are opened and anything is possible. In ways large and small, across the street or around the world, UCLA Optimists are making the world better for everyone.
Learn How We Champion and Celebrate Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Women@Anderson
Black@Anderson
Veterans@Anderson
LGBTQ@Anderson
Latinx@Anderson
