Alumni

Alex Nascimento, MA, MBA is a serial entrepreneur, and founding partner of 7 CC Blockchain Investments, and 7 Visions LATAM Digital.

He is also a faculty and co-founder of “Blockchain at UCLA” where he lectures on Blockchain Cryptocurrency Applications in Business and Finance.

Additionally, Nascimento is the bestselling author of The STO Financial Revolution, a textbook uncovering regulated compliant fundraising via Blockchain.

Alex got his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and has developed training, marketing blockchain strategies for companies in the United States, EU, Latin America, and Asia.

Alex can be found speaking at main Global Blockchain conferences and corporate events demystifying securities, issuances, business applications, and investments in blockchain technology for corporate leaders, students, and entrepreneurs.

Shirin Nikaein is the Co-Founder & CEO of Upful.ai, a software tool that leverages artificial intelligence and behavioral science to privately coach people to write employee performance feedback/reviews and job candidate notes that are meaningful, objective, and inclusive. Upful helps managers be better at giving feedback that actually helps employees grow, helps improve and de-bias talent acquisition, engagement, and retention, and cultivates a culture of feedback and equitable career growth. Shirin has 15 years of experience leading engineering, analytics, and product management in many tech companies, from startups to large enterprises. She’s the former Lead Engineer for the Beats by Dre headphones, and her previous Artificial Intelligence products have been used by clients including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, UPS, Tinder, and Blizzard Entertainment. She graduated with a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from USC and an MBA from UCLA Anderson. Shirin is a Santa Monica native

Molly Rosen is Co-Founder of Project Next Leadership. She has worked with leaders in tech, entertainment and biotech for over 20 years as an executive coach, facilitator and consultant developing innovative talent systems. Her work with firms like Pixar, Airbnb, Samsung, Google Ventures and Seattle Genetics included work with leaders transitioning to critical roles and helping them prepare to lead key changes in their organizations. She works with high-performing leaders who are committed to the growth of themselves and their team. Molly contributed to the significant growth of firms BlessingWhite and NinthHouse before starting her own consulting business. She was Regional Vice President of BlessingWhite, Inc. a leadership and career development consulting firm, and a Regional Manager for Ninth House Network, an innovative technology learning start-up, now part of Korn Ferry. She holds an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and a BA from UC Berkeley. She is a certified coach and uses various leadership and career development instruments in her work. Her international work included postings in Central and Eastern Europe and a stint with the U.S. Information Agency in Russia. Side projects include working as Managing Editor of Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40s, an anthology featured on the TODAY Show; and the blog, The Working Chronicles: Personal Stories of America at Work. These projects deepened her insights into the challenges of people finding their voice, and honed her skills in helping them tell their story. She lives in Oakland, California, and serves as a Trustee of The Aloha Foundation whose mission is “to inspire people of all ages to learn, grow, explore, and be their best selves.”

Jeff Rosenthal is Co-Founder of Project Next Leadership. He has worked with leaders in industries such as tech, consumer products and life sciences for over 30 years in executive development, succession planning, senior team effectiveness and executive recruiting. He has worked with clients such as Nike, Salesforce, Intuit, Intel and Google to help organizations to increase the readiness of current leaders and successors for critical roles. He also has direct general management experience himself, increasing his perspective through his own tenure in leadership roles. Most recently, Jeff has been Managing Director of Deloitte Leadership, heading up the Executive Readiness line of services including executive development and succession planning. Prior to joining Deloitte, he was the CEO of the UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education at the Haas School of Business. There, he led a growing team that designed cutting edge executive programs in the areas of leadership and innovation. He led the Global Technology Practice of Korn Ferry’s Leadership & Talent Consulting business and ran the Western Region of consulting firm BlessingWhite Inc, for almost 10 years. Jeff also has executive recruiting experience, having built and led Russell Reynolds’ West Coast HR recruiting practice. Early in his career he served as Director of Account Management of Watson Wyatt, Senior Account Executive at The Forum Corporation and as a Marketing Representative at IBM. He holds an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and a BA from Whitman College. He has also served on a number of non-profit boards, including Summer Search and the Lafayette Community Foundation. He lives in Lafayette, California.

For nearly 20 years, Jonathan Schreter has provided commercial property & casualty insurance and risk management solutions, primarily for charter and independent schools (K-12), as well as middle-market businesses in the hospitality, wholesale/manufacturing and technologies industries.

With a diverse career that began in marketing and advertising for the Coca-Cola Company, Jonathan combines creative thinking and analytics to offer a consultative approach to risk management. He works with progressive, forward thinking school and business leaders who appreciate his commitment to mitigating unexpected losses.

Jonathan earned his MBA from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA in 2000 and his Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation from the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research in 2010. He has been recognized as a Top Producer in the industry for multiple years. Jonathan is President of the Independent Brokers and Agents of California, Past President of the UCLA Anderson Alumni Network, and serves as Board Chair of Inner-City Arts, a non-profit program that unlocks the creative potential of inner-city children in downtown Los Angeles.

These accomplishments pale in comparison to his 17-year marriage to his wife, Jennifer, and their two children, Samantha and Blake.

Ramesh Srinivasan speaks about the intersection of technology, innovation, politics, business, and society.  He is a leading voice pointing the way toward a digital world that supports democracy, economic security and business interests. He blends his skills as a leading academic, author, engineer, social scientist, storyteller, policy adviser, and thought leader to shine a light on how technology and innovation, from all quarters and countries, will make a balanced world possible, for all.   His mission is to help repair the disconnect between designers and users, producers and consumers, and tech elites and the rest of us: toward a more democratic internet.

He has been a faculty member at UCLA since 2005 in the Information Studies and Design|Media Arts departments. He is the founder of the UC-wide Digital Cultures Lab which offers a unique, people-focused analysis of new technologies working across every continent and dozens of countries across the world. This lab examines the means by which new media technologies impact businesses, economics, cultures, politics, labor, and the environment through collaborations with global partners. He explores the future of algorithms, AI, automation, and cryptocurrencies with these themes in mind. He holds degrees from Stanford (B.Sc in Engineering), the MIT Media Laboratory (MSc), and Harvard (PhD)

Ramesh is the author of three books: “Whose Global Village? Rethinking How Technology Impacts Our World” (2019 – NYU Press) and “After the Internet” with Adam Fish.

His most recent book outlines how the future of the internet still hasn’t been written. In ‘Beyond the Valley’, Ramesh argues that Tech can be fairer and more democratic, while still serving business interests. If we look beyond the confines of a small slice of Northwest USA, we’ll find people from all over the world creating a new narrative by using ingenious ways to leverage limited resources to join the digital space and how they are reinventing technology to suit their situations.  In the research for this book, Ramesh explored technology’s impact across nearly 70 countries – economically, politically, socially.

BEYOND THE VALLEY was named a top ten 2019 book in Tech by Forbes.

Ramesh appears frequently on NPR, The Young Turks, MSNBC, BBC, CNN and other major media networks. His articles and interviews have been published by the Washington Post, Wired, The Economist, Quartz, Financial Times, CNN, Forbes, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, among others.

In February 2021, Ramesh was cited in an opinion piece by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times.  Mr. Friedman reiterated Ramesh’s suggestion that America urgently needs to enact a digital bill of rights that “sets the right balance between free speech and algorithms that make hate speech and blatantly false information from unreputable sources go viral.”

Johanna Voolich Wright is the VP of Product for Google Workspace. Johanna joined Google in 2005 and has led Product Management teams for many of Google’s flagship products including YouTube, Android and Search. Johanna holds a BA in Mathematics from Barnard College and an MBA from UCLA. 

Susan Wojcicki is a special advisor to Google and Alphabet. She previously served as the CEO of YouTube, the world’s most popular digital video platform used by over two billion people across the globe to access information, share video, and shape culture. Susan was an early champion of online video and was instrumental in Google's 2006 acquisition of YouTube.

Prior to joining YouTube in February 2014, Susan was Senior Vice President of Advertising & Commerce at Google, where she oversaw the design and engineering of AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics. She joined Google in 1999 as the company's first marketing manager and led the initial development of several key consumer products including Google Images and Google Books. In 2002, Susan began working on Google’s advertising products and over the next 12 years she led teams that helped define the vision and direction of Google’s monetization platforms. 

Susan graduated with honors from Harvard University, holds a master's in economics from UC Santa Cruz, and an MBA from UCLA. In 2015, Susan was named to Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.