Technology Management MBA Visits Bay Area Business Leaders
Technology Management MBA (TMMBA) and Hybrid MBA (HMBA) students traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area for two days of networking with the region’s innovative tech companies. The Bay Area Tech Trek, led by the Career Management team, was a co-curricular trip intended to complement the MBA curriculum, introduce students to the local entrepreneurial scene, and provide a venue to hear directly from senior leaders across industries. Students had the opportunity at each visit to network with MBA graduates, both from the Foster School and elsewhere, gaining insight into potential career avenues available post-MBA.
Students gather after breakfast meeting with BuildingTogether.
Bay Area Trek Highlights
- Candid conversation at Zelle / Early Warning Services, LLC with TMMBA alum Jeremiah Glodoveza (VP of Marketing and Communications), Melissa Lowry (VP of Brand and Consumer Marketing), and Ian Macallister (VP of Sales and Customer Service Success) about the growth of the Zelle Network and the future of fintech.
- Interactive tech leadership panel with product management leader at Sonder.
- Breakfast meeting with the co-founders of BuildingConnected, a communication software helping owners and general contractors find and hire qualified contractors.
- Engaging conversation at Nuro with the Head of Strategy & Business Operations about the autonomous vehicle delivery industry, and their strategies and challenges in scaling delivery services, including an introduction to their autonomous vehicle prototype.
- Exclusive tour of Unity Technologies‘ San Francisco headquarters.
- Engaging discussion at Mattson with Katie Hagan (VP of Innovation) about the trends driving food and beverage innovation, and Mattson’s integrated innovation model.
- Meeting at MarkLogic with 2007 TMMBA Alum David Gorbet (SVP of Engineering) to discuss his post-MBA job search and the strategic challenges MarkLogic addresses via their data integration software.
TMMBA student Rajesh Rajamohanan Nair alongside Nuro’s self-driving delivery vehicle.
Students enjoy the rooftop terrace at Unity Technologies.
MBA Education, Real World Application
The Bay Area Trek itinerary represents the diversity and dynamism of the storied San Francisco and Silicon Valley tech scene, from pioneers in autonomous delivery to innovations in fintech. This breadth gave students a taste of the robust tech ecosystem in the greater Bay Area and firsthand experience with the potential employment opportunities for MBA graduates in the region.
The Trek further highlighted the value of the TMMBA network. Student Pradeep Manivannan (Solutions Lead, Marketing Products & Cross-Cloud Technologies, Salesforce) shared, “The San Francisco Trek was time well spent. I appreciated that we had a chance to have one-on-one discussions with TMMBA alumni regarding their post-MBA journey, the hiring process and could stay connected with them going forward.”
While the two days in the Bay Area went far too quickly, students left with new applied learning from their MBA program experience as well as invaluable networking connections. Plans for our next Tech Trek to San Francisco and Silicon Valley are already in the works!
Back to reality for TMMBA students Vinod Waghamare, Kunal Telang, Eric Cheung, and Satya Lolabattu as they dive into classwork and log on to work on their way home from San Francisco.
