Panel A: Interested in Finance, Banking, Real-Estate, or Investments?
Kristina Omari ~ Stanford MBA ~ Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions- Adobe Systems INC
Kristina graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. After three years as an Analyst in Investment Banking at PaineWebber, she attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business and received an MBA. Returning to finance, Kristina worked as an Associate for Lehman Brothers in Technology Investment Banking in New York and San Francisco and later transitioned into Corporate Development at Hewlett Packard. As Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions for Adobe Systems, Inc., Kristina currently heads a team focused on inorganic growth strategy, deal execution and post-merger integration. Overseeing over 17 transactions in her tenure at Adobe, she also was instrumental in Adobe's $1.8 billion acquisition of Omniture and its $240 million acquisition of Day Software.
Muhammad A. Nadhiri ~ Columbia MBA ~ Chief Operating Officer of UrbanCore.
Muhammad A. Nadhiri is the Chief Operating Officer of UrbanCore. Muhammad graduated from Morehouse College with a BA in Business Administration. He worked as an Investment Banker and Analyst at Nationsbanc Securities and an Associate at RBC Dominion Securities for several years before returning to receive his MBA from Columbia Business School. Prior to forming UrbanCore with Michael E. Johnson, Muhammad was the founder and Managing Member of M.A.N. Associates, LLC, a San Francisco Bay Area-based niche real estate development firm. Before forming M.A.N. Associates, Muhammad was a Senior Project Manager at AF Evans Development, Inc., where he was responsible for the development of two downtown-revitalization residential/retail mixed-use projects, totaling 433 for-sale units and 70,000 square feet of retail over five city blocks. Muhammad began his real estate career as an Associate at Wilson Meany Sullivan, LLC in San Francisco, where he co-managed the development of rental and for-sale residential/retail mixed-use projects in San Francisco and the Bay Area; one of which was as a member of the project team for the historic renovation of the Ferry Building.
Mauricio Vergara ~Hult MBA ~ Director of Operations for Hult International Business School
Mauricio Vergara serves as Director of Operations for Hult International Business School. Prior to Hult, he worked in the automotive industry in marketing for BPG and was the Associate Managing Director for a food and beverage enterprise in Colombia. Mauricio earned his Bachelor’s degree from Universidad de Los Andes and also a degree in Diplomacy from Universidad Complutense in Madrid.
Natalia Williams ~ Haas Berkeley MBA ~ Director of Investment Management, AF Evans Management
Natalia Williams is Director of Investment Management at AF Evans Company and is involved in asset management, raising debt and capital at the project and corporate level, and refinancing and disposition of properties. Before joining AF Evans, Ms. Williams spent six years at KPMG LLP in San Francisco managing financial statement audits for public and non-public clients in a variety of industries. Ms. Williams holds a MBA from UC Berkeley with an emphasis in real estate and BA degree in economics and public policy from Stanford University. Ms. Williams is a Certified Public Accountant.
Mark Perez- NYU Stern MBA ~ Partner at Virgo Investment Group LLC
Mark earned his undergraduate degree from The Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Chemical Engineering. Upon graduation, he joined the Office of Science and Technology at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an assistant project manager and also worked as a strategic marketing manager at ChemPoint, the specialty chemical distribution subsidiary of Univar USA. After seven years in various industry roles, Mark pursued his MBA at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, graduating with honors and a specialization in finance. After Stern, he worked in the investment banking division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the firm’s Global Natural Resources group, advising on several M&A and financing transactions within the chemicals and metals & mining sectors. Mark joined Virgo Investment Group LLC, a Palo Alto-based private investment firm, upon its start-up in 2009 and is currently a senior investment professional and partner. At Virgo, Mark leads the firm’s investing efforts in a variety of industrial sectors, including energy and aviation.
Panel B: Interested in Marketing, Development, Branding, Entrepreneurship or Startups?
Emily Anadu ~ Harvard MBA ~ Marketing Executive, Zynga
Emily Anadu is part of the marketing team of Zynga, a social game company based in San Francisco that was recently named one of the world’s most innovative companies by Fast Company. After graduating from Dartmouth College with an AB in Sociology she worked for Chupa Chups, the world’s largest manufacturer of lollipops, as senior brand manager. Emily then went on to receive an MBA from Harvard University. During her time at Harvard, Emily had the opportunity to work with global brands such as Reebok and spent her summer as an intern for Lancôme, part of L’Oreal’s luxury division. For the past six years, Emily has worked in the gaming industry and has served as a Senior Product Manager for Atari Inc, Senior Brand Manager at EA SPORTS and Director of Brand Marketing for Capcom, makers of iconic gaming brands such as Street Fighter, Resident Evil and Mega Man before joining Zynga.
Ben Wanzo ~ Stanford MBA ~ Founder and Managing Director Teachbar
Ben Wanzo is an education entrepreneur with experience in education, management consulting (McKinsey & Co.) and IT (Morgan Stanley). A native of Oakland, CA, Ben earned a BA in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. His passion for education and business led to the creation of TeachBar, a learning lounge café. The mission of TeachBar is to offer affordable, appealing, and accessible supplemental education resources (i.e., tutoring, SAT/ACT Test Prep, enrichment programs) to students and life long learners. TeachBar hopes to motivate individuals and prepare them for opportunities in the knowledge economy, a singular purpose driven by the believe that Knowledge Today Equals Power Tomorrow.
Adi Berglez ~ San Francisco State MBA ~ Services Product Marketing Manager, Blue Coat Systems
Adi Berglez is a member of the services product management team at Blue Coat Systems, an internet application security and acceleration technology company based in Sunnyvale,. After his business undergraduate degree in Germany with a semester in France, he completed his MBA in International Marketing at San Francisco State U. as a Fulbright scholar. He has worked in Silicon Valley based information technology companies of varying sizes and product portfolios for 15+ years, focusing on rounding out his functional skills and bridging the cross-functional and cross-cultural divides.
Alex Hodgson ~Hult MBA ~ Founder and Managing Director of 1DegreeBio
Alex Hodgson is the founder and managing director of 1DegreeBio, an online resource for the biotech research community. She launched this entrepreneurial venture in Toronto, Canada immediately after earning her MBA at Hult Boston and doing Hult's campus rotation in Shanghai. Prior to her MBA Degree, Alex served as a Project Manager for the Structural Genomics Consortium and earned an International Relations degree at University of Toronto.
Greg Nuk ~ Hult MBA ~ Principal Millstream Fabrication
Greg Nuk is a Principal at Millstream Fabrication and Engineering and a representative for Global Energy Horizons. Greg has commercialized a new oil technology which has achieved 20 million USD in sales in five countries. He graduated from the Hult MBA program in 2008. Prior to Hult, Greg was a co-founder and VP of Calroc Energy Ltd., a 1200 barrel/day oil company. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Petroleum and Energy Engineering from University of Alberta.
Panel C: Interested in a Masters in International Business?
Learn more about the Hult MIB Program and listen to panelists discuss where they were before their MIB. Hear tips on how they are taking advantage of their particular Masters program and why they decided to choose Hult. Breakout C is hosted by Hult International Business School.
Emily Bonnell (Canada)
Juan Pablo Arav (Mexico)
Tim Schaeffer (Germany)
Mats Nalsen (Venezuela)