Through the startup Iluméxico, this graduate is bringing solar power to Mexicans who live off the grid. One in seven people worldwide lacks access to electricity, including some 3 million people in Manuel Wiechers’ home country of Mexico. But he’s slowly changing that. Through his startup Iluméxico, Wiechers has installed 13,000 solar power systems servicing 58,000 people in the deepest recesses of rural Mexico, including to homes only available by boat, donkey, and day-long trek. And now, with ...
Dec 03, 2018•23 min
The startup Eat Offbeat turns refugees into chefs who share their homeland’s cuisines. It all began with a food craving. A native of Lebanon, Wissam Kahi ’04 had been living in New York City for more than a decade when he and his sister, Manal Kahi SIPA ’15, discovered a gaping hole in the US food market: the hummus was sub-par. Using their Syrian grandmother’s recipe, they made their own hummus, shared it with friends to great reception, and immediately saw the commercial appeal of bringing hom...
Nov 20, 2018•19 min
Why would a pro golfer want an MBA? On this episode of Columbia Bizcast, Anna Rawson ’15 talks about her road to the Business School after winning a national golf championship at the University of Southern California and playing three years on the LPGA Tour. She combined her prowess on the pitch and her management skills learned from Columbia to transition to the business side of sports as marketing director for equipment company Parsons Xtreme Golf. More recently, Rawson co-founded the company ...
Nov 12, 2018•28 min
“Good speeches, as a rule, generally push a single idea,” says the former speechwriter for the Obama Administration. When the Democratic National Committee needed a volunteer speechwriter in 2012, Ryan Jacobs ’19 was quick to put up his hand. The gig soon turned into a full-time job as a speechwriter within the Obama Administration. “I was an incredibly minor, minor, minor character in this administration,” Jacobs says. “If the Obama Administration was a movie, I’d be like extra No. 1,846. But I...
Nov 05, 2018•22 min
For a Broadway performer, a vocal cord injury can be devastating. For Halle Morse ’20, who starred in the mega-hit Mamma Mia!, a battle with pseudocysts was motivation to reassess her career and pursue a Columbia MBA with the goal of leading a nationally recognized theater. “To produce at such a high level requires a lot more intimate knowledge of the business world,” says Morse, who attended the University of Cincinnati’s award-winning College-Conservatory of Music. In the third season premiere...
Oct 28, 2018•27 min
Growing up in a low-income household in Orange County had a big impact on the life work of Kesha Cash '10; she recalls using food stamps to buy groceries and scavenging for spare change from the couch cushions to make ends meet. Fast-forward to Columbia Business School, where she concentrated on social impact investing: upon graduating, she founded the minority-focused initiative Jalia Ventures, and then in 2013 she founded the lower-income-focused Impact America Fund, where she is currently the...
May 29, 2018•1 hr 5 min
Not many people can say their life was changed by a whale. Years before even thinking about Columbia Business School, Clare Murray ’17 was on a family whale-watching trip when she bumped into the chief financial officer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time, Murray was an undergraduate majoring in art history. But the chance encounter pushed her in a new direction. “It was really memorable and transformative for me because it was the first time that I recognized that there’s this combin...
May 21, 2018•34 min
In a graduation-themed episode, Matt Wilson ’18 discusses his journey to and through Columbia Business School: as a New Jersey kid who loved the creative freedom of punk rock to working in counter-terrorism and homeland security after 9/11, and then finding his path in Business School by going off script. “There is no template for how your career and how your life is supposed to go,” Wilson says. “There is no specific set of steps that anyone has in mind when they look at you... I think that the...
May 07, 2018•35 min
Brooke Jones-Chinetti ’18 served in the military for six years with two deployments to the Middle East. In 2016, she started Your Sequel to bridge the gap between female veterans and industry leaders. She is currently Director Of Operations at Werk.co. In this episode, Jones-Chinetti talks about the importance of selfless leadership, the responsibility of having a platform, and looks back at her two-year journey through the EMBA program. “Every day I go to class, I’m humbled,” she says. “I feel ...
Apr 30, 2018•58 min
Professor Sandra Matz explores how companies can turn customer’s personal data into a value proposition. As a Management Professor, Matz studies human behavior at the intersection of big data and social psychology. Her research has shown how just one click on Facebook can help marketers create psychological profiles and how money can buy us happiness. While Facebook has reported that “malicious actors” have taken advantage of search tools on its platform, making it possible for them to collect i...
Apr 23, 2018•49 min
For Ethan Brown ’08, the journey to disrupting the meat industry began with his childhood, which he split between an urban life in Washington, DC and his family’s Holstein cattle farm in rural Maryland. The connection to animals and the food system informed his innovative idea. After a successful career in clean technology, Brown began to feel disconnected from his upbringing. “It started to really manifest itself when I had to make choices for my own children,” Brown says. “I can remember being...
Apr 16, 2018•46 min
April Tam Smith ’10 is laser-focused on social impact – whether it’s through business or her personal commitment to giving back. It’s transformed the way she defines ROI. She is the co-owner of P.S. Kitchen, a plant-based restaurant in New York City that focuses on the three branches of sustainability – economic, environmental, and social. For her demonstrated leadership and commitment to social enterprise, she received the Tamer Center's 2018 Social Enterprise Leadership Award.
Apr 09, 2018•31 min
In part two, Professor Hitendra Wadhwa and Fahad Ahmed '17 discuss the the five pillars of personal leadership.
Apr 02, 2018•17 min
Professor Hitendra Wadhwa’s Personal Leadership & Success is Columbia Business School’s most popular leadership elective. It’s easy to see why. Blending his cultural heritage and experiences in business, psychology, mathematics, with Eastern mystical traditions, Wadhwa investigates how business leaders – and everyone – can best reach their potential.
Apr 02, 2018•34 min
When Stephanie Palmeri graduated from Columbia Business School in 2011, she took a leap of faith. With no job and two suitcases, she left New York City for Silicon Valley, crashing on the couches of fellow CBS grads. “As someone who didn't have a network [in the Valley]…it was scary, but I did it,” Palmeri says. Palmeri, now a partner at Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), sat down with Why CBS host Fahad Ahmed ’17 during the School’s Women’s Business Leadership in Tech: From Talk to Action c...
Mar 26, 2018•42 min
In part two of her Why CBS interview, Antonia Hyman ’18 speaks in-depth about her leadership role in the Black Business Students Association (BBSA), the upcoming Elevate conference, and the importance of sharing your story.
Mar 22, 2018•14 min
In a powerful, two-part conversation, Antonia Hyman ’18, who is completing a joint MBA/JD program at Columbia, sits down with Fahad to discuss the influence her family had on her dream to launch a company for the historically disadvantaged. Read more: https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/articles/columbia-business/why-cbs-podcast-antonia-hyman-18-part-i
Mar 19, 2018•27 min
Sheena S. Iyengar is the S. T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. Professor Iyengar has taught courses in leadership and entrepreneurial creativity. Her research addresses the implications of offering people, whether they be employees or consumers, choices. In this episode, Fahad Ahmed '17 meets with Professor Iyengar to discuss how "choice" became such an important part of her life, as well as the tips and tools she feels a person can use to maximize the power of choice.
Dec 08, 2017•36 min
In this episode, Fahad Ahmed ’17 meets with Molly Magnuson ’18, co-president of Columbia Business School’s Student Government, to discuss how life circumstances have helped to define Molly’s passions, her purpose, and overall life perspective.
Nov 30, 2017•33 min
Carolyn Disbrow is the Senior Director of Brand Marketing for CNN Worldwide and a member of Columbia Business School’s Executive MBA Class of 2018. In her role at CNN, she oversees internal and external branding, corporate donations, sponsorships, and awards strategy for CNN Worldwide. In this episode, Fahad Ahmed ’17 sits in-studio with Carolyn to discuss her love for non-fiction content, passion for the First Amendment, and her opinion that “business is storytelling.”
Nov 10, 2017•23 min
Dan Brillman ’12 and Taylor Justice ’14 are the co-founders of Unite US, a tech startup streamlining the delivery of health and human services. In this episode, Fahad Ahmed ’17 travels to the Unite US offices in Lower Manhattan to discuss with Dan and Taylor their journey into the United States Air Force and Army, respectively, and to learn how a conversation at Columbia Business School cultivated their entrepreneurial spirit and motivated them to create Unite US.
Nov 02, 2017•33 min
Glenn Hubbard is dean and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School. Professor at the School since 1988. and dean since 2004. On this episode, Fahad sits in-studio with Dean Hubbard to discuss a number of topics including his love for academia, his time in public service, the power and importance of the CBS network, and the future of the School.
Oct 20, 2017•16 min
This is Why CBS, a podcast series for Columbia Business School.
Oct 20, 2017•2 min
