Dean’s Speaker Series

Boston Consulting Group’s Brian Gross on going from a dairy farm childhood to global consulting leader

Growing up as one of 14 children on a dairy farm in Iowa, Brian Gross had never heard of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). While he never expected to become a leader at one of the world’s largest consulting firms, he did learn a lot about solving problems in complex environments by watching his dad work on the land. Now the chief operating officer of BCG’s North America region, he’s responsible for 1,800 employees across the continent and tackles new challenges every day.

Gross, MBA 08, didn’t always think he’d end up working in human resources. In fact, he started at BCG as a consultant during the 2008 financial crisis while an MBA student at Berkeley Haas—a program he chose for its inclusive culture and the Q@Haas club, which made him feel encouraged to “come out” personally and professionally. It wasn’t until he took a leadership role at the company’s San Francisco office that he discovered a passion for helping others with their own career journeys. 

In this episode, Brian Gross discusses the importance of listening, learning, and adapting in conversation with Jash Padhiar and Sarah Intoccia, both MBA 25 and co-presidents of Q@Haas. This interview, co-sponsored by Q@Haas, took place on Sept. 19 as part of the UC Berkeley Haas Dean’s Speaker Series. Bringing in a diverse mix of preeminent business leaders, the Dean’s Speaker Series provides the Haas community with perspectives on effective leadership and opportunities for thought-provoking discussions.

Read more about Q@Haas, the organization for LGBTQ MBA students, partners, and allies at Berkeley Haas: https://www.qathaas.org/ 

Read more about the Dean's Speaker Series: https://haas.berkeley.edu/about/speaker-series/deans-speaker-series/

Read more about the Haas School of Business: https://haas.berkeley.edu/

Chart Industries CEO Jill Evanko on the importance of taking risks, developing cleaner energy

Before Jill Evanko was leading the company responsible for products that include the nitrogen systems that cool Starbucks’ Nitro cold brews and hydrogen fuel cells that could power massive cruise ships, she was working in finance at Honeywell and Sony. By taking risks and telling herself, “I'm going to take on opportunities that maybe look different than what I originally thought it was going to look like,” she took her career to new avenues and loves what she does. She’s now at the forefront of the transition toward clean energy as CEO of Chart Industries.

Evanko kicked off the first Dean’s Speaker Series of the fall 2024 semester by discussing the future of energy and what it means to take risks. With $3.37 billion in revenue this year, Chart’s has a portfolio of cryogenic products used throughout liquid gas supply chain phases. Evanko joked that members of her own family don’t know exactly what her company does, but they're familiar with Chart’s customers, which include household names from McDonald’s to ExxonMobile to SpaceX.

In this episode, Jill Evanko discusses her career journey in conversation with Olivia Halas-Dias, MBA/MPH 25, and Ashley Wong, MBA 25. Above all, she emphasized the importance of kindness in leadership, noting that she would “never want any one of our team members or customers to walk away and say, ‘Jill over at Chart wasn't kind.’”

This interview took place on Sept. 9, 2024, as part of the Dean’s Speaker Series. Bringing in a diverse mix of preeminent business leaders, the Dean’s Speaker Series provides the Haas community with insightful perspectives on effective leadership and opportunities for thought-provoking discussions.

Read more about the Dean's Speaker Series: https://haas.berkeley.edu/about/speaker-series/deans-speaker-series/

Read more about the Haas School of Business: https://haas.berkeley.edu/

Tech journalist Kara Swisher gets candid about Silicon Valley and (what should be) the next obsession for entrepreneurs

Journalist Kara Swisher started reporting on tech in the 1990s at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Since then, she’s conducted interviews with nearly every tech executive you could think of, from the late Steve Jobs to Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, many of which she recounts in her latest New York Times bestseller, “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.” Understanding that “everything that could be digitized would be” early on and always having “been super curious about whatever I happen to do,” she is highly regarded for her quick wit—seasoned with salty language—and her willingness to ask powerful leaders the tough questions. Swisher herself has become her own media entity and currently puts out four podcast episodes a week, in addition to hosting “HBO’s Succession Podcast” until the end of the show’s run last year, as well as various stints on networks like CNN. Moving forward, she says she’s interested in the evolution of climate change technology, which she plans to cover in her next book, which will focus on the link between analog and digital. 

In this episode, Kara Swisher discusses her encounters with some of the most powerful tech leaders in the world, how being “dead honest” has aided her career, and the future of climate change technology in conversation with Fernanda Kasper Ortolan, MBA 25, and Ashley Wong, MBA 25. This interview took place on Oct. 1, 2024, as part of the Dean’s Speaker Series. Bringing in a diverse mix of preeminent business leaders, the Dean’s Speaker Series provides the Haas community with insightful perspectives on effective leadership and opportunities for thought-provoking discussions. 

• Read the full article on today's episode on the Haas Newsroom. 
• Read more about the UC Berkeley Haas Dean's Speaker Series and upcoming speakers.
• Read more about the Haas School of Business. 

The UC Berkeley Dean's Speaker Series podcast is a production of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. This production is made possible by our: 

• Haas Events team: Sarah Bottger, Carrie Hults, Meg Fellner
• Podcast production team: Jordan Joseffer, Laura Counts, Stella Kotik
• Dean’s Speaker Series Student Board: Ashley Wong, Budi Sosrodjojo, David Bravo, Fernanda Ortolan, Luis Sante, Olivia Halas-Dias, Punit Vyas
• Interim Dean Jennifer Chatman 
• Writing Support: Emily Gordon
• Berkeley AV Production Team