Wishing You and Your Loved Ones a Wonderful Holiday Season and Happy New Year!
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Message from Terry Kramer, Easton Center Faculty Director
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As we approach the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, the single most profound development not only at the Easton Center, but more broadly in businesses and communities everywhere is artificial intelligence. The work of our faculty, staff, alumni and students focused on AI is equally profound – – seeking to better understand AI's capabilities, required safeguards and our personal responsibilities to engage as customers, citizens and leaders. This focus has shown up in many areas at the Easton Center over the past few months:
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:: CROSS-CAMPUS PARTNERSHIPS ::
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Today there is a leadership "call to action" to identify promising opportunities where new technologies can be employed to address major societal issues. The Easton Center Innovation Challenge is a great example of the spirit of technology driven entrepreneurship which is essential to creating impactful products and services. It also exemplifies the invaluable partnerships between the Anderson school and the greater UCLA campus, our many students, faculty and alumni who are committed to innovation and advancements.
Now in its sixth year, the Innovation Challenge has four key objectives: identifying new technologies to address major societal issues in healthcare, sustainability, and generative AI; identifying leadership learnings; bringing together UCLA’s multidisciplinary talent; and taking projects through various steps to a functioning model.
Registration is NOW OPEN
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:: RECENT EVENT HIGHLIGHTS ::
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Tech + Society Conference 2024
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Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize various sectors by enhancing accessibility, reducing costs, and delivering better outcomes in essential areas of societal need. However, the swift rise of a "techlash" presents significant challenges for AI-driven enterprises. Concerns are growing about data privacy, the widening digital and income gap, the future of work, and anticompetitive practices. At the heart of this discussion is the vital role of strong leadership in ensuring effective product development, design, outreach, and maintaining transparency and safeguards.
At this year's conference discussion topics included:
» Harnessing AI to enhance accessibility and affordability in education for everyone
» Identifying and proactively minimize any unintended consequences that may arise from AI’s increasing integration into society
» Defining the pathway to success for leaders who are at the forefront of managing AI-driven innovation in our ever-evolving societal landscape
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The Transformative Power of AI in Education
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 | SAL KHAN
Founder & CEO, Khan Academy
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"The intersection of education and AI is a game-changer, tackling systemic gaps in learning by leveraging the maturity of technology to drive real outcomes."
"While the risks of AI are real—spanning cheating, misuse, and societal harm—the key lies in amplifying positive intent."
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Nvidia Powering the Future of Transporation
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 | WEI LUO
VP of Autonomous Vehicles, Nvidia
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"AI and autonomous vehicles are accelerating society toward a transformative future, with profound changes expected within the next 5–10 years. Nvidia’s role as an enabler of this revolution highlights the focus on quality and probabilities over perfect accuracy, emphasizing the need for public education on safety and responsible adoption."
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California’s Tech Revolution: Innovators, Impact, and the Road Ahead
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 | DEE DEE MYERS
Senior Advisor to Governor Newsom & Director of the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development
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"California’s position as the fifth-largest economy, with a $3.9 trillion GDP in 2023, underscores its dominance in innovation and green energy. As the leader in tech employment, AI advancements, biotechnology, and autonomous vehicles, the state continues to set benchmarks in economic growth and technological integration."
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In the lead up to the UCLA Cross Campus Innovation Challenge and the Knapp Venture Competition, UCLA Anderson & UCLA Samueli collaborated to host a campus-wide Ideathon, open to students from all disciplines, offering not only workshops and idea sprints from the experts below, but also a unique opportunity for idea generation and fostering tech-based entrepreneurship.
Participants engaged in three unique workshops to brainstorm, develop, and refine innovative ideas tackling real-world challenges. The workshops emphasized collaborative problem-solving, creative thinking techniques, and strategies for turning concepts into actionable plans.
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Creative Ideation to Solve Societal Challenges, with Ketav Mehta
An interactive workshop to cultivate expansive, out-of-the-box thinking, equipping participants with creative problem-solving frameworks and guiding them through pressing societal issues in the three focus areas of sustainability, health and AI.
Generative AI Prompt-a-Thon, with Andrea Tseng-Rioux
Learn how to craft high-quality prompts that generate the most accurate, creative, or useful outputs to test and develop your business ideas, perform market research, and more. Learn how to improve your interactions with AI, solve exciting practice problems, and push the limits of your AI creativity.
Mastering Customer Discovery & Business Model Design, with Mel Bulu Taciroglu
Explore the essentials of customer discovery, hypothesis building, and crafting a sustainable business model. Learn the dos and don'ts of validating customer needs, testing assumptions, and iterating your value proposition.
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Easton Center Alumni Event with Nan Boden ('11),
Chief of Staff and Head of Strategy & Operations,
Core Developer, Google
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Transforming Software Development with GenAI
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"The pace of AI innovation is incredibly rapid. Even perspectives from three or four months ago may already be outdated."
"Leveraging AI in code development is essential due to its broad applications, which include increased speed, accuracy, and overall productivity."
"We must continue our efforts to make AI more accessible and reduce the obstacles to its adoption."
"AI's most ambitious applications, such as in healthcare, are no longer just future possibilities—they are already a reality."
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January 25, 2025
9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Korn Convocation Hall, UCLA Anderson School of Management
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Advances in artificial intelligence and other enabling technologies are ushering in an era of unprecedented innovation opportunities, reshaping our world and revolutionizing how we live, work, and create.
Dive into cutting-edge products and services that are reshaping industries, driving efficiency, and unlocking new opportunities. Learn from experts how companies are using AI to revolutionize their businesses. Discover how Salesforce's Sales Cloud is reimagining customer relationship management with AI-driven insights and automation. Delve into how Amazon and LinkedIn plan to use generative AI-powered assistants to augment user experiences. Explore the innovative capabilities of Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI's ChatGPT, which offer seamless and intuitive ways to interact with AI through natural language conversations. These technologies are not just theoretical concepts but practical tools that are already making a significant impact in the real world.
Join us as we bring together visionary entrepreneurs and transformative leaders to explore the latest frontiers of innovation. Discover how advances in artificial intelligence and other game-changing technologies are driving product, service, and business model innovations that are shaping the future.
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Closing Keynote Speaker
Gail Carpenter ('98), CFO, Worldwide Amazon Stores/Consumer, Amazon
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"Innovating for the Future: Tech, AI, and Business Strategy"
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Gail Carpenter is the CFO of Worldwide Stores/Consumer Finance at Amazon, where she oversees finance for Amazon’s largest division, including global retail (both online and physical stores) and healthcare, as well as Amazon’s operations, IT and infrastructure, marketing and Prime teams. She joined Amazon in August 2015 to lead finance for the international division, then transitioned to lead worldwide operations finance prior to her current expanded role. Gail is a builder, excels at transforming organizations, and is a champion of using science and technology to further the field of finance. She and her team of thousands of finance, economics, science and technology professionals ensure investments deliver not only excellent customer experiences, but also long-term financial returns for Amazon. During her tenure, Amazon has grown its topline five-fold, and more than doubled the size of its operations network in response to COVID-19, ensuring customers received the essential items they needed during an unprecedented time, while building a transportation network the size of UPS.
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Opening Keynote Speaker
MaryAnn Patel ('10), Senior Vice President, Product Management Sales Cloud, Salesforce
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"Scaling Success with AI: Leadership Lessons from the Frontlines of Product Management"
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MaryAnn is responsible for vision, strategy, roadmap and innovation across the sales tech stack. At Salesforce since 2011, she’s led Salesforce product teams for search, Chatter, mobile, and Data.com. She is passionate about supporting and growing talent. She is the global executive advisor for Asiapacforce, a Salesforce equality group. She co-founded and leads Salesforce’s APM (Associate Product Manager) program. And she volunteers at schools in San Francisco and Oakland Unified school districts. Earlier in her career, MaryAnn had a variety of engineering roles in the storage and application virtualization space. Her desire to build businesses and develop deeper customer empathy led her to get an MBA and eventually work in consumer packaged goods marketing at Clorox. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Science from the University of Oregon and an MBA in Strategy & Marketing from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Based in the Bay Area, MaryAnn loves exploring nature and delicious food with her family.
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 | David Sasaki
Head of Analytics, OpenAI
| |  | Ganesh Shankar
Director of Product Management, Google
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 | Sharon Olexy ('99)
Founder and Managing Director, Capital Exponent
| |  | Cy Khormaee
VP, Product Management, Attentive
| |  | Terry Kramer (B.A. '82)
Faculty Director, Easton Technology Management Center; Adjunct Professor, UCLA Anderson
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:: CENTER + CURRICULUM UPDATES ::
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Please Welcome the Easton Center's Newest Board Member,
Gene Alston ('97), Board Member, Ancestry.com
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Gene is a seasoned business leader with over 25 years of experience in high-growth disruptive internet companies and currently serves on the board of Ancestry.com. Previously, Gene Alston was the Vice President of Commerce Business and Operations at Meta (Facebook). In this role, Gene was responsible for all strategy and teams for commerce products across Meta’s family of apps, revenue, and client satisfaction globally. Before leading commerce at Meta, he led global marketing partnerships, enabling over half of Meta’s advertising revenue through strategic programs, client engineering, and technology partnerships. Prior to Meta, Gene was at Pinterest, Groupon, and PayPal, where he led teams responsible for product management, go-to-market, acquisitions, operations, and international expansion. Gene has been granted several patents in the payments and offers space from his work at Groupon.
Gene holds a BS in Biology from the University of Washington, a Master of Information & Data Science from the University of California Berkeley, and a JD/MBA from UCLA School of Law and the Anderson School at UCLA. Before attending UCLA, Gene was a Naval Officer stationed on the USS Worden. Gene is a member of the California State Bar and the National Association of Corporate Directors. He’s also a very proud dad of three children and lives in the Bay Area with his wife.
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We would like to welcome a new instructor who will be teaching an Easton course this coming Winter quarter.
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Ganesh Shankar
Director of Product Management, Google
Course: Product Management Discovery
This course provides an introduction to the role of product management as well as practical tools for building products that delight users and build sustainable businesses.
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Ganesh has over a decade of product management experience leading enterprise and consumer technology teams. He specialises in complex problems at the intersection of technology and society, including healthcare, crisis response, community management, and online safety. He is passionate about sharing his knowledge to foster the next generation of technology leaders through mentoring, teaching and writing.
Having lived and worked in Australia, the UK, Germany, and Canada while managing globally distributed technology teams, Ganesh is an expert in cross-cultural leadership. Currently, Ganesh is responsible for Google's largest cross-product content safety platform, protecting users on-device and server-side, developing innovative approaches to scale online safety with AI, and powering global Trust & Safety operations. He is particularly interested in exploring the societal implications of AI and its potential for creating a safer world.
Ganesh holds a Masters of Biomedical Engineering and Bachelors of Electrical Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife and enjoys exploring the beautiful wilderness surrounding the city.
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New Digital Connection Hub for Anderson Alumni
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In support of UCLA Anderson Alumni Network’s mission to provide the relevant content and connections to move Anderson alumni forward and upward in their professional and personal lives, the Alumni Community is a new, digital connection hub that integrates multiple, alumni systems onto ONE platform to support alumni’s ability to:
- Build relationships and grow their network
- Discover learning and networking opportunities
- Discuss topics, share insights, collaborate on initiatives
- Strengthen Alumni Network activities (e.g. 40+ alumni chapters & groups, centers, programs, alumni relations)
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:: GET INVOLVED WITH THE EASTON CENTER ::
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Alumni and industry experts are vital to the success of the Easton Center, sharing their insights, knowledge, and personal experiences as guest speakers, workshop instructors and mentors, helping the next generation of business leaders advance their careers.
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Thank you for your continued support and involvement, especially to our Easton Leadership Association members. Your contributions help to make our programming possible, impacting generations of future leaders in tech. If you'd like to become a member you can make a donation of any amount (fully tax-deductible) to the Easton Center by clicking here.
By joining this committed group with an annual gift, members will receive exclusive invitations to donor-appreciation events, complimentary tickets to conferences and events, and specialized communications.
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110 Westwood Plaza LA, CA 90095
(310) 794-7092
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