Mike Rielly is CEO of UC Berkeley Executive Education, serving leaders and organizations who aspire to redefine the future of business.

A 20-year veteran of the sports industry, as Senior Vice President at IMG, Mike managed world-class athletes, organized major sports and entertainment events, and developed international markets for the agency.
Mike joined the Haas School of Business in 2009, first as a highly regarded lecturer in sports marketing, then as Assistant Dean and Executive Director of the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. Mike has been CEO of UC Berkeley Executive Education since 2016.

A graduate of Stanford University and Ohio University, Mike is an avid sports and architecture enthusiast and spends most weekends in Anderson Valley.

mikerielly@berkeley.edu

Richard comes to Executive Education building on an impressive career in education, most recently serving as Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at UC Berkeley, where he designed and delivered a full range of enrichment initiatives and consultation services to the 2000+ faculty across campus. Richard also serves as Co-Faculty for Exec Ed's Communications Excellence program where, along with his co-faculty, he "helps executives shine in public forums and achieve breakthroughs."

Richard works closely with the entire Executive Education team, where his responsibilities include Faculty Engagement and Support, Curriculum Strategy, Business Development support, and Thought Leadership.
 

Nicole is a talented program manager, skilled in delivering a valuable and influential program to business leaders of the future. She leads multiple programs for both custom clients and our programs for individuals.

Nicole worked with Wells Fargo as an Implementation Consultant and Project Manager before joining Berkeley Executive Education. She graduated from San Francisco State University.
 

Richard comes to Executive Education building on an impressive career in education, most recently serving as Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at UC Berkeley, where he designed and delivered a full range of enrichment initiatives and consultation services to the 2000+ faculty across campus. Richard also serves as Co-Faculty for Exec Ed's Communications Excellence program where, along with his co-faculty, he "helps executives shine in public forums and achieve breakthroughs."

Richard works closely with the entire Executive Education team, where his responsibilities include Faculty Engagement and Support, Curriculum Strategy, Business Development support, and Thought Leadership.
 

Judy’s passion is connecting business leaders with new sources of insight, inspiration, and expertise that enable enhanced innovation, products, customer experiences and growth. Drawn to Berkeley by its distinctive values and culture, breadth and relevance of faculty expertise in helping our partners solve crucial business challenges, and her own life-changing experience with executive education, Judy is excited to be back in the heart of business transformation. In 2019, Judy returned to Berkeley from Harvard Business Publishing, where she worked in product management in the fast-evolving world of virtual learning experiences. Before Berkeley, Judy was Director of Strategic Accounts at C Space, an Omnicom-held global agency that embeds customers as collaborative partners in innovation and marketing strategy development for leading global brands. Previously, Judy was VP of Strategic Accounts for Iconoculture (now part of Gartner), a global consumer insight and strategy firm. She also served as VP of Business Development for ThirdAge Media and the Ancestry.com Network in San Francisco, early pioneers in online media. Throughout her career, she has led the development of strategic partnerships with clients across a range of sectors, including technology, financial services, healthcare, consumer goods, retail and media/entertainment. Judy holds a BA from Middlebury College and completed the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School.

Alexandra joined Berkeley Executive Education in December 2017. Before joining ExecEd, she obtained her Master’s in Education and taught middle school science as a Teach for America corps member. After two years of teaching in New York, she continued her teaching career at one of Shanghai's top international schools. Passionate about education management, Alexandra then went on to earn a Master’s in Business Management at Peking University HSBC Business School (北京大学汇丰商学院) in Shenzhen, China.

Alexandra has spent the past five years teaching and studying in three of China’s major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. She is fluent in written and spoken Mandarin Chinese and is always looking for volunteer opportunities where she can use her Chinese language and cultural fluency in the Bay Area.

In her free time, Alexandra loves running and training for road races. She ran her 29th half marathon this fall. She also enjoys hiking, baking, improv theater classes, blogging, and spending time with her friends and family.

Anj brings her deep interest in marketing and global business to the Marketing and Business Development team.

Anj graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a BS in Business Administration and a focus on Marketing. Prior to joining Berkeley Executive Education, she lived in London where she worked for Thomson Reuters as a marketing coordinator in the Financial & Risk sector while obtaining her Master's in Global Business.

Ena Do is the Director of Marketing and is committed to increasing awareness of Executive Education and how it can redefine the future of business and business leaders. She is a brand marketer with over 17 years of experience from the financial services, consumer products, and healthcare industries. She received a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Illinois-Chicago and a master's in business administration from the University of Michigan.

Julie Shapiro is committed to driving change and innovation. As Client Relationship Director at UC Berkeley Executive Education, she partners with global companies to create impactful educational experiences for leaders. Her entrepreneurial spirit has enabled her to build a global portfolio of customised executive education programmes on leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation at a time when executive education is being disrupted. Julie’s expertise is in designing executive education programmes that leverage the best teaching, research, and thought leadership at UC Berkeley. A champion of transformational leadership, she is passionate about inspiring leaders to develop new skills, competencies, and mindsets. Over the past 12 years at UC Berkeley Executive Education, Julie has focused on delivering value to her clients by co-creating immersive learning experiences that put their companies ahead of the curve.

She has extensive experience delivering programmes internationally, including recent leadership programmes which have taken place in France, Portugal, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Egypt, Brazil, Peru, Australia, Ukraine, and Singapore. Julie holds a BA from UC Berkeley and a Master’s from Middlebury College. She is also a certified coach from Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute. She has lived in Europe for six years and is fluent in Italian, French, and Spanish.

Connect with Julie at jshapiro@haas.berkeley.edu

Kristina has 25 years of experience in strategic sales and customer service for a global executive clientele, joining UC Berkeley Executive Education in 2009.

As Vice President, Open Programs, she loves collaborating with Berkeley faculty to curate learning solutions for executives for their professional learning aspirations. Prior to joining Berkeley, Kristina was the founder of Strategic Training International, where she delivered customer service, sales, and presentation skills training seminars to more than 30,000 people in 32 countries. Before that, she was Director of National Accounts for Sprint Corporation where she was awarded President’s Club Top revenue producer for 5 consecutive years. She is the author of Master Selling, Maximize Success (Chronicle Books 2005) which has sold more than 100,000 copies and is available in 9 languages.

In her free time, Kristina enjoys traversing the globe, indulging her culinary skills, enjoying theater and music, and spending time with her family.

Connect with Kristina at susac@berkeley.edu 

Elizabeth Lowry joined the Haas School of Business in 2018 as Director, Business Development. Prior to joining Haas, Liz was a vice president in the entertainment industry, including 13 years in recorded music where she negotiated deals to launch Apple Music, Amazon Music and SoundCloud’s first commercial model. Liz was also directly involved in launching VEVO music service, a joint-venture with Universal and Sony Music in 2009. 

Elizabeth is passionate about leadership development and going beyond herself by giving back to Berkeley Haas where she obtained her Executive MBA. While at Haas, Liz organized and led her Class Gift back to the university. Under her leadership, the Class of 2016 set up the Beyond Yourself Fellowship and funded three $25k needs based fellowships for future EMBA students.  

A graduate of the University of Miami (BM) and Berkeley-Haas School of Business (EMBA), Liz is an active vocal performer, executive leadership coach in training and novice cook. She spends her weekends with her husband exploring The Bay Area’s beauty and nightlife.
 

Connect with Liz at liz_lowry@berkeley.edu

Nicole is a talented program manager, skilled in delivering a valuable and influential program to business leaders of the future. She leads multiple programs for both custom clients and our programs for individuals.

Nicole worked with Wells Fargo as an Implementation Consultant and Project Manager before joining Berkeley Executive Education. She graduated from San Francisco State University.
 

Clemence brings over 10 years of international experience in event and project management. Having grown up in France, Canada, and the United States, she is fluent in 4 languages and highly adaptable across cultures. Clemence worked for 3 years as a Sign Language teacher and is an advocate of the Deaf community. Her previous role at INSEAD inspired her to develop her expertise in the Executive Education sector, which led her to join our team at Berkeley.

Clemence is a solution oriented collaborator who prides herself in her attention to detail and her exceptional customer service. She holds a Master’s degree in communications from the University of Québec in Montréal.

Daniel started his career in international education after studying abroad in Rome. He has experience as an English teacher in Taiwan and Japan. He now focuses on managing programs for leadership and business success. 

Before joining the team at Berkeley Executive Education, Daniel worked for Stanford GSB Executive Education and the Berkeley Haas Global Access Program, helping executives and international students to further their business education in innovation and entrepreneurship. 

He has his BA from the University of Washington and volunteers as a college and professional success mentor for high school students in the greater Seattle area.

Jacqueline received her Bachelors degree in Psychology from UC Berkeley, but has always had a passion for event planning. She began her career as the Senior Events Assistant with the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley during her undergraduate studies. After graduating, she gained administrative and customer service experience from Laney College working in both student services and instruction, while also coordinating weddings on the side.

Before joining ExecEd, Jacqueline was the Facility and Event Coordinator at Preservation Park, an office park of restored Victorian homes in Downtown Oakland, managing public space rentals and assisting with the coordination of around 400 events annually. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing, arts and crafts, and traveling.

Saba Merchant has over 16 years of experience working extensively in leading organizations in India and the U.S. She currently serves on the Program Management team. Saba was most recently involved in successfully co-launching the first executive education program for Haas in India in 2014. Along with leading the program operations in India, she is part of the company’s strategy team for the India region. She also co-leads the ‘Certificate of Business Excellence’ program for Berkeley Executive Education. At her last position held in India, Saba worked at the Harvard Business School (India) Research Centre, as part of the start-up team and helped in the acceleration and expansion of the executive education footprint in India. She was also involved in implementing the strategy that began to replicate the “HBS experience” in India.

After moving to the U.S., in 2010, Saba started her career in banking, but was quickly back to pursuing her passion in Executive Education with the Haas School of Business. Saba has won many accolades over her career span and holds a double major B.A. degree in Psychology-Sociology from Mumbai University. She is fluent in multiple Indian languages and enjoys her spare time with family and discovering places off the beaten track.

Jon holds more than 20 years in financial and accounting leadership along with deep experience in organizational design in finance.

Prior to Berkeley Executive Education, Jon was the Director of Finance for the Boston Consulting Group’s San Francisco office. At UC Berkeley Executive Education, Jon leads the finance and operations team which handles all aspects of financial operations and reporting as well as oversee the legal, technology and human resource functions. Jon earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and an MBA from Boston University.

A Boston area native who relocated to the bay area in 2004, Jon enjoys mixing his passions for travel and music and is an avid collector of artwork relating to rock concerts.

Yolanda Williams serves as a Financial Analyst within Berkeley Executive Education's finance team. She has more than 20 years of progressive experience in accounting and financial services.  Her role includes a vast array of duties within accounts payable, accounts receivable and collections, all while managing open enrollment registration process and providing a variety of financial support to the CFO.

Yolanda is a lifetime resident of California and loves the opportunity she has had to work with different people throughout the UC System. She is passionate about accounting and her high standard of excellence is what clients and coworkers can expect when working with her.

In Yolanda’s spare time she loves roller skating, church, shopping and enjoying family time.
 

Emily is the Chief People Officer at Lyft, a company driven by its mission to improve people’s lives with the world’s best transportation. Just as Lyft strives to connect people to their communities and their cities, Emily sees her role as bringing Lyft team members together toward a shared mission and creating the best place for people to do their best work.

Prior to joining Lyft in 2017, Emily was YouTube’s global head of People Operations where she led the organization development, talent strategy, and human resource operations for the team that delivers YouTube to over 1.5 billion users around the world.

Emily moved to YouTube after 9 years at Google, where she partnered with various leadership teams on building and scaling their organizations. She led the People Operations function for several Google sales and operations teams. When she first joined Google in 2005 she established Google’s global diversity and inclusion programs and created K-12 and community initiatives, scholarships, staffing, benefits and workplace programs.

Prior to Google, Emily was a management consultant at Accenture’s Manila office, and held various human resource roles at Agilent Technologies in Palo Alto, California. Emily has an MBA from UC Berkeley and an undergraduate Psychology degree from the Ateneo de Manila University.

When not thinking about how to make Lyft an even more amazing place to work, she spends her time with her two young kids in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Marina Gracias is General Counsel/Corporate Secretary at Varo Money. Varo[s mission is to help people improve their financial lives by providing them with a suite of mobile app based financial tools. Prior to joining Varo, Marina was a Managing Director in Financial Services at Accenture and prior to that the Head of Global Sourcing at Visa. Marina also practised corporate law both in house and at a prominent San Francisco law firm. Marina also serves as an Advisory Board member for Bizworld which is educating our future entrepreneurs.

Richard Wilson (EMBA ‘15) is currently Senior Director in the Portfolio Product Development group at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc, a publicly traded rare disease biotech company in San Rafael. Richard has spent the last 25 years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in a broad range of roles ranging from research project ideation to commercialization and investment strategy. He currently leads a cross-functional team charged with defining the global strategic plan for Palynziq, a new therapy for phenylketonuria, which was just recently approved by FDA. Prior to BioMarin, Richard has held positions of increasing responsibility in organizations including Glaxo Group Research (London, UK), Biochem Therapeutic (Montreal, Canada) and Theravance/Innoviva (South San Francisco, CA). He’s been involved in the commercialization of four new medicines during his career and has also lead R&D programs in cardiovascular disease, anti-infective therapy, respiratory disease, rheumatology, and urology.

Richard has also served in a variety of volunteer roles within his industry, serving as a start-up mentor for the California Life Science Institutes FAST program, and also participated in the Haas Startup Marketplace program, a joint initiative with the College of Chemistry.

Richard holds a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Manchester in the UK, and an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Richard is a passionate advocate for the mission of the Haas School of Business.

Richard first became involved with Haas as a student in the MBA for Executive program in 2014, where he was elected class president and has been an active alumnus ever since, serving as an ambassador and fundraiser for his class, and a mentor for those looking to explore careers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He’s delighted to be nominated for the Board of Directors of the Executive Education Program and looks forward to giving back to the school and playing a part in the governance of this exciting program. Go Bears!