COBE Alum Craig Fulton: Chief Product Officer
My COBE experience started with the Product Management Program, which six of my colleagues and I attended. Our company was changing and I was moving into PM and growing into a leadership position at the time. The program revolutionized things for our company and it was great having someone from Silicon Valley come in to tell their story.
I've always been a public speaker so then I decided to take High-Impact Leadership to improve my speaking skills. I never imagined I'd be learning from an acting director/coach and I got quite a lot out of the program, actually using some of the techniques later onstage while speaking in London.
Another topic I tackled - and one of my weaknesses - was data analysis. In Executive Decision Making, I learned how to analyze and understand data and then make decisions driven off of that. While in this program, I was truly inspired by one of the speakers and his deep passion for social responsibility in business.
I've really enjoyed my Berkeley Executive Education experience overall. The people I've met are quite amazing—with diverse views and a wide variety of knowledge. This is one of the reasons that brought me here in the first place.
Also, the proximity to Silicon Valley is great. Our company is located in Florida, so we really wanted to know what's going on over here and coming to Berkeley has opened up peer-to-peer communications for us.
My organization, at large, has especially found a ton of value in the Product Management program. It has shaped our entire product team and we have since transformed into a product-centered company... just from what we have learned at Berkeley. There's now a waiting list of people in our company who want to attend a Berkeley Executive Education program.
As for myself, I am now the Chief Product Officer at my company and I've really been incorporating things I have learned at Berkeley into my day-to-day. I've never found that with other training.
