Sahar Kleinman, EMBA 2018 – Having a Personal Board of Directors

On this episode of OneHaas, hear from alumna Sahar Kleinman – a global strategy and operational excellence executive at Amazon Advertising. 

Sahar, a first generation American, grew up in New York after her parents emigrated from Iran to further their education. The time she spent watching her mom work in finance on Wall Street and help run her uncle’s photo business had a significant impact on Sahar’s career path. 

She and host Sean Li chat about Sahar’s experience moving from brick and mortar to the e-commerce world, the importance of taking risks, and how Haas provided her with her own personal board of directors. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

How her family’s photo business shaped her early on

“That was the first of my hard lessons to be learned as a child, to really learn what it takes to drive a business. And I'm talking about all the tasks that you can think of and having to earn my way to that spot where I could actually start working on developing photos for customers…and it started with grabbing that Windex bottle and wiping the windows outside of the studio.  And really learning really early on that it takes hard work to get to where you want to go.”

Why it feels like she gained a personal board of directors from Haas

“There's something about putting yourself in a room with a bunch of strangers who all of a sudden over time become family… And you get to know people and you share your stories, and you have this unbiased group of people who are just looking to help you unblock yourself oftentimes. And so maybe during the program things would come up that were work related and then you find yourself just having these go-to individuals that really help you think things through and hold you accountable to the things that you think of doing for yourself and the things that you haven't even thought of doing for yourself and for others.”

What keeps her engaged and motivated to stay connected to the Haas network

“I want to be able to create that same feeling of being in school and back in the program, even though we're not in the program anymore. I always want to feel that optimism that I felt in the classroom, that not only can I do anything and lead through anything and be anything, but I want others to feel the same thing. And so I want to create these opportunities in the forum for people to stay connected and be able to share what they've been thinking about that's inspiring to them and, you know, have a sandbox of network members to collaborate with to nurture and debate those kinds of thoughts.”

On what’s next for Sahar

“I'm just always out there thirsting for the next big challenge. Ideally, I want to share my knowledge and help lead the next generation to solve big problems and make a big impact. And even better if those next generation leaders come from Haas.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile

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