AI Ready: Archit Gupta on Overcoming the Cold Start and Building a Socratic Tutor With AI
Archit Gupta went from never having written a line of code to building AI tools that grade hundreds of student cases and a Socratic AI tutor for a graduate class — in one year. Archit is graduated from Foster's MSBA (Master of Science in Business Analytics) in June,...
AI Ready: Tejash Bagri’s AI Prototype Landed Him an Interview
First-year Foster MBA (Class of '27) Tejash Bagri explains how he turned a stalled application into an interview by building a go-to-market prototype before reaching out — and what that says about standing out when every candidate has the same AI tools. A practical...
AI Ready: Ahmad Ghabboun Discovers His Interest in AI
Ahmad Ghabboun built a Demo Day–winning AI product during his MSIS program — after arriving with no plans to work in AI at all. He breaks down how his mindset shifted, how his design background made him a stronger prompter, and how to build AI fluency that actually...
AI Ready: Hannah Hoffmaster – How a Non-Technical Student Became AI-Ready in One Year
Hannah Hoffmaster went from a self-described two-out-of-seven in technical skill to building multi-agent AI tools in a single year at Foster. This episode is for anyone — technical or not — trying to understand what genuine AI fluency looks like and how to build it....
AI Ready: Prof. Léonard Boussioux on Why You Don’t Have to Specialize Anymore
AI Ready: Nathan Fitzgerald
Nathan Fitzgerald didn't come up through tech. He spent years as a lobbyist, moved into marketing, got laid off in 2024, and treated that moment as a forcing function: how do I build a skill set that doesn't become obsolete? That question led him to Foster's MSIS...
AI Ready with Anshula Singh
Anshula Singh came into Foster's MBA program with five years of software engineering experience — building products at Salesforce and ServiceNow, working with machine learning, helping train early LLMs from the inside. She wasn't new to AI. She was already watching it...
Ted Jordan From Outsider To Ally – Cultivating A Network to Advance Your Career
Ted Jordan spent 24 years at Microsoft as a global program and account manager before becoming a consultant, professional speaker, and guest lecturer at UW Foster School of Business. His talk — From Outsider to Ally — reframes how we think about networking: less about...
The Layoff Journey: From Dismissal to Discovery, with Steve Jaffe
Layoffs are back in the headlines. Job postings are down. Hiring cycles are longer. What does that mean for MBA students and other professionals navigating today’s market? In this episode, I speak with Steve Jaffe, author of The Layoff Journey: From Dismissal to...
Slide Decks vs. Slide Docs: Why So Many Presentations Miss the Mark
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Make Your Insights Obvious With Effective Data Visualization
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The Glance Test: Why Your Slides Must Make Sense in 3 Seconds
The Glance Test is a simple but powerful rule for slide design: if your audience can’t understand the point of a slide within a few seconds, the slide isn’t doing its job. In this episode, I explain why slides that demand too much reading or decoding cause audiences...
One Idea Per Slide: The Rule That Will Change Your Presentations
Many presentations fall apart not because the ideas are weak, but because the slides are doing too much at once. When a single slide contains multiple messages, charts, or competing points, the audience stops listening and starts decoding. In this episode, I explain...
ENCORE: MBA Alums Offer Advice on Effective Interviewing
Foster Alumni Share What They Listen For When They Interview Job Candidates Every fall and winter, MBA students gear up for behavioral interviews with an understandable mix of anticipation and anxiety. We spend hours coaching them on frameworks, stories, and...
Students Reflect on Foster MBA Core Case Competition
In this episode of Conversations on Careers & Professional Life, we go inside the Autumn Quarter Integrated Case Competition at the Foster School of Business—a one-week sprint where MBA teams analyze an acquisition case, submit a written recommendation, and...
Engage First, Then Inform: A Better Way to Start Any Communication
On this episode I share a principle that shows up again and again in great communication but is often overlooked by professionals: you have to earn attention before you earn understanding. Too many presentations, meetings, and messages begin with dense context,...
Structure Matters: Why Good Ideas Need Great Organization
Structure isn’t a formatting exercise. It’s the foundation of every clear, persuasive communication. Whether you’re giving a presentation, writing an email, or leading a meeting, structure is the difference between an idea that gets ignored and an idea that creates...
The ABCs of Professional Communication: Active Brief And Clear
On this episode, I cover the ABCs of professional communication, just as I teach them to my MBA students. One of the simplest ways to elevate your professional communication—whether you’re writing an email, pitching a strategy, or presenting to senior leaders—is to...
Logos, Ethos, Pathos: The Ancient Keys to Modern Persuasion
Logos, Ethos, Pathos: The Ancient Keys to Modern Persuasion In this episode of Conversations on Communication, I explore three timeless principles that sit at the heart of all persuasive communication: Logos, Ethos, and Pathos. They come from Aristotle, but their...
Start with the Answer: The Minto Pyramid Principle
In this episode of Conversations on Careers and Professional Life, I explire one of the most powerful frameworks for structuring clear, persuasive business communication: the Minto Pyramid Principle. The framework, created by Barbara Minto at McKinsey, is a...