Emily Watkins MBA 2006

Sr. Director, Real Estate Management, Gap Inc., San Bruno, California

Emily took her bachelor's in structural engineering from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo, to Gap Inc., where she worked with architecture, design and construction teams before entering general management. In real estate operations, she leads a research team and plans real estate options for Gap Inc. leased stores for partners Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy. At this point in her career she wanted to learn ways to improve processes in the operational work stream and hone in on other general management skills.

Becoming more strategic as you learn
"At Gap Inc. I'm working on a big initiative to improve processes by streamlining operations and making them more efficient. Two classes I took at the same time—in organizational development and operations—inspired me to put some different frameworks around the messaging we were trying to convey. Berkeley-Columbia has also helped me think more strategically to maintain a competitive advantage. In this program, you're motivated and excited by the fact that everything you learn is so applicable."

Berkeley-Columbia's greatest asset
"The students are what make this program so amazing. They are people with impressive backgrounds who really want to help each other, like the students who are company owners and give us a review session in strategy. Being in a program with people from such diverse backgrounds gives you many different frameworks to apply to your day-to-day job, and it's made me a lot more strategic. Moreover, the international courses widen our ability to network with students in the full-time MBA, executive MBA and Columbia-London Business School programs."