Erik Holmlin PhD MBA 2006

Chief Commercial Officer, Exiqon A/S, Tustin, California

Erik had taken strides toward a career in academia by earning his doctorate in chemistry at California Institute of Technology, where he helped pioneer a field in DNA/RNA research. In a Harvard lab on a post-doctoral fellowship, however, he began to think he could do more exciting work in the private sector. He and a former mentor raised venture financing and hired a team for GeneOhm, a molecular diagnostic company in San Diego. He felt the need to expand his skill set and that an MBA would be a way to do it.

Diversity enhances your learning
"In this kind of program, you really learn from your peers as much as you learn from the faculty or a course, and because of that you want to have a diverse student body. Berkeley-Columbia has MDs, people in biotech, investment banking, accounting, restaurant management an unbelievably cooperative group of 65 people that get along great and are very supportive of each other."

Big-picture benefits
"The beneficial aspects of Berkeley-Columbia go beyond the practical. Some people might think, 'What can I really get out of macroeconomics?' At the end of the day, mastering this kind of intellectual challenge adds to my well roundedness as a manager . This program gives you a grasp of basic theory as well as good practical tools from key areas of business such as organizational behavior, finance , negotiations, etc. It's rare to learn all of these aspects of business in depth on the job, through Berkeley-Columbia you acquire both breadth and depth. By acquiring this knowledge while working, it's possible to road-test the theory and take what really works and file the rest for future reference."