A Little Wednesday Night Dinner

Readers, it’s been a while since  I posted… us Trekkers have been going non-stop!   While it’s Friday morning out here on the West Coast, I’d like to revisit some interesting moments from one team’s dinner with Neil Baquiran, Business Manager of Health & Wellness (Pharmacy, Optical & Clinics) at Walmart.com.

Six students met Neil at the Osha Thai Restaurant  – a mix of first year and second year Global MBA and part time Professional MBA students – Anand Vora, Sean Skulley, Morgan Ann Richard, Sonali Roy, Robert Joppa, and Catherine Lee.  Neil and his wife, Aileen Baquiran of Jazz Pharmaceuticals who previously worked with Johnson and Johnson, also joined us.    Neil shared with us his passion for working at Walmart.com, the rewarding challenges of his work, and the cross functional nature of his projects.  With health care and generic drugs at the top of the Obama Administration’s “to do” list, Walmart.com aims to rise in market share to become the most competitive online pharmaceutical outlet.  Needless to say, Neil’s industry is topical, relevant, and very interesting.

Seated around a large cedar rectangular table, Neil kicked it off by asking each student to talk a little bit about themselves.  Anand, a first year MBA and international student from India with a background in electrical engineering and marketing, was the first MBA student to introduce himself.   Next, Neil heard from Sean – another first year MBA student with a significant background in environmental consulting.  Robert, a second year MBA student then spoke about his background at the Peace Corps and Department of Energy, and his professional goals in alternative wind energy.  Sonali was one of two part-time MBA students, already having earend a Masters in Tourism Administration with major experience at the Ritz Carlton and Mandarin Oriental, and also a 2006 San Francisco Career Trekker.  We then met our second part timer, Morgan – a professional with seven years of experience at EDS, newly acquired by Hewlett Packard, now working on business development.  Finally, Catherine introduced herself – the Chief Coordinator of the Career Trek with six years of federal government experience in foreign policy and defense.

Our 1.5 hour dinner led us to a variety of topics – from H1B Visas, to the “bullishness” of California’s biotech and clean tech industries, to Neil’s personal tips on how to become a successful manager.

1 – Figure out your “brand” so you can distinguish yourself from others MBA students. What’s your niche, your specialty, your passion?

2 – Brand yourself well where people notice you.

3 – Take the hardest classes possible during your MBA program – finance, modeling, economics, decision sciences.

4 – Take human dynamics and understand networking, cultural fit, and emotional intelligence.

5 – Don’t be afraid to speak up.

Our students walked away from the dinner meeting considering and discussing Neil’s points.  We appreciated his candor and honesty.   For all your readers out there, here is Neil’s biosketch below – we hope to offer some more Wednesday night (although belated!) dinner insights…

More posting later…

Catherine

Biosketch on Neil Baquiran:

Neil Baquiran is a Business Manager at Walmart.com where he manages Walmart’s online Health & Wellness businesses.  He is responsible for all strategic, tactical and operational aspects of the online Pharmacy, Optical and Clinics businesses.  Recent projects Neil managed include launching a co-branded Optical website with Walmart’s new partner, 1-800 CONTACTS and securing a strategic partnership with internet service provider, NetZero, which includes distribution of ISP discs to Walmart’s 4000+ stores.

Prior to Walmart, Neil worked as an MBA intern at Intel Corporation in their Sales & Marketing Group and Retail Channel Group.  He also held management roles at GreenCitizen, a startup environmental venture and NESsT Consulting, a social and environmentally focused startup advisory.  Neil began his career at Barclays Global Investors, Barclays PLC’s investment management division.  There he was an associate in their Institutional Sales group and Global Index and Markets Group Securities Lending team where he was responsible for multi-billion dollar institutional client relationships including ExxonMobil, the State of Wisconsin and the Federal Employees Retirement System.

Neil received his BA in Economics and minor in Japanese from the University of San Francisco and his MBA in Decision Sciences Operations Management and Finance from the George Washington University School of Business.  At GW, he received both the distinguished Board of Advisors Graduate Student and the Masters of Business Administration Leadership Awards.  He was an active participant in the business school program where he served as the MBA Association VP of Alumni and Career Affairs and launched the annual San Francisco Career Trek and Golf Classic series.  As part of his undergraduate Japanese studies, he attended Sophia University in Tokyo and subsequently lived in Japan for three years.

Neil continues to be active in the GW community and serves as one of the steering committee members “rebuilding” the GW San Francisco Bay Area alumni chapter.  Neil also serves as an e-council member for the San Francisco chapter of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.