From its earliest days, Whittier College has trained agile and strategic business leaders, able to combine “big picture thinking” with on-the-horizon market and technological changes.
Among Whittier alumni are entrepreneurs and investors, founders of start-ups and splinter ventures, as well as CEOs and executives of established industry giants. They have contributed to the success of such household brand-named organizations as FAO Schwarz, Goldman Sachs, the San Francisco 49ers, and Make-A-Wish Foundation, and many others.
Maya Choi ’21
Enablement Operations at NVIDIA
Maya’s education at Whittier College has been a great asset to her in the tech industry. After graduating, Maya was soon hired to the cybersecurity company Tanium, and now works for the multinational tech company NVIDIA. She’s enjoying learning new systems and technologies, and how to use them to help others work more efficiently and effectively.
As her career kicks off, Maya has found that her major in business administration and minor in computer science complemented each other well.
“I was able to understand how certain technologies work but also see the bigger picture in regard to how they support the business,” she said.
Maya truly made the most of her Whittier experience. She held various on-campus jobs, interned both on and off campus, and studied abroad three times. Whittier’s intentionally small class sizes were a great fit for Maya, as well, teaching her the importance of building relationships and how to collaborate in diverse groups. Such close-knit learning environments also helped her develop deeper relationships with her professors and peers, many of whom she still keeps in close contact with to this day.
Carey Halio ’95
Chief Financial Officer, Goldman Sachs Bank USA and Partner at Goldman Sachs Group
Carey Halio’s impressive career in the financial industry led her to become chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs Bank USA, where she was recently made partner—one of Wall Street’s highest honors. As a business administration major, the College’s multidisciplinary approach gave Carey the solid foundation for her career.
“Thinking about the same issue from two different perspectives was an insightful experience at that point in my education, since business problems also have multiple angles to them that need to be considered in order to arrive at an optimal solution.”
Ricardo Díaz ’98
Restaurateur
At Whittier, Ricardo Díaz picked up how to learn from the real world and on the fly—skills that no doubt have proven useful in the competitive world of food entrepreneurship. After graduating, he made a name for himself in the Los Angeles food world as co-founder of popular restaurants like Cook's Tortas and Guisados Tacos, once called one of the city’s “most exciting Mexican restaurants” by Los Angeles Magazine. Ricardo now owns three more popular restaurants and has been named one of LA Magazine’s Chefs of the Year.
Andrew Keh ’10
Co-Founder of Sentient-Labs
Andrew Keh helped start three businesses after discovering a passion for entrepreneurship at Whittier. With the lessons he learned from each of those endeavors—a skill he picked up at Whittier—Andrew ran the research and development division at H.H. Brown shoe company and managed operations at online marketing agency C-4 Analytics. Always moving forward, Andrew has co-founded the digital marketing company Sentient-Labs.
“Attending Whittier turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.”
