MICHELLE WALD CALIFORNIA
By Haley Hirai
Michelle Wald loved the games she played so much that, as a senior at Cal, she took the court and the fi eld with three herniated discs in her lower back. Despite the injuries, Wald’s career in sports never ended. The former fi eld hockey and women’s basketball star uses her expertise and passion for athletics as Nike’s consumer development manager of European digital commerce. A 2003 graduate of Cal’s Haas School of Business,
Wald, 30, is now based in Amsterdam, Nike’s European headquarters. She works with strategy and business development for the European marketplace on a daily basis. Through market research, Wald and her team strategize how to capitalize on industry trends. “I think a student-athlete background helps with any job with things like discipline, time management, teamwork, balancing your schedule, and prioritization,” says Wald. “Student-athletes have to learn those things, and when you come into the workforce, you need them in any job.” At Nike, Wald enjoys the work-life balance and active lifestyle that is encouraged and accepted in the company’s culture. She can leave her desk anytime during the day to work out in Nike’s gym or play a game of pickup basketball with co-workers.
“Sports will always be a part of my life. It gives you so much energy,” she said. Wald is still passionate about playing sports, and she hasn’t lost her competitive edge. In Amsterdam, she is usually one of the only women playing with the men, but that is the way she likes it. She still keeps in touch with her former teammates, who she will always have a connection with, just like the sports she has always loved.
103
JOSH NESBIT STANFORD
By Sarah Kezele
Josh Nesbit hung up his Stanford soccer uniform for the last time in November 2008. But for three million people, it is good news that he has yet to abandon the role of goalkeeper. The 24-year-old is now saving mil- lions of lives as the founder and CEO of Medic Mobile, a nonprofi t organization that uses text messaging to create con- nected, coordinated health systems in low-resource areas.
After his sophomore year at Stanford, the Waterford, Va., native spent his
summer volunteering at a hospital in Malawi, a country in southeast Africa. After talking with a volunteer health worker who had to walk more than 30 miles just to deliver paperwork, Nesbit saw the dire need for a more effi cient system. Upon returning to Palo Alto that fall for his junior year, he acquired open-source text-messaging software and secured a $5,000 grant from Stanford’s Haas Center for Public Service. The following summer, Nesbit put 100 donated cell phones in a backpack and returned to the Malawi hospital to build the foundation for Medic Mobile.
Once Nesbit and local staff distributed the phones, patients were able to communicate with the community health workers via text message, providing quicker and better access to those in need of care. Now Nesbit’s start-up is benefi tting about three million people in 16 countries and will reach even more people as Medic Mobile expands over the next six months.
How does all this relate to being a goalkeeper? Nesbit noted that he comfortably manages a 10-person team, much as he did in goal for the Cardinal. He also stresses the importance of teamwork among his peers and uses his discipline to maintain forward prog- ress. But, most importantly, Nesbit sees his team’s ability to reach beyond one community, one country, one continent. “As a goalkeeper, you’re the only one who sees the entire play-
ing fi eld,” Nesbit said. “You have to be fi ve or ten steps ahead of everyone else, and that vision has directly translated to my role and responsibility as CEO.” And, ultimately, as someone who is changing the world.
Stanford University
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