Canfield BHP Alumni Advisory Board Welcomes New Members

The Canfield BHP Alumni Advisory Board is pleased to welcome new board members Sarina Richard, Henry Howard, and Arienne Brent!

Every year the CBHP Alumni Advisory Board meets to guide the direction and accomplish the mission of the business honors program. It is comprised of Canfield BHP alumni who share the goal of supporting and improving one of UT’s finest undergraduate programs. In particular, the Advisory Board assists in fundraising, student recruitment, student mentorship, alumni engagement and helps to increase the overall awareness of Canfield BHP. 

 

Check out the alumni advisory board page to see the complete list of members.

 

Sarina Richard

Sarina Richard is the Chief Operating Officer at Give Legacy, Inc., a Series B startup building a digital fertility clinic for men, changing the outdated view that fertility is a “women’s issue.” Legacy was incubated at the Harvard Innovation Labs, joined Y Combinator’s accelerator program. Sarina and the team have built partnerships with the military, including the Navy SEALs, the Green Berets, and the Veterans Health Administration, with major national insurers, including UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, and Cigna, and with leading healthcare providers, including Memorial Sloan Kettering, Boston IVF, and Progyny.

Previously Sarina was an investment banker, management consultant, private equity associate, and innovation and design consultant, all focused in the healthcare space. Her most significant work experience comes from being a four-time startup founder with three successful exits. Her latest venture was a women’s health business based in India, providing access to sexual health information and resources to underserved populations. This company was acquired in less than a year from the largest women’s organization in India, serving over 20 million women. In addition to her career work, Sarina has been heavily involved in various women-lead initiatives and organizations, including starting a school in South Texas for migrant girls, building a microfinance program for female farmers in Peru, and rescuing and rehabilitating victims of human trafficking on the borders of India and Nepal.

Sarina graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007 with Business Honors, Finance, and Spanish Honors degrees. While at UT, she was awarded the prestigious Texas Exes President’s Leadership Award as well as the Cactus Outstanding Student and BHP Outstanding Senior Awards. Sarina also holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School.

Originally from Singapore and Texas, Sarina now lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two-year-old daughter. She enjoys traveling, swimming, bourbon tasting, and Texas football.

 

Henry Howard

Henry Howard graduated from UT Austin in 2021 with Business Honors and Finance majors. Henry is a Business Transformation Consultant at FlexPoint Consulting, where he strives to help clients understand their business needs and overcome roadblocks of all shapes and sizes. In addition to the CBHP Alumni Advisory Board, Henry serves as the Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee on the BBA Alumni Advisory Board.

As a student, Henry was involved in CBHP through several roles, including Co-Lead Peer Mentor, Student Recruiter, Make-A-Mark Co-Chair, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Council Member, and Lead of the LGBTQ+ Affinity Group. Henry also co-founded the student consulting org 180 Degrees Consulting to serve local non-profits and create an accessible opportunity for students to gain consulting experience. Additionally, Henry loved volunteering with the Texas Blazers and as a photojournalist for the Daily Texan.

Since graduating, Henry has stayed in Austin and enjoys taking portraits of friends, paddleboarding on Lady Bird Lake, and serving breakfast downtown with Feed My People. He hopes to finish seeing all 50 states in the next few years and aspires to start an experimental high school to support students with various learning styles.

 

Arienne Brint

Arienne Brint is currently the VP of Global Government Relations at LyondellBasell. Prior to joining LyondellBasell, she spent thirteen years at Solvay in several roles, including her last role as Chief Compliance Officer. Before that, she practiced law as a litigator at several law firms, including Jones Day.  

Arienne holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Canfield Business Honors Program at The University of Texas in Austin, Texas, and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In addition to recently joining the UT Business Honors Program Alumni Advisory Board, Arienne also serves as President of the Harvard Law School Association of Houston Board.

In her free time, Arienne enjoys being a “momager for her daughter, Maddie. She also enjoys shopping, traveling, singing karaoke, and improving her “black thumb” gardening skills.

Student Spotlight: Joyce He

Topics of Interest: Texas CSB, Software Engineering, Product Management, Microsoft

Originally from Plano, TX, Joyce He is a student in the CSB program. Joyce was able to utilize Texas CSB as a way to study business and technology simultaneously efficiently. Career-wise, Joyce has served as a Software Engineer Intern and, most recently, as a Product Management Intern with Microsoft. You can find Joyce hiking, running, and spending time in the pottery studio in her free time.

What did your recruiting process look like at Microsoft?

My recruiting process for software engineering was pretty standard for the industry. For preparation, I practiced a lot of coding problems on platforms like LeetCode, Binary Search, and Hacker Rank. I also did mock interviews and informal practice sessions with my peers. The Facebook Above and Beyond Computer Science programs were also beneficial in preparing me for technical interviews. The process included phone screens that had both behavioral and technical questions. The way I transitioned into product management was internally through the established discipline change process.

What was the biggest takeaway from your internship?

My biggest takeaway is to always advocate for myself. While you have advisors, peers, and faculty to support you in school, you are more on your own when working. If I was unhappy with my projects or felt like I wanted to challenge myself to grow in other areas as a PM, I had to voice my thoughts to my manager actively. While my manager was my greatest advocate, she could only advocate for me if she knew what I wanted. Knowing what you need or want and asking for it is essential! Even if I didn’t know what I wanted opportunity-wise, I would ask my manager if there were areas I was lacking, and she would point out areas where I could grow. Part of self-advocacy is also humbling yourself to ask where you can improve.

Is there anything you might have done differently?

I would have failed sooner. A huge part of product management is writing product spec documents to communicate goals, timelines, and product ideas to engineers, UI/UX designers, and upper management. I was tasked with writing a couple of specs this summer for my projects, and one of my biggest regrets was not roughly writing a couple sooner to get feedback. I felt pressured to edit my drafts until they felt presentable or perfect before sharing them with my coworkers for feedback, but I would have learned how to write better specs a lot faster if I had put my ideas on paper and shipped them out.

What advice can you share for students interested in pursuing a career in product management?

Build things! Product managers are essentially entrepreneurs within larger companies (some call them intrapreneurs). The way to gauge whether you like it and create experience on your resume is to get your hands dirty. If you have ideas for products, try building them on your own. It doesn’t take much these days to make a website, app, prototype, etc. Taking an idea from conception to creation gives you substance to talk about in interviews and builds product sense/intuition.

How has Canfield BHP prepared you for your role?

Canfield BHP classes were pretty critical to helping me stand out in my role. While most product managers at tech companies come in with strong technical backgrounds, few have the business acumen crucial to driving relevant decisions. Courses such as MKT 337H taught by Professor Gabbi, ACC 312H taught by Professor Eric Chan, and MIS 301H taught by Professor Anand, helped me make thoughtful decisions that helped me stand out throughout my internship. I was also used to being thrown into more open-ended projects because of the way CBHP curriculum is structured.

Can you share some of your plans for next summer?

I’m graduating in December, so next summer, I’ll be working full-time in Seattle as a Product Manager at Microsoft! I’m super excited to go back and join the Azure Storage team. Plus, the Pacific Northwest has some of the hiking scenes in the US, so hopefully, I’ll be out on some trails next summer too.

Student Spotlight: Hugo Sandoval

Hugo Sandoval Headshot

Hugo Sandoval

Topics of Interest: APC Collective, Support Latino Business, Business & Politics, Tech, RISE,

Hugo Sandoval is a junior in the Canfield Business Honors Program. This past summer, he spent his time working with APC Collective, a communications agency that helps clients increase their reach, relationships, and positive impact: “I’ve been interested in politics and tech for most of my life, and my love for business grew in college.” Hugo is also involved with RISE, a mentorship organization that teaches underserved high school students skills in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and college.

Read on to learn more about Hugo’s internship experiences and some of his advice for students interested in pursuing a career in politics and business!

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