Advisory Board

Doug McBeth, '87 Applied Math

Managing Director, Nomura Securities Inc.

Doug McBeth is a managing director at Nomura Securities Inc, a Japanese investment bank, based in New York. His banking career began at Lehman Brothers in 1996 starting in quantitative modeling and then trading interest rate derivatives. He soon moved to Lehman’s Tokyo office (1997–98) successfully managing his book through the volatility of the Asian Financial Crisis. After returning to New York, he focused on solutions for insurance industry capital issues, pioneering a number of groundbreaking transactions. He served as a director and president of Lehman Re and Congress Life...

Akiko Mikumo, co-chair, '78 Asian Studies

Retired Senior Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Akiko Mikumo is a retired senior partner of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a global law firm headquartered in New York City that she joined as an associate in 1982. She served on the firm’s management committee for 12 years, as Asia managing partner for 10 years, and as a senior mergers and acquisitions partner in their New York, London, and Hong Kong offices. In addition, she was founding partner of the Hong Kong office. She is recognized as one of the leading mergers and acquisitions lawyers by various publications. After retiring at the end of 2017, Ms. Mikumo was a...

Na’ilah Suad Nasir, ’93 Psychology & Social Welfare

President, Spencer Foundation

Na’ilah Suad Nasir is the sixth president of the Spencer Foundation, which funds education research nationally. Prior to joining Spencer, she held a faculty appointment in education and African American studies at UC Berkeley, where she also served as the chair of African American studies and as the Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion. She has served on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Nasir’s research examines the racialized and cultural nature of learning and schooling, with a particular focus on the experiences of African American students....

George Ng, ’03 Economics

Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, GGWP

George Ng is co-founder and chief technology officer of GGWP, which aims to democratize positive play in video games. Previously, he co-founded Cyence, a cyber risk assessment platform that combined internet-scale data collection, machine learning, and financial modeling to assess technology driven risks. Cyence was acquired by Guidewire Software, where he served as chief data officer. Prior to his entrepreneurial work, Dr. Ng was the chief data scientist at Cray Supercomputer and a research scientist at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Dr. Ng...

Stacie Olivares, '97 Economics

Board Member, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board

At the intersection of technology, finance, and policy, Stacie Olivares advances equity, economic growth, and environmental protection. Olivares is a member of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, appointed by President Biden to oversee the world’s largest defined contribution plan, the Thrift Savings Plan, on behalf of its 6.5 million participants. From 2019 to 2022, Olivares served as a member of the CalPERS Board of Administration, appointed by Governor Newsom to oversee the largest public pension fund in the United States. Previously, Olivares was the chief...

Maureen Orth, ’64 Political Science

Special Correspondent, Vanity Fair Magazine

Maureen Orth is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair. She began her career as one of the first woman writers at Newsweek, where she wrote seven cover stories and won a National Magazine Award. Her best-selling book, Vulgar Favors, was the basis of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. She has written for Vanity Fair since 1989, and has profiled everyone from Vladimir Putin and Karl...

Henry A. J. Ramos, ’80 Political Economy of Industrial Societies; J.D. ’90

Senior Fellow, The New School Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy

Henry A. J. Ramos is a senior fellow at The New School Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy. He is also a past author, editor, and project consultant at Arte Público Press, based at the University of Houston. From 2006 to 2009, Ramos led the Diversity in Philanthropy Project, a multi-year initiative of leading U.S. foundation executives and trustees committed to expanding diversity and inclusion in philanthropic appointments, grantmaking, and procurement. Over the years, he has worked on the program staffs of the Ford Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the...

Carl "Chip" Robertson, ’94 History

Co-Managing Partner, Warland Investments Ltd

Carl W. “Chip” Robertson is co-managing partner at Warland Investments Company. Mr. Robertson serves as a member of the board of visitors for the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and the board of advisors for the UC/CSU Collaborative for Neurodiversity and Learning. He is vice chair of the board of directors of the UC Hastings College of Law. In addition, Robertson is a board member of the California Coalition for Public Higher Education.

Mark J. Robinson, ’88 History & Political Science

Partner, Centerview Partners

Mark Robinson is a partner at Centerview Partners, a leading global investment banking firm. Previously, he worked at Merrill Lynch & Co and was responsible for its global investment banking healthcare practice. Mr. Robinson is a past co-chair of the College of Letters & Science Advisory Board and a trustee of the UC Berkeley Foundation. Together with his wife Stephanie, he established the Robinson Program in Life Science Business and Entrepreneurship; a dual degree undergraduate program between the Haas School of Business and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC...

Amy Sugarman, ’96 American Studies

Executive Producer, iHeartMedia

Amy Sugarman is a talent executive/executive producer at iHeartMedia. Upon becoming the fourth generation in her family to graduate from UC Berkeley (and as a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority), Ms. Sugarman began her career at KTVU Fox Channel 2 in the Bay Area, launching a 25-year (and counting) career in the entertainment industry. She has long been affiliated with celebrity stalwarts such as Mario Lopez and Ryan Seacrest, with whom she has worked for more than two decades. In addition to producing television and radio, Ms. Sugarman has produced many of iHeartMedia’s...