Tiphaine Grosse

UCLA, Anderson School of Management

“Parisian woman passionate about new technology and performing arts.”

Hometown: Paris, France

Fun fact about yourself: I have lived in 4 different cities since 2020: Paris, Milan, Los Angeles and Seattle. Don’t ask me which one is my favorite city! They all have something special.

Undergraduate School and Degree:

Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris

Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne – MA in Philosophy and Masters in Public Administration

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Free2Move Esolutions (Joint venture on Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and solutions), Milan, Italy. Electric Mobility Business Development Manager.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2022? Amazon, Seattle, WA

Where will you be working after graduation? Amazon, Senior Program Manager

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

Lead Coach Co-Captain for the Technology Peer Coaching program (Tech ACT)

VP of Recruiter Relations, Marketing Association;

VP of Finance, Wine Club Association

Dean’s list

Forté Fellow

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I performed in the comedy club’s improvisation show in February 2023. I have always loved theater and performing arts but felt very intimidated going on a stage and improvising in a language that is not my mother tongue. After attending a dozen improv workshops and rehearsals, I decided to join the cast and performed in front of a large audience (around 100 of my peers). The show went really well, and I was very proud of taking up that challenge.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? My professional experience at Free2Move in Italy was my most challenging professional experience so far. I joined a new company in the middle of the pandemic and was mostly onboarded virtually. I learned Italian (on Zoom!) within a few months to better communicate with my colleagues. And I was the lead manager of a very complex project, creating a binding offer to support a luxury car-maker entering the EV market worldwide. I led a cross-functional team to build the offer, met and negotiated with dozens of suppliers, and pitched our offer to the customer. After 6 months of a grueling selection process, I won the bid in EMEA and became the manager in charge of implementation.

This experience stretched me out of my comfort zone in every possible way, and there were moments when I felt overwhelmed. In the end, I kept going and pushed myself to win the bid.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Anderson because the school has very strong connections with the technology industry. It was very easy to connect with technology leaders through networking events, lectures, conferences, and mentoring programs.

I wanted to pivot into technology, and I knew that building a network in a new industry and a new country would be critical to my success and future career. Through the UCLA mentoring programs, I was paired with a VP of product development at Salesforce and a senior Product Marketing Manager in a tech company. These senior tech leaders were able to give me specific, thoughtful advice that helped me identify critical skills to succeed in technology.

The school also attracts many students who had previously worked in or were aiming to work in technology. We helped each other during the recruiting process, and I know that we can count on each other after school.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Professor Terry Kramer embodies true leadership and is an exceptional professor.

I took his “Technology Immersion” class and “Technology and Society” class in my first year. I learned a lot about the technology industry, from disruptive technologies to the use of personal data, applications of technology in different spaces (education, healthcare…), and the impact (good and bad) of technology on society. His classes confirmed my interest for technology and desire to work in that space.

I also loved Professor Kramer’s leadership and style of teaching. He challenges students to be very thorough and thoughtful in their analyses, collecting facts and data to develop a nuanced understanding of complex topics. He’s very demanding and straightforward, but he cares a lot about students and is very committed to providing the best teaching experience possible.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? I loved the “Market Research” class, taught by Professor Constança Esteves-Sorenson, because it taught me how to create and analyze robust datasets on complex business issues. I learned to avoid all the pitfalls in survey design, be wary of unverified intuitions, and became familiar with advanced statistical tools to identify customer segments, and create solid quantitative marketing strategies. I was very impressed to see how we can create and analyze data to inform all business decisions.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? Every Thursday, students gather for an informal social mixer around food and drinks. AnderNoons is a great way to stay connected with the Anderson community, catch up with your friends, and meet new people – it’s amazing how we keep meeting new classmates up until the end of the program! This moment is all the more valuable in the second year, when students take different electives and don’t spend as much time together. Most students attend AnderNoons, and we always have a great time.

This weekly ritual shows how important community is to Anderson.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I would take more advantage of the broader UCLA community. UCLA offers stellar education in so many different fields, so I would take more classes outside of the business school and meet more graduate students from the other schools. I am now taking classes in the History department (“American West”) and the School of Theater, Film & Television (“American Film History”), and I truly enjoy those. As an international student, I am learning a lot about American history and foundational myths.

What is the biggest myth about your school? Anderson is known for the Parker Career Management Center, which has earned very positive reviews in publications about the school. Parker definitely lives up to the expectation! I spent many hours working with Parker coaches, taking in their advice on crafting my resume, incorporating their feedback after mock interviews, and listening to very sound advice on how to build and maintain a network. They played a very big role in my recruiting process and helped me land several internship offers!

They also care about the “sharing success” motto, as they recruit second-year students to coach and support incoming first-year students as they embark on their recruiting journey. I loved working with them, and Parker is a true competitive advantage of UCLA Anderson.

What surprised you the most about business school? The diversity of the student’s body. I have never worked with such a diverse group of people. There’s cultural diversity (more than 30 different nationalities), age diversity (age range is 24-40), and experience diversity (professional and personal). People join the MBA coming from very different places, and they sometimes have very different goals and purposes. It’s important to acknowledge your own goals and motivations, stay true to them and not compare yourself with or judge your peers, as everyone has different goals and life experiences.

What is one thing you did during the application process that gave you an edge at the school you chose? One of my very good friends and mentors, Gary Leibowitz, is an UCLA Anderson alum. His coaching and recommendation letter gave me an edge. If it had not been for him, I would not have pictured myself joining one of the top MBA programs in the U.S. His support also helped me stay motivated and push through, as I was racing to put my application together.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Alex Wolfson, VP of Improv at Anderson’s Comedy Club, embodies true leadership. Alex has taught improv to a group of newbies, with little stage experience. Alex is a very experienced improviser, and he could have chosen to perform with other experienced improvisers. Instead, he’s been incredibly generous with his time, organizing weekly 2-hour long improv sessions for several months. Alex is incredibly thoughtful: he created a whole syllabus, helping us progressively build critical skills to expand our improv repertoire. When he designed the structure of the club’s comedy show, he made sure that everyone would shine. He’s created an environment where we’re all comfortable being vulnerable and hearing feedback on our performances. Finally, out of a group of random students, he’s created a very cohesive and supportive group of friends. Alex has all the qualities to lead people, and he’s already made an impact on his fellow classmates.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? I want to work abroad again. I’ve had the chance of studying or working in France, Germany, Italy and now the U.S. It is a very intense but very rewarding experience to live abroad, and each time I’ve moved, I have grown exponentially and matured as a person. I would love the chance to work in Asia or Africa.

Another item on my bucket list would be to join a startup or launch my own venture. I worked in the very young healthtech company of a friend at Anderson, and I loved doing all the market research, customer interviews, and MVP designs.

What made Tiphaine such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2023?

“The Parker Career Management Center (“Parker”) team had the pleasure of getting to know Tiphaine starting with the international onboarding as an admit during the summer period prior to start of her MBA program. She came into the program with a desire to pivot her career into the technology industry and partnered with us to work diligently through the process. Tiphaine’s hard work, adaptability, and positive attitude helped her successfully translate her pre-MBA experience in the Energy/EV industry and achieve her career aspirations to join a major technology company. She achieved this all the while developing key friendships and embodying Anderson’s core value of “share success”.

In addition to the hard work she has put into her own career development process, we want to express our appreciation for Tiphaine’s exceptional leadership skills. The Parker team had a chance to further work with Tiphaine through her role as a second year career coach and serving as a lead coach co-captain for the technology peer coaching program (Tech ACT). As a second-year coach, she played an instrumental role in supporting a group of first-year students through their internship recruiting process and navigating the business school environment. Tiphaine exhibited tremendous professionalism and empathy when working with first-year students both in individual and group coaching sessions. Her guidance and support directly impacted the recruiting outcomes of those students she worked with and received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

At the same time, she demonstrated strong leadership and organizational skills in co-leading 14 other peer coaches within the Tech ACT program by providing guidance on curriculum development and execution, timely communication, and ensuring that all tasks are completed efficiently and effectively to help ensure consistency across all of the Tech ACT groups. Her partnership with her fellow coaches as well as the Parker team contributed to make this program one of Parker’s highest rated activities.

It has been a pleasure getting to know and work with Tiphaine throughout her time as an Anderson student. We are confident that she will continue to excel in her future endeavors and make a significant contribution to any team or organization she is a part of and look forward to her contributing to the Anderson community as an alumna.”

Mef Shebi
Director of Career Advising
Parker Career Management Center, UCLA Anderson

 Phil Han
Assistant Dean
Parker Career Management Center, UCLA Anderson

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