Christian Letsinger

UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business

“Immovable in my tenacity to be a positive force for change.”

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Fun Fact About Yourself: I dabble in film photography. I find that it is not only a creative outlet but one that forces patience and acceptance. With film, you have one shot. Once you take the picture, you have no idea how it’ll turn out until the film is developed. It allows us to capture memories while remaining present, and I find that to be beautiful.

Undergraduate School and Major: United States Military Academy at West Point: BS, Information Technology

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: US Army Cyber Protection Brigade: Chief Data Officer

Berkeley Haas is founded on four Defining Leadership Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. Which principle resonates most with you and why? Question the Status Quo has always stood out to me. Coming from the military, almost everything has a right and wrong way to do it. However, I noticed the most successful organizations, small or large, were led by people who encouraged innovation and initiative, while allowing themselves to be relatively risk tolerant. This created environments where people felt safe to experiment—safe to make mistakes but also to learn and grow. As a result, the organization was allowed to push boundaries and consistently get results.

I believe that questioning the status quo is about allowing our perspectives, and therefore our expectations, to be flexible. I appreciate environments built on trust that embrace diversity of thought and understand that innovation is often the cornerstone of progress. Political activist Angela Davis once said, “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” At Haas and beyond, I hope to foster a culture that encourages others to embrace our fear of the unknown, and continuously question what’s within the realm of possibility.

What excites you about earning your MBA in the Bay Area? Besides the beautiful weather, I’m really looking forward to the diversity the Bay Area provides. Exploring other cultures has always been a passion of mine. I think food is often a perfect medium for that exploration, and the Bay Area has no shortage of great food from across the world. As Anthony Bourdain said, “I think food, culture, people, and landscape are all absolutely inseparable.” I believe the Bay Area offers one of the best opportunities to expand both my palate and cultural perspective by celebrating unique individual experiences through the love of food.

I am also excited about the proximity I will have to Silicon Valley. As a cyber operations officer in the Army, I have become familiar with being a technical leader in an ever-evolving space. I have always had an interest in the intersection of business and technology, which requires managers to be both technically proficient and organizationally competent leaders. I’m excited for the opportunity to explore that intersection on the civilian side, contrast it with my experience in the military, and take many best practices with me back to the force.

What was the key part of Berkeley Haas’ MBA curriculum or programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? When choosing a business school, I was particularly impressed by Berkeley Haas’ unique emphasis on data and analytics as part of its curriculum. Having been selected to return to teach at my alma mater, West Point, my goal is to help introduce business analytics into their own business curriculum. I want to enable leaders to understand how to integrate data collection and analysis into decision-making. These analytic concepts are well integrated in the curriculum at Berkeley Haas. This will provide me with the fluency required to not only teach cadets, but also advise Army leadership on how to understand the underlying concepts of data analytics and apply statistical models to directly inform operations. I believe that Haas is uniquely postured to equip its students with powerful and essential tools for military and business leaders alike in today’s world of global competition.

What course, club, or activity excites you the most at Berkeley Haas? I’m very excited to be a member of the Black Business Student Association (BBSA). Throughout my life, I have often been in the minority. In high school. It was not uncommon for me to be the only Black person in my AP classes. My undergraduate experience was much the same; my class year was only about 14% African American. Through these experiences, I learned the value of forming a community of people with similar experiences and cultural backgrounds, especially when those cultures have been traditionally underrepresented or marginalized. The BBSA stands to enable diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom and business world by uplifting each other, promoting excellence in the Black community, and mentoring the next generation of Black leaders and prospective students on their journeys. I am beyond excited to be a part of that monumental effort.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Over my five years of experience in Defensive Cyber Operations, I have participated in over a dozen various missions and operations across the entire globe in support of strategic priorities. Through these experiences, I was able to qualify as one of three master analytic support officers in the entire Army, a Tier 1 work role critical to the Cyber Mission Force. However, the most rewarding experience I’ve had was my efforts in the response to the SolarWinds compromise, the largest cyber intrusion in the Department of Defense history, and the resulting widespread organizational change that took place.

During the incident response, the organization leaned on my subject matter expertise on the structure and data flows across the DoD enterprise network. I was able to help directly lead the response, resulting in the successful remediation of all affected Army assets across the globe and the development of the active hunt concept. This concept is a proactive methodology that uses data science and analytic development to pursue advanced threats and enable decision making in multi domain operations. This concept was so well accepted that it found its way into codified doctrine, becoming the standard for how we conduct Defensive Cyber Operations today. Knowing that I had a hand in leading an incredible and enduring change within the organization is extremely rewarding.

At this point, what do you hope to do after graduation? Following graduation, I will be returning to West Point, my alma mater, to teach in their management department. While there, I hope to help introduce business analytics to the curriculum. This will be a significant effort. I seek to mentor the next generation of military leaders to understand the value of data in an increasingly complex operational environment. I believe this will be a positive change for the department, allowing the major to increase in rigor by introducing cadets to many quantitative skills that will enable them to be more effective decision makers.

Following my time at West Point, I will return to the operational Army with the goal of using my operational experiences refined by academia to take on more strategic planning roles. This will allow me to directly influence and contribute to the Army’s data strategy as a senior leader in the organization. I seek to develop solutions, both technical and procedural, to better posture our military to compete in cyberspace.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Berkeley Haas’ MBA program? I think the best advice to help potential applicants is the same advice someone gave me—be yourself. Know and celebrate your strengths while being able to confront and accept your shortcomings. You are more competent than you think. Allow your authentic self to shine through your application and be your greatest advocate. Business school is not about pride or ego, but acknowledging where you are in your journey and where you want to be. Find the balance between confidence and humility. Celebrate your individual achievements while allowing yourself to be a part of something greater.

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