Stephanie Yeh

Stanford Graduate School of Business

“Healthcare operator turned climate investor, bridging human and planetary health through technology across the US and Asia.”

Hometown: Warren, NJ

Fun Fact About Yourself: I made three major moves last year: from Shanghai to Boston, then Boston to Palo Alto – I’m finally enjoying the rare luxury of staying put (and fully unpacking my boxes)!

Undergraduate School and Major: Wellesley College, Biological Sciences

Most Recent Employer and Job Title:

Novo Holdings: Intern, Planetary Health (Current)

Anterra Capital: Pre-MBA Intern, Investment Team

Eight Roads Ventures: Investment Analyst, China Healthcare

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Stanford GSB’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Stanford’s spirit of endless possibilities. I had applied to (and got rejected from!) GSB in 2021, but the application process inspired me to rethink what was possible and pursue the dreams I had outlined in my essays. In those essays, I had written about venture capital in a global context. A few months after my rejection, I somehow managed to pivot into VC without any finance experience and had the adventure of my lifetime in Asia. When I was considering business schools this time around, I was still drawn to that ethos – GSB is a place that encourages an entrepreneurial and dream-chasing mindset that opens the possibility for true innovation and transformation. So many parts of the programming related to this appealed to me: being in the middle of Silicon Valley, hearing incredible leaders speak at View From The Top, classes like Formation of New Ventures, etc. Every day, I feel inspired by something I see or hear, maybe something a classmate is doing, to push the boundaries of what I know beyond what I previously thought was possible.

What has been the most important thing that you’ve learned at Stanford GSB so far? Prioritization! There are very few places where a top tech CEO, a prominent VC investor, and a world leader may be speaking at the same lunch slot on the same day, but this happens very often here. There are so many shiny things to chase after while at the GSB – whether it’s interesting classes, internships, social engagements, extracurriculars, or general wellness activities – but only so many hours in a day. Since I’ve been on campus, I have had to really turn inwards to reflect on what I find most important and to prioritize those, sacrificing some other things along the way.

What course, club or activity have you enjoyed the most so far at Stanford GSB? Out of my coursework and on-campus engagements, I have found the GSB’s Leadership Labs and Arbuckle Leadership programming to be my favorite. Lead Labs is a required class in our first quarter, where we get placed into squads of six students. Here, we, participate in experiential simulations, develop greater self-awareness for how we affect others in tense situations, and set learning goals to work on becoming more effective leaders while staying true to yourself. Each squad is led by an Arbuckle Fellow, a second-year student who has gotten robust training on coaching and mentoring.

Lead Labs was instrumental for showing me that my “soft” style of leadership, driven by levity and respect, was way more effective in influencing a group than the aggressive styles that are stereotypically enforced. My bi-weekly mentorship chats with my Personal Leadership Coach (another Arbuckle Fellow assigned to first-years as coaches) are the best part of my week. I loved the entire experience so much, I applied and got selected to become an Arbuckle Fellow – so excited to run it all back again from the other side next year!

What quality best describes your MBA classmates you’ve met so far? Give an example why this true. In a word, “generous.” As the Student Association’s Chief Marketing Officer, I was having issues with Google Photos as the platform to host and share our class’s thousands of photos and had spoken to one of my super talented classmates about it in passing. Over Winter Break, my classmate (a hobby coder) built me the most incredible custom internal website to support all my photo curation needs. This effort is one of my favorite things about GSB – it just showed me how incredibly talented folks are, and how collaborative and helpful others can be to help in progressing your mission. I’ve seen similar generosity all around, from referring and mock interviewing peers looking to go into their pre-MBA gigs to planning elaborate surprise birthday parties for each other. For how accomplished and busy everyone is, my classmates have been some of the most thoughtful and compassionate people I have ever met.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At the outbreak of COVID, I was tapped to be one of the three founding members for CVS Health’s virtual care business. At the time, CVS had multiple lines of businesses with disparate telemedicine strategies, which was unequipped for the huge volume influxes. My team’s mandate was to quickly develop an integrated strategy that could be implemented to meet the new pandemic-driven needs for patients and the business needs of each division. Seeing our team grow from three to hundreds of colleagues over the span of a few months, all aligned on helping patients access quality care, was such a rewarding effort to be part. The experience was very “intra-preneurial.” It felt like our team was a start-up, just nestled within a large corporation, and ultimately it inspired me to transition into VC where I got to build and support early businesses from the ground up.

Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far? I came to the GSB to develop my soft skills, particularly confronting my fear of public speaking. Over the past few months here, I have truly done this. I told hundreds of classmates about my life story at TALK and I am one of the 30 students chosen to deliver a ten-minute LOWkeynote (our GSB version of a TEDTalk) this year. Additionally, I am enrolled in Essentials of Strategic Communications taught by Professor Matt Abrahams, a highly interactive course teaching us to be better communicators through message construction, credibility building, powerful delivery tactics, and audience analysis. I’m so proud to say that I have made tangible improvements over these past two quarters – I am more comfortable with speaking to a crowd on the fly, I lost a few of my “squirrel-y” nervous tics, and I have improved my overall body language and voice projection.

And a separate less serious one – I learned how to ski on the student-organized annual ski trip this year! Alongside 200 MBA students in Jackson Hole, I went from not knowing how to put on a ski boot to confidently going down blues runs. As I continue to push myself out of my comfort zone (I don’t even know how to ride a bike!) I have found my friends at the GSB to be very patient, helpful, and encouraging.

What has been your best memory as an MBA so far? I gave my class’s first TALK, a sacred GSB tradition where each week two students get 30 minutes to share their life stories. With countless other things vying for our attention, hundreds of classmates always show up to TALK, radiating with love and compassion. I remember mine was the night after all of our Fall Quarter midterms – despite the hectic week, I was inundated with dozens of well-wishes over text and in-person, and got surprised by a room full of posters that my friends had somehow found time to make in advance. I chose my mom to give my introduction, and she flew in for the occasion (her short 5-minute speech blew mine out of the water!). I am typically a very open person (who writes personal memoirs for fun…). However, the experience really pushed me to reflect on what I wanted to say and how vulnerable I would be willing to be in front of such an audience. At the end of each TALK, our classmates provide feedback that’s compiled and shared with the speaker. My document of collected “TALK Love” from my GSB family is probably one of my most prized possessions now. Now, the thing I look forward to most is attending my classmates’ TALKs, seeing the sheer diversity in experience and the resilience within our community. Haven’t missed one yet!

What advice would you give to a prospective applicant looking to join the Stanford GSB Class of 2026? As I mentioned before, I was rejected by GSB on the first go and am a proud reapplicant. I have spoken to many prospective students, and I always say this: the optimal outcome for the business school application should never be measured by whether or not you get in. It should instead be about whether you successfully mapped out three things: 1) where you came from (aka your background), and how that’s informed; 2) where you are now; and 3) where you see yourself going in the future. If you reflect on all three of those things well, that introspection and planning is way more valuable than a prestigious school name or acceptance.

I personally think of my 2021 cycle as my most successful one (even though the only things I got were rejection letters) because it pushed me to critically think about and articulate what I had already accomplished – and what I wanted to accomplish going forward. It inspired me to take risks and pivot into my dream career without an MBA. I’m also grateful to be coming to GSB with a few more years of experience under my belt as my classroom and extracurricular contributions today are much more meaningful and informed than they were when I was 25.

A surprising number of us on campus are reapplicants. If GSB or what you’ve outlined in your application essays are your dreams, don’t give them up so easily – try, try, and try again.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE STANFORD GSB MBA CLASS OF 2026