Henry Wang

“Ask me anything about emerging technologies, college football, or tips for a great pasta sauce”

Hometown: Houston, Texas

Fun Fact About Yourself: A month before I started the MBA program, I visited the southernmost city in the world – Ushuaia, Argentina.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Alabama, Electrical Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: HP Inc, Product Manager

What makes Seattle such a great place to earn an MBA?

Seattle, of course, is home to a huge tech scene, and the advantages of being right in the thick of it cannot be overstated, particularly when it comes to networking with and learning from other tech professionals in the area.

Beyond just a career, it’s also important to develop hobbies and interests too, and Seattle is a great setting for this, whether that’s in the city with a plethora of sporting events, concerts, and unique neighborhoods to visit, or beyond city limits into the Cascade Mountains for skiing and camping.

Aside from your location and classmates, what was the one key part of Washington Foster’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you?

If a major value prop of an MBA is building relationships with those connected to the program, then the program’s culture is key. Like the best teams I’ve worked with in my career, I wanted a culture that was supportive and collaborative.

When I visited Foster as a prospective student, it quickly became clear to me as I talked to career management staff, program office members, and (now) second-year students that Foster was that sort of place.

What course, club or activity have you enjoyed the most so far at Washington Foster?

While I’ve enjoyed attending the engaging classes – the professors at Foster have been some of the best lecturers I’ve seen – an activity I want to highlight here comes outside the classroom. Last fall, I had the chance to compete in the Tepper Tech Innovation Challenge, a product management-focused case competition, and together with three of my classmates, this gave me the opportunity to exercise some of those muscles in brainstorming a proposal, building a business case around it, and crafting a compelling story to pitch it.

Our efforts qualified us for the finals and ultimately got us second place in that competition involving nearly 50 other teams from many different MBA programs, but the fun experience along the way is what will stay with me—it was a great opportunity to get creative with a real-world prompt and build connections with some really smart classmates.

Washington Foster operates off a philosophy of We>Me. Give us an example of how you’ve seen that among your classmates so far.

I see this philosophy play out in the small, everyday moments—whether it’s a classmate quick to offer a supportive word after a disappointing interview result or going out of their way to help others prepare for an exam or interview. These small but frequent positive interactions strengthen that culture of support and collaboration.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:

As a product manager in HP’s Virtual Reality organization, I had the opportunity to drive the development and launch of some innovative products that used immersive technology to reinvent use cases across different industries such as architecture, entertainment, and healthcare.

I learned not just about the challenges of bringing technology to market but also about myself. The experience solidified my interest in emerging technologies and working at the intersection of different functions to make an idea a reality, and it’s with this resolve that I try to improve myself a little each day through the Foster MBA program.

Describe your biggest achievement in the MBA program so far:

It has to be when my fall quarter team won the people’s choice award in the Foster first-year case competition. This internal case competition demanded that we integrate a quarter of learning from accounting, finance, marketing, and strategy and apply it to a business prompt, and my team unanimously agreed to give it our best shot and see what would happen.

Over a week, we came together as a team and ultimately pitched a presentation that was greater than the sum of our parts. Seeing this group effort pay off with a literal vote of confidence from our classmates was incredibly gratifying, and the overall experience showed us that we had learned and grown so much in just three short months with the program.

What has been your best memory as an MBA so far?

This has definitely been the accumulated memories of spending time with and getting to know my classmates. Whether over happy hour at Finn’s, a stroll at Pike Place Market after a company visit, learning dance moves at a Diwali celebration, or tailgating for UW football games, it’s been a blessing to have the chance to meet and hear stories from people from so many different walks of life – and we’re only part of the way through this journey together.

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