Kendall Bills

University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

“Determined bridge-builder passionate about social impact, efficiency, and community—not necessarily in that order.”

Hometown: Charlottesville, VA

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’m an annual competitor in my family’s version of “Chopped,” and have prepared dishes featuring ingredients like cricket powder, grapefruit gelatin, and sorghum.

Undergraduate School and Major: Carleton College, Women’s and Gender Studies  

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Founder, Bright Vantage Strategies 

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Helping a client define, develop, and implement a leading-class corporate citizenship program.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Engagement. I’ve been so impressed by the deep thoughtfulness, curiosity, and genuine interest that my classmates have expressed towards each other and the world around them.

Berkeley Haas is founded on four Defining Leadership Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. Which pillar resonates most with you and why? Question the status quo. As someone from a non-traditional background, I’m experiencing “beginner’s mind,” at the outset of business school, for better and for worse. Questioning what’s accepted can make for slower going, but often leads to better results.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? When I first began the process of deciding to apply to business school, I believed that at any school I attended, I would need to mitigate key parts of myself: my identity as a queer woman; my work as an activist; my unusual career trajectory; and even (gasp!) my introversion. In each interaction I had with Haas, I felt seen, accepted, and celebrated. I chose Haas because it felt like the place where I could be my most authentic self and connect with people who had vastly different backgrounds and perspectives in an environment of curiosity and engagement.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m incredibly excited to begin my fellowship with the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership on campus. The mission says it all and mirrors some of the key reasons I chose to attend Haas: “We educate equity fluent leaders to ignite and accelerate change. Equity fluent leaders understand the value of different lived experiences and courageously use their power to address barriers, increase access, and drive change for positive impact.” It feels pretty close to a personal mission statement!

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? While no single question jumps out at me, I occasionally felt (and feel!) daunted by the prospect that all or most of my peers have their whole career trajectory mapped out (spoiler alert: this is a myth). Questions like “What will you be doing x years from now” were always the hardest for me to answer, since I’m committed to making business school a time for exploration, growth, and embracing the unexpected.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I felt I had maxed out my ability to further my career on self-taught skills alone. I wanted to accelerate my understanding of all business functions quickly and deeply, and Haas will allow me to do that in the classroom and beyond.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Darden, Stanford, Yale SOM

How did you determine your fit at various schools? While I am loath to say it as an introvert, I did my best to talk to everyone. I spent a ton of time speaking to current and former students about their experience. In those conversations, I tried to listen between the lines, ask questions that allowed the conversation to go deeper, and develop a richer understanding of what was most meaningful to them about their time at a given school. Not only was it a great way to meet some truly incredible people, it allowed me to develop a constellation of anecdotal data that I could draw from to get the feel for each place, and allowed me to really imagine calling that place home for two years.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? Participating in community activism in my hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia forced me to evaluate what kind of world I want to leave for future generations and what work I’m willing to do (and what risks I’m willing to take on) to ensure that our collective legacy is better than what we’ve inherited.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? In ten years, I hope to be in a leadership position with a company that demonstrates its commitment daily to employees, customers, and communities in word and deed, while solving some of the big problems of our time.