Success Secrets Podcast

Aalaap Hegde, a sophomore at Stanford, is the co-founder of AdmitMate, an EdTech platform. AdmitMate pairs high school students with Ivy League undergrads with similar majors, goals, and interests, creating a tailored mentorship experience. Aalaap is passionate about the food industry, having launched nonprofits, conducted nutrition research, and interned at a Michelin-starred restaurant. He also runs a cooking YouTube channel.

In this episode, we interview the inspiring Lan Kieu, who is currently a senior manager at Yahoo. However, as we dive into her background, we learn that Lan had escaped the Vietnam war and was pulled apart from her family to escape to lead a better future. She attended Washington University where she worked hard to earn a degree to jumpstart her career in a new environment. We explore into her journey and her perspective of the war while also uncovering the hard work it took to reach the successful position she is in now.

Professor Gerhard Kling holds a Chair in Finance at the University of Aberdeen. Previously, he was a Professor at SOAS University of London and the University of Southampton. He earned a PhD in Economics from the University of Tuebingen and is skilled in Python, C/C++, and other recreational programming platforms.

Sathiya Subramanian is a seasoned executive with a background in business applications and a degree in business. Currently serving as a Senior Director at Snowflake, a leading provider of cloud-based data warehousing solutions with over 5,000 employees, Sathiya has led systems readiness for Initial Public Offering (IPO) for four companies. Throughout his career, he has held senior director roles at various companies including DataStax, HackerOne, and Fusion-io. Beyond his professional achievements, Sathiya's personal quest is to answer fundamental questions about our existence: where did we come from, why are we here, and where will we go?

Shannon J. is a leading cybersecurity professional and Cloud Security Engineer at Amazon Web Services, specializing in security architecture and advanced technologies such as cloud, AI, and AR. With an MS in Cybersecurity Management from the University of West Florida, she has a cloud security, automation, and engineering background. Shannon actively shares her insights and opportunities within her network on LinkedIn, as a top voice in the field.

Andria Thomas is a product leader, strategy executive, and voting rights advocate. In her day job she works as the Chief Product Officer for FinLocker, a B2B2C Fintech helping to enable and empower financially fit homeowners. 

Outside of work, Andria enjoys exploring new bike trails and picnic areas with her family and mobilizing her community in support of equal voting rights.

Mr. Ramana Polavarapu is a Machine Learning scientist at PayPal, and he secured a PhD in Economics from The University of California, Davis. Even though he has been visually impaired since birth, he overcame many an obstacle and professionally succeeded by obtaining positions as a vice president and a tech fellow at Goldman Sachs, research scientist at Amazon, an ML engineer at Facebook.

He never let the disability curb his enthusiasm and his zeal in life. He believes that all of us encounter either explicit constraints or hidden ones but we should not be discouraged in the face of adversity. Perhaps, the path that we envision for ourselves may have to be altered but our spirit should remain undaunted.