You might call Damon Wiley, MBA 25, a “generational” thinker. While working in a sales role at LinkedIn, he created an initiative that offered first-generation college students in-person career development coaching in LinkedIn offices. He parlayed that experience into two entrepreneurial endeavors: the nonprofit Black Male Caucus and the for-profit Damon Wiley Consultancy, both dedicated to helping first-gen students and young men of color understand and capitalize on their educational and career opportunities.
He focuses on social impact because, he explains, “I got my life saved and have been given everything. It’s my life mission to do the same for others.” For Damon, “everything” was not material wealth or advantages. His beginnings were humble. He is the son of a Thai mother and a Black father, who was adopted by his mother’s parents and brother and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the environment Damon grew up in, jobs were “passed down in families. If your father worked in construction, you worked in construction,” he said. “Thanks to unlimited love and guidance, I broke out of that mold.” People saw Damon’s potential and he earned his undergrad degree at UC Berkeley, where he also was a three-time All-American rugby player.
That gave Damon first-hand knowledge of the “re-skilling” that introduces a young person to previously unheard-of career paths. That kind of re-skilling is, in part, what led Damon to the Berkeley Haas full-time MBA program. Its core curriculum has provided the old-school business skills he sought. He notes that Associate Professor Omri Even-Tov “would not let me give up in Financial Accounting, and I ended up with so many insights into how companies evaluate other companies.” In his Marketing class, Damon learned about how to look through the lenses of statistics and ethics to see behind the trends.
I found a group of passionate, supportive people who welcomed me. They also opened up my eyes to worlds beyond my own."
Despite his undergrad years at Cal, being an MBA student at Haas still held some surprises for Damon. “I had the stereotypical image of an MBA student: people whose relationships were transactional, who were money-hungry profiteers. That is not what Berkeley Haas is about. I found a group of passionate, supportive people who welcomed me. They also opened up my eyes to worlds beyond my own.” Those worlds are more than academic. For example, Damon said, “A lot of my classmates are married, with families and they already own their own homes. That is not where I am in life, but we can talk about what home ownership and that kind of investment means in their lives. That expands my vision and my imagination.” As one of the younger members of his class (he is 24) Damon also appreciates that he is treated as an equal. “It’s great to hear someone say they wish they had gone for their MBA sooner in their careers. The conventional wisdom of waiting to have five or six years of work experience before applying shouldn’t discourage anyone.”
Damon reciprocates by being his authentic self everywhere he goes, in particular in his efforts to encourage other first-generation students from under-represented groups. Along with Viridiana Santacruz and Yvonne Mondragon, Damon formed the First-Generation of Haas Club (1Gen) and he serves as co-president of the Black Business Student Association and board member of EGAL, the Center for Gender Equity and Leadership. These roles, and his work with the Admission Office, are geared toward ensuring that each incoming Berkeley Haas class builds on the school’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. “Our efforts are paying off. The number of Black and Hispanic students enrolled for the class of 2026 is several times higher than in my class, which is itself 13% underrepresented minorities in total.”
Another example of Damon’s generational thinking: He is a proud and passionate member of “GenAI.” Alert to the boom cycles in tech, Damon notes that, “people who are 40 or 50 years old now were part of the dot-com boom. Those of us in our 20s and 30s are part of the GenAI boom. We have an open canvas that is waiting for our ingenuity and creativity, which means we have a bright future ahead.” Damon explored that sector in his internship as a senior product manager with ServiceNow, where is he worked in the Gen AI organization. While the need for the personal connections will never go away, Damon is excited at the prospects for AI to “fill in gaps in coaching and mentorship, helping people take their first steps in presenting themselves as best they can in their résumés and job interviews. Imagine being able to find out the top-five questions asked in job interviews for a specific role and being able to rehearse your answers with feedback using AI.”
That kind of Questioning the Status Quo attitude defines Damon’s journey, a journey he is happy to share with passionate, supportive, accomplished classmates, professors, and alumni. “More than 40% of Haas grads remain in the greater Bay Area. That makes the Haas Alumni Network the home team.”
And Damon is already encouraging the next generation of Berkeley Haas team members.
