A World of Career Possibilities: Chae Initiative Visits New York
For student fellows in the Chae Initiative, part of The Tsai Leadership Program at Yale Law School, the third annual trip to New York City offered views into a world of career possibilities for private sector leadership.
Over four busy days, students met with C-suite executives and leaders in a range of industries, connected with alumni mentors, and participated in a workshop.
“This year, we intentionally crafted an itinerary that encompassed a variety of companies, both in scale and industry, so that the students could hear about the most pressing issues confronting business and commerce today and also reflect on the types of organizational cultures that would best support their aspirations,” said Mary Herrington, executive director of the Chae Initiative.
As in past years, the trip began with a visit to Blackstone, where students met with Chief Financial Officer Michael Chae ’97; senior company representatives David Kaden ’10, Michael Shapiro ’16, and Mike Hogan ’16; and Blackstone Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder Stephen Schwarzman, all of whom encouraged students to leverage their law school education and critical thinking skills to make inroads into business careers.
Schwarzman spoke about his leadership at Blackstone, his history with Yale University, both as a student and as a philanthropist, and the importance of ethical leadership and investment in the future — in infrastructure, technological advancement, and the humanities.
At Blackstone, students were also able to meet with the global heads of Tax and Legal and Compliance, and members of the firm’s Management Committee.
Azad Azani ’25 said the visit to Blackstone helped to highlight the possibilities and resources that exist outside traditional career pathways for law students.
“It was great being around like-minded people who are also looking beyond traditional legal careers,” he said.
After a full morning and lunch at Blackstone, students visited NBCUniversal at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where they were hosted by Kim Harris ’96, executive vice president of Comcast Corporation and general counsel for NBCUniversal. Herrington led a Q&A with Harris, who shared how as a leader, each day’s challenges are different — that day, her employees were covering the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles. Harris also spoke about the importance of being nimble and transparent as a leader, and how teamwork and collegiality are not only vital to her work, but also to her own job satisfaction.
Afterward, students met with NBC’s chief operating officer Adam Miller, the executive vice president of corporate strategy and chief financial officer of NBCUniversal Anand Kini, as well as attorney and Emmy-winning journalist Ari Melber, a correspondent for MSNBC and host of “The Beat with Ari Melber.”
Matt Beck ’25 said that the visit to NBC was a standout of the trip.
“Not only did we learn about how to successfully unite interests in the law and business, but we also got a firsthand glimpse at NBC’s news teams in action during a studio tour afterward,” Beck said.
In the evening, the students attended a Brooklyn Nets game at the Barclays Center. The Nets are owned by Joseph C. Tsai ’90 and Clara Wu Tsai, co-founders of The Tsai Leadership Program, and students were able to meet with Barclays Center’s Chief Human Resources Officer Maribeth Gainard and Chief Financial Officer Peter Stern.
The next day began with a workshop titled “Career Vision and the Entrepreneurial Mindset” with career and wellness coach Tara Rhoades ’14. Students were encouraged to visualize their careers as a vast horizon with many hills, valleys, plateaus, and bends, and to approach each opportunity and setback as a long-term thinker.
Following the workshop, students visited Palantir Technologies, where they were hosted by Nicholas Zamiska ’11, head of corporate affairs and legal counsel to the Office of the CEO at Palantir. Palantir introduced the students to their unique organizational culture, and provided a demonstration of their artificial intelligence platform, a rare peek into the speed of AI technology that many students found riveting.
“As someone who has a deep personal interest in leveraging disruptive innovations to improve health care access it was interesting to see how Palantir [has] adapted some of their existing tools to improve military logistics management and readiness assessment in order to help hospitals to reduce patient wait times and improve operating room efficiency,” said Victor Agbafe ’26, a joint JD-MBA student and Chae Fellow.
We were surrounded by people who took big risks and believed in themselves ... It made me feel like I could do the same.”
—Azad Azani ’25
Later in the afternoon, students met with Nate Loewentheil ’13, founder and managing partner for startup venture capital investment firm Commonweal Ventures, as well as the company’s principal, Harrison Marks ’15.
The meetings offered interesting contrasts in the size and scale of private practice, and the unique challenges facing private sector leaders, Herrington said. While the tour at Palantir offered students a glimpse into the workings of a large technology company, Loewentheil and Marks talked about how they moved from private practice to venture capital and shared their approach to leading their new firm.
In the evening, the Chae Initiative hosted a reception and dinner at The Yale Club, with a keynote speech by Bill Kennard ’81, co-founder of Astra Capital Management and former managing director at the Carlyle Group.
Kennard spoke about the leadership trials he experienced during his career journey, from law student with “imposter syndrome” to communications lawyer to law firm partner, to being asked by President Bill Clinton ’73 to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
“As lawyers, we are trained to identify all the issues involved in a given problem, all the risks and how to mitigate them. That can sometimes make us risk-averse and indecisive as leaders,” Kennard told students. “In our early years as lawyers, substance should be important because we are learning a craft. Mastering and marshaling all the facts and arguments is what distinguishes us. As leaders, it is our courage and our character that distinguish us: the courage to make tough decisions and the character traits to bring others along,” he said.
The Yale Club reception and dinner, which expands each year to include more Chae Initiative alumni now practicing law or working in business in New York, provides a chance for alumni to meet and mentor the new cohort of fellows.
“It’s like a mini reunion,” said Herrington. “Recent alumni who had taken part in the NYC immersive in the past two years joined us now as guests, thrilled to reconnect with current students with whom they had overlapped at Yale Law School. And of course we had other alumni working in fields that these students wish to pursue, many in non-law careers. It made for the most concentrated pool of like-minded professionals and a very special networking opportunity for the students. The strong community of Yale Law School was palpable.”
For many Chae Fellows, the trip was helpful and inspiring.
Emma Li ’26 said she enjoyed hearing from private sector leaders who lead with generosity.
“A lot of our speakers touched on the idea of how ‘greatness is in the agency of others,’ to quote Scott Galloway. Someone took a chance on them and they’re paying it forward. That dynamic was really evident throughout the trip,” said Li. “That’s one of the reasons I chose Yale Law School — even when I was an admitted student, I was already impressed with how generous our alumni are with their time, and their willingness to stretch a 30-minute conversation into an hour.”
Azani said that through opportunities like the trip to New York, the Chae Initiative brings students in contact with leaders who provide valuable inspirational support and mentorship.
“We were surrounded by people who took big risks and believed in themselves," said Azani. "It made me feel like I could do the same — that I needed to start running, or run faster, and I could feel the wind at my back.”
