130. Steven Chao, Lucking into Building a Great Healthcare Consulting Firm
Release Date: 05/05/2025
Episode 153. Rana Dershowitz, A Career Driven by Passion from Sports Law and Public Policy
The 92 Report
Rana Dershowitz went straight to Harvard Law School after graduating in 1992, partly due to the economy and her love for learning. She describes her experience at Harvard Law School, including her role as a law school "old timer" in Cambridge. After law school, Rana moved back to New York and started working on Wall Street, initially hating the big law environment but appreciating the people she worked with. Entertainment Law at Madison Square Garden and onto Sports Law Rana discusses her career counselor's advice to explore sports law, which she had overlooked despite her involvement in...
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152. Eugene Kim, Pediatric Surgeon and Wine Connoisseur
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Eugene Kim shares his post-graduation journey staying in Boston to finish research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute which was part of his thesis and also laid down the groundwork for his own cancer research which he has conducted over the years. He credits his understanding of science to his time at Harvard. He also worked at the now-closed Love the Border Cafe. Eugene reflects on the valuable lessons learned from working at the cafe and describes the unique subculture of the cafe's staff, including the Brazilian kitchen staff and the diverse backgrounds of the waiters and...
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151. Jonathan Hughes, Consulting at the Intersection of Strategy & Conflict Management
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Jonathan Hughes talks about his career in consulting, starting with an economic consulting firm, Putnam Hayes and Bartlett, in Los Angeles. He mentions his connection back to Harvard through CMI (Conflict Management Inc.) founded by Roger Fisher and Bruce Patton, and his subsequent roles at Vantage Partners and BDO. The Career Path As a Consultant Jonathan describes his role at CMI, focusing on complex negotiations and business partnerships, and his role in helping to start the boutique firm, Vantage Partners where he spent around 25 years as a partner. He later moved over to BDO,...
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150. Steve Petersen, From Improv to Philosophy of AI
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Steve recounts his senior year at Harvard, and how he was torn between pursuing acting and philosophy. He graduated with a dual degree in philosophy and math but also found time to act in theater and participated in 20 shows. A Love of Theater and a Move to London Steve explains why the lack of a theater major at Harvard allowed him to explore acting more than a university with a theater major. He touches on his parents' concerns about his career prospects if he pursued acting, and his decision to apply to both acting and philosophy graduate schools. Steve discusses his...
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149. P.J. Karafiol, Chicago Public High School Principal
The 92 Report
Show Notes: P.J. shares the backstory of his name and how he became a high school principal. He studied simultaneously in law school for a JD and in the Philosophy department for a PhD at the University of Chicago. After realizing he didn't enjoy law or philosophy, he taught math at Phillips Andover and later in Chicago. He helped start a new public school, Walter Payton College Prep, and has been a principal at Lake View High School for the past 10 years. Teaching Chaos Theory and Math P.J. describes his experience teaching at Phillips Andover, including teaching chaos theory. He found the...
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148. Scott Cole, 50+ Jobs Worked Since Harvard
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Scott Cole describes his initial struggles at Harvard, dropping out after freshman year, and returning multiple times before finally graduating in 2012. He shares his first dropout experience, including a brief stint in California and a return to Harvard for sophomore year. He details his various jobs and adventures, including working at a car wash, landscaping, and a research assistant position at Harvard Forest. Working on a Ranch in Wyoming Scott thinks back to his days working at a ranch in Wyoming, where he learned cowboy skills and participated in cattle drives. He...
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147. Anca Miruna Achim, Teaching about the Past to Speculate about the Future in Mexico City
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Miruna studied art history at Harvard, focusing on Renaissance art. After taking a year off to travel and visit Romania, she decided to study Latin American Studies and Spanish and Portuguese at Yale. She found the graduate experience at Yale challenging, especially the sense of isolation that can come with graduate work when it is not socially or politically involved. Miruna began traveling to Mexico for her research on colonial Latin America, focusing on the intersection of history of science, literature, and ritual. Teaching History of Science Miruna moved to Mexico City, where...
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146. Franklin Habit, A Long and Winding Yarn
The 92 Report
Show Notes:Franklin Habit talks about working in higher education administration (and elsehwere) before eventually finding happiness in his current profession within the fiber arts. He discusses some of the blind alleys he explored, including museum work, opera stage directing, web design, and online marketing. Building a Career in KnittingFranklin shares how he learned to knit from a veteran knitter and classmate, Eliza Lake. He describes how his blog about knitting took off, leading to a book deal and a career in teaching and writing. Franklin recounts the early days of his blog,...
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145. Diego Fonstad, Educational Toys and Ed Tech Tinkerer
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Diego kicks off the conversation with a quick review of his career path, which included working at a business school in Barcelona, consulting in biotech and healthcare, and working as product manager and product running product groups. He then went back to business school. He talks about his job at the business school in Barcelona and what prompted him to take it. He explains that the opportunity arose through a professor he knew, and the timing of the 1992 Olympics made it hard to resist. He shares his insights on Catalonia's cultural differences and the importance of knowing...
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144. Kellie Doucette, Unexpected Journey: Pink Sand Beaches to New Jersey Politics
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Kellie Doucette describes her journey as zigs and zags, with three distinct chunks defined by her location: Northern Virginia, Bermuda, and New Jersey. She worked for a small health policy consulting firm called the Lewin Group in Northern Virginia, DC, where she met her future husband, John Doucette. A 13-Year Stint in Bermuda Kellie, an actuary, began her career in the Bermuda market after taking the actuarial exams. She and her husband moved to Bermuda in 1996, and they enjoyed the adventure of visiting family on the East Coast and raising their children there. The reinsurance...
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Steven Chao, a US-born second-generation college student, shares his experiences growing up in South Carolina and feeling overwhelmed upon arriving at Harvard in 1988. He found solace in joining the Collegium Musicum, a classical musical singing group at Harvard, which helped him find his footing and connect with people from his class.
From Biochem to Game Design to Consulting
Steven majored in biochemistry, which expanded his social circle and helped him find happiness. Steven's parents were both PhDs and pushed him into the MD PhD program. However, he faced challenges in medical school and research, leading to questions about his path and the decision to pursue a career in computer gaming. Steven talks about his experience working in the sound and asset acquisition field at Activision in LA. He initially had a great time there but ultimately decided that it wasn't the long-term solution for him. He returned to his PhD program and he pinned his hopes on becoming a doctor. During the last half of the MD program, Steven realized that he didn't want to be a researcher or go into medicine. He found an opportunity to explore other careers beyond medicine or research through a sub-intern at McKinsey.
The McKinsey Years
Steven joined McKinsey full-time in 2001 and worked in the Boston office. The bulk of his work was in the payer and provider space, mainly health insurance and hospital systems. He spent about four and a half years at McKinsey, starting from scratch with no business background, which proved difficult. Steven's PhD focused on biology, not analytical skills, but rather gene genetic rearrangement and plasmids, and he felt lost at the beginning of McKinsey. At the same time, he also participated in the mini MBA program in Austria. Despite meeting great friends at McKinsey, his work was hit or miss. Steven talks about a few of the McKinsey projects he worked on and how a pharma project with Jeff Elton piqued his interest in returning to biopharma. He later worked with Kim Packard, who was his first and best mentor at McKinsey. Steven was late to promotion and advancement, and in 2004, when his wife became pregnant, he gave up his job and started considering what he would do next.
Boutique Consulting, Life Sciences, and Biotech Companies
In 2004, Steven joined a small consulting group at an investment bank called Leering Swan, which focused on life sciences and biotech companies. This was a better fit for Steven, who had always wanted to leverage his love for science. He joined the firm and was assigned to a project in Parkinson's disease. The experience was mind-blowing, as he interviewed world experts in this space. He was hooked within a week and found the career to be a good fit for him. The combination of his love for science and medicine, without needing to do research or have a career in clinical practice, was perfect, as he loved learning about different aspects of medicine, and the variety and diversity of the day-to-day work.
Founding ClearView
Steven left Leering Swan with two other people in 2008 to co-found ClearView. ClearView was born of the same concept as Leering Swan, but focused on life sciences, biotech, pharma, private equity clients, diagnostics companies, and strategic consulting. Steven's primary hat was recruiting, and he continued to love every second of doing so. ClearView Healthcare Partners is now a well-known, private consulting firm with several 100 employees. The company has a growing presence in London, India, San Francisco, New York, and Boston.
Family Life and a Love of Musicals
On the personal side, Steven has a family of four children, three girls and a boy. They also have two in college and two still in high school. The oldest is a sophomore at Harvard. Music has always been a significant part of their family. They have a love for Broadway musical theater, and they have spent a lot of time attending performances. Their youngest son is doing a local production of Hadestown in Wellesley, and their oldest is performing at the Agassi theater in a production of 9-5, the film with Dolly Parton, which has themes of female empowerment.
Timestamps:
04:50: Transition to Medical School and Early Career Challenges
13:14: Joining McKinsey and Early Consulting Experience
23:20: Discovering a Passion for Biopharma Consulting
30:04: Founding ClearView Healthcare Partners
37:27: Personal Life and Family
Featured Non-profit:
Hi. This is Steve Chao, class of 1992. The featured nonprofit of this episode of The 92 report is the Merriemack Repertory Theater. My wife and I love live theater. The MRT is a fantastic organization that puts on plays and musicals every year, serving a wide catchment area in and around Lowell, Massachusetts. I was actually introduced to the MRT via a fellow class of 92 Carrie Suzawa, married named Michael. And you can learn more about the work of the MRT through the website, mrt.org. And for now, here is Will Bachman with this week's episode.
To learn more about their work, visit: https:mrt.org.