The Level Up! Interactive Entertainment Association bridges the gap between MBAs and the thriving gaming industry. Our mission includes the following:
Education about how MBAs add value in the gaming industry
Connect students with firms in the Greater Seattle region
Building community through game nights and online engagement
Our vision is to establish the UW Foster MBA program as a regional and national leader for game business talent.
ODIN SOEVIK
PRESIDENT
Odin is a product-lead who loves games and gaming tech. Prior to starting his MBA, Odin worked in the health technology field designing platforms and experiences that made it easier for patients to understand and manage their health data. Odin joined Foster with the goal of combining his experience in software product management with a long-standing passion for the gaming industry, and will be joining the Industrial Toys studio at Electronic Arts as a PM intern this summer. As President of Level Up, he is excited to help Foster MBAs continue to connect and engage with the massive gaming industry in the Seattle area and beyond.
Favorite games: Call of Duty Warzone, Titanfall 2, World of Warcraft Classic, Halo 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Beat Sabe
AARON CHANG
VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS
With a background in Communications from the University of Washington, Aaron has experience working in South Korea as a producer in the music industry, managing a private education firm, and as a restaurateur. He returned to the UW for his MBA to build upon foundations on leadership, marketing, and all around business as well as learning more about the gaming industry with the hope of one day pursuing a career in product within gaming.
Favorite Games: Final Fantasy 7, Splatoon 2, Persona5, Animal Crossings: New Horizons, Fire Emblem
CHRISTINE PHAM
VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS
Christine graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Computer Science. She worked as a software engineer at Cisco and VMware primarily focusing on frontend development. She will be joining Nike as a Digital Product Manager Intern this summer and plans to continue pursuing product management work in either the tech or retail space. In her free time you can find her baking, running, playing volleyball, video games or board games.
Favorite Games: Fire Emblem Awakening, Spiritfarer, Pokemon Diamond
FARHAN HAIDER
VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE
Farhan moved to Seattle from Chicago, IL. He previously worked at Guggenheim Partners as an Attribution Associate on the Investment Performance team for 3 years. Farhan has worked in the financial services industry since graduating with a degree in Finance from Loyola University Chicago in 2014. Farhan will be interning at Snowflake on their partner marketing team over the summer. In addition to playing video games Farhan enjoys reading, running, cooking, watching movies, and most things geeky.
Favorite games: Final Fantasy VII, God of War, Gran Turismo, World of Warcraft, Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima
Examples of Past Events Include:
Guest Speakers
Product Management in Video Games - Learn how the PM role operates in the gaming industry.
David Lau & Leslie Tullis - Minecraft/Microsoft
Leadership Lunch and Learns -
Helen Chiang - Studio Head at Minecraft/Microsoft
Louis Castle - Studio Head - Amazon Game Studios
John Comes - Cofounder & Design Director - Utopos Games
Investing in Video Game/eSports
Leo Hsu - Director of Business Strategy - aXiomatic Gaming
Local Studio Tours - Valve, Microsoft Game Studios
Field Studies - Minecraft, Halo
Game Nights
Quarterly Game Nights with Food and Drink
Online Dungeons and Dragons
