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2021 Siebel Scholars. From left to right: Bianca Pinasco, Joshua Young Yang, Austin Ward, Mariana Martins, Brian Aoyama. | Photos courtesy of Siebel Scholars

Brian Aoyama, Mariana Martins, Bianca Pinasco, Austin Ward, and Joshua Young Yang arrived at Stanford Graduate School of Business with experience in business strategy, analysis and development, private equity, technology, health care, and venture capital. Uniting them is a strong vision and desire to uplift humanity and make the world a better place.

Accomplished second-year MBA students, this year’s Siebel Scholars join a prestigious group of some of the brightest students leading collaborative discoveries for solutions to the world’s most critical issues. A Stanford GSB faculty committee chose them based on academic achievement and demonstrated leadership within the business school community during their first year.

Brian Aoyama

Brian Aoyama is dedicated to expanding access to opportunity through innovative technology. He is a graduate of Davidson College, where he was a John Belk Scholar and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He designed an interdisciplinary major that combined political science, anthropology, and Chinese, and culminated in fieldwork exploring the role of student nationalist movements in U.S.-China relations. Aoyama began his career at Bain & Company, where he consulted in the technology and education sectors. Later, he moved to Taiwan to help build a startup focused on expanding affordable broadband access in developing countries, starting with the Philippines and Indonesia. At Stanford GSB, he is an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow. Aoyama enjoys hiking, scuba diving, and consuming street food.

Mariana Martins

Mariana Martins previously worked at McKinsey & Company and The Abraaj Group, one of the leading private equity firms investing in emerging markets. In those roles, she advised clients, performed growth-focused transactions, and managed portfolio companies in the telecommunications, entertainment, consumer retail, and financial services sectors. Raised in Portugal, Martins has also lived in Spain, France, UAE, Mexico, and Angola during her academic and professional careers. At Stanford GSB, Martins is part of the Tech Club and GSB Show leadership teams. She holds a bachelor of science in economics from Nova School of Business and Economics and a master in management from IE Business School, graduating at the top of her classes. Martins is passionate about traveling, food, live music, and ballet, which she practiced for 14 years.

Bianca Pinasco

Before Stanford GSB, Bianca Pinasco worked at McKinsey & Company, where she doubled down on her passion for consumer-facing frontier technologies and social impact. She spent the summer launching autonomous delivery and micro-mobility robots with Rollo, and redefining air travel with Emirates amid a global pandemic. Originally from Peru, Pinasco has been involved in female empowerment and poverty alleviation efforts in her country, launching a social enterprise, creating an entrepreneurship mentorship program, and building houses and schools in remote locations. Pinasco has also lived and worked across Canada, UK, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, and the U.S. She graduated at the top of her class at the University of British Columbia as a Wesbrook Scholar and International Leader of Tomorrow, while earning a Bachelor of Commerce degree. A student athlete on the university’s tennis team, Pinasco has also represented her country internationally in the sport.

Austin Ward

Austin Ward is pursuing a dual degree at Stanford GSB and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He studies the intersection of health, technology, and public policy. Prior to Stanford GSB, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago with mostly health care clients, and he also served at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he supported public health programs in Nigeria and global digital health strategy. Most recently, Ward interned on the venture investing team at Playground Global, supporting investments in early-stage life sciences companies. He leads the health care deal team for Stanford GSB Impact Fund and has served on the Admit Weekend Committee and Africa Business Forum leadership team. Ward graduated as a Student Marshal from the University of Chicago, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in Law, Letters and Society and economics.

Joshua Young Yang

Joshua Young Yang works at the crossroads of medicine, life sciences, and entrepreneurship. He is a cofounder of Nephrosant, a biotechnology startup commercializing noninvasive diagnostic tests for kidney disease. He holds four patents and has authored 18 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Science Translational Medicine and Nature Reviews Genetics. Yang graduated as the valedictorian in bioengineering and summa cum laude from the University of California, San Diego, with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering: biotechnology and in general biology. Afterward, Yang entered the MD-PhD Medical Scientist Training Program at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine and biomedical engineering department. At Stanford GSB, he is the chief financial officer for the Stanford GSB Diversity Committee and is president of GSB Pride. He enjoys baking and photographing pastry creations.

About Siebel Scholars and the Siebel Foundation

Since the inception of this program by the Siebel Foundation in 2000, each year more than 90 top graduate students become Siebel Scholars and receive a small grant toward their second year of studies. Founded in 2000, the program counts more than 1,400 Siebel Scholars today. The Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation aims to foster programs and organizations that improve the quality of life, environment, and education of its community members. This includes projects to support the homeless and underprivileged, education and research, public health, and alternative energy solutions.

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