When you hear, “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person,” you very often are speaking of someone like FEMBA alum Steve Yu. Below, I’ll paste the official UCLA information on Steve and his award. But first, I want to add my own appreciation of Steve.

Steve was one of my original “FEMBAssadors” way back before we even came up with the term. Steve is a big proponent of FEMBA on-boarding leading to success in the program. We worked together a lot in the 2008-2010 time frame and he helped us bring in the classes of 2011 to 2013. I learned a lot from Steve about listening to what people are specifically dealing with the months before FEMBA, and how to always be positive.

We also became “quarterly coffee buddies” and tried to meet a couple of times a year since he’s in the law school and I’m here at Anderson. I’ve been impressed watching Steve grow his career, including to his latest promotion to Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Dean of Operations at UCLA Law. (As an aside, the CFO positions at both UCLA Law and UCLA Anderson are currently filled by FEMBAs!  You can hear about Kate Motonaga, FEMBA 1997 and CFO, here.)

Here is the official text, and a link to read more awards. Congratulations Steve!

Steve Yu is the recipient of the 2017 Volunteer of the Year Award. He serves as president of the largest UCLA regional alumni network, the UCLA Los Angeles Westside Network. As a visionary leader, he has reinvigorated the network with new programming, collaborations and leadership. Yu is an active mentor and presenter in the Bruin Leaders Project, Bruin Toastmasters for UCLA-affiliated members and True Blue Toastmasters for External Affairs employees. He has also shared his public-speaking expertise with Law School colleagues as well as UCLA physicians. Formerly the controller at the UCLA School of Law, he began his new role on April 1 as the chief financial officer and assistant dean of operations for the school. Yu graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in economics and M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

https://alumni.ucla.edu/awards/

Here is Steve helping us on April 11, 2017, for a UCLA staff + FEMBA recruiting lunch.