Human resource professionals play an important role in driving company growth and success. In fact, human resources offers a variety of unique career paths that can make both an impact on organizations and the people that work there like recruitment and retention, compensation and benefits, and learning and development. Learn from women leaders who have found their fit in this business function. These MBA alumni will share their experiences and discuss the knowledge, skills, and abilities that can help launch someone into this career path. We hope their stories will motivate you, inspire you, and help guide your own career choices.

Maggie Jackson Staff Compensation Partner SoFi	Ambika Kumar Wellness Benefits Manager Microsoft	Liz Hakes HR Manager, North America Foodservice General Mills

This event is a part of Forté’s Conquer Your Career virtual series, which offers an inside look at what it’s like to be a woman with an MBA working in various fields. This discussion is geared toward MBA and early career women and allies.

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Meet the Panelists

Maggie Jackson

Maggie Jackson leads compensation programs at SoFi Technologies. Her career in HR started in 2017 at HP Inc. when she joined their HR leadership development program. At HP, her roles included Business Compensation Manager, EMEA Employee Relations and DEI Project Manager, HR Business Partner, and Chief of Staff to the Chief HR Officer. In 2021, she joined SoFi Technologies where she has supported the majority of business units and functions as a Compensation Partner in addition to her current role. She has an MBA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and a MS in International Studies from Oklahoma State University.

Ambika Kumar MBA, SHRM-CP

Ambika has been at Microsoft for over 2.5 years and is currently a Wellness Benefits Manager. She first interned at Microsoft summer of 2020 in the Global Executive Talent Acquisition Team, working as an executive recruiter. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with her MBA, she moved to Washington and returned to Microsoft as a full-time employee within the HR Rotation Program (HR2P). Within this program, she has been able to experience a variety of roles and continues to develop her HR skills with each rotation. She spent her first year as an HRBP for the Cloud Marketing team learning the ins and outs of being a partner for a large, complex business group. For her second rotation, she returned to the Global Executive Talent Acquisition Team first as a Program Manager and then shifted her scope to also including executive recruiting responsibilities. For her third and final rotation, she is now in the benefits field specifically working on physical wellness programs and managing vendor partnerships!

Ambika attended Miami University in Oxford, OH for her undergraduate education. Here she was heavily involved with the co-ed service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega. She believes her time in Alpha Phi Omega was integral to the development of her leadership skills early on. She then attended The University of Wisconsin – Madison where she completed her MBA and specialized in the Strategic Human Resource concentration.

Outside of work you can find Ambika volunteering in her community, trying out different restaurants, kayaking or hiking nearby, reading at home, having craft nights with her friends, and most importantly catching up on the latest Taylor Swift news!

Liz Hakes

Liz serves as an HR Business Partner at General Mills, an international company making food the world loves like Cheerios, Annie’s, and Nature Valley to name a few of her favorites. As an HR Manager supporting General Mills’ foodservice business, she helps leaders and teams to accelerate their potential and grow the business.

Liz joined General Mills in 2019 as an MBA Intern and has served in roles of increasing responsibility over the last 5 years, including a role leading the company’s Onboarding experience for thousands of new hires. Prior to General Mills, Liz spent 5 years dedicated to the growth of Chicago Scholars, a nonprofit that trains talented, under-resourced students to become the next generation of diverse leaders.

Liz holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and French from the University of Chicago and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

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