Jesse James R.

About Jesse James R.

I\'ve spent a lot of time thinking about attention, what it means to engage online, and understanding how technology impacts consumer behavior. After undergrad, I placed myself at the center of companies and organizations to understand this further.I wanted to better understand the quality of data we have, how we collect and observe data, the quality of the interpretation of the data, and the actions derived from the interpretations made. At one organization, I was obsessed with understanding the multitude of formats and devices proliferating the media landscape-and its effects.At the next company, I became obsessed with understanding how to grow the reach of our audience from 27 countries to 80.Then I became obsessed with testing hypotheses with minimal viable hardware and software products, getting live feedback from people in three major urban cities: Los Angeles, New York City, and the East Bay, where I returned for my MBA. I also decided to learn from the builders of the internet and the data centers powering the high demand of consumers. I learned directly from internet infrastructure experts responsible for laying down subsea cables on ocean floors, ensuring that the meme you sent from one part of the world actually gets sent to the other. All my career, I\'ve been curious to learn about the latest trends in consumer behavior and the cutting-edge technology influencing society, but the most recent and prevalent is AI. While having tools like Chat-GPT 5 and Google’s Gemini are truly novel, talk of machine learning is old. We’ve been talking about how smart machines are for decades. I’ve observed how machine learning models have improved over the years and how they still have work to do. I’ve observed the proliferation of computer science courses offered and even a new data science department at UC Berkeley in the last decade. At my fourth internship, the one I obtained at Disney after graduating from undergrad, a VP for the Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media in Glendale, CA said something along the lines of:\"People tend to exaggerate the impact of technology in the near-term, and underestimate its impact in the long-term.\" More than a decade later, that still rings true.

Experience

1. Program Leader

   Voicebit

   Oct 2025 — Present · Oakland, CA, US

Education

• University of California, Berkeley

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies

• South Gate High School

  High School Diploma

• University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business

  Master of Business Administration - MBA