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Lucy Okamuro MBA ’18, grew up in the English countryside, far away from the hustle and bustle of the business world.   

“I grew up about three hours outside of London,” Okamuro said. “The closest city was Bristol. There was a lot of land out there, and it was more rural, with farms and apple orchards.”  

At age 11, her family left the picturesque scenes of the country and started a new life in Orange County.  

Because her father had a career in sales management, Okamuro was familiar with the business and intrapreneurial world. Once she graduated from UCI in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in business economics, she became a business development representative with Nectar product development.  

“As a sales rep, I was only minimally involved in the innovative and creative aspect of a company. I started researching ways for someone with a business mind to get more involved in product development,” she said. “That’s when I discovered product management.” 

Okamuro made the decision to return to UCI and enroll in the Full-Time MBA (FTMBA) program at The UCI Paul Merage School of Business.  

Okamuro explained, “I wanted to stay in Orange County and build my professional network here. I attended UCI for undergrad as well, so it was a natural choice when I decided to get an MBA.”  

She enjoyed the real-world experiences received from her classes at the Merage School.  

“There were a few different classes where you actually got paired up with real companies. I remember a consulting projects class where my team worked with Honda. We actually got to go to the Honda office several times during the quarter and worked directly with Honda employees,” she said.  

One month after she started to pursue her MBA, Okamuro saw a listing for a product management internship with consumer credit reporting company Experian. She quickly took the opportunity to apply.  

“I’m very fortunate that the hiring manager took a chance on me. I’ve been with Experian ever since. I converted from an intern to a full-time product manager a few months before graduation and got promoted to a senior position 18 months later,” she said.  

The team-building skills learned in the Merage School assist her daily in her role as senior product manager at Experian.  

“Merage was my first opportunity to work with others as a team for a long-term period of time,” she explained. “I didn't play sports or do girl scouts growing up, so the Merage School was my first exposure to true teamwork.”  

Okamuro views her role at Experian as a way to help people establish credit and use her skills as a digitally driven leader to increase the value of the services Experian provides.  

“Being digitally driven allows us to be customer driven. My role gives me access to a toolbox of digital tools for understanding and listening to customers. This includes tools to gather direct, real-time feedback, analyze user behavior data, and to test low-cost prototypes with real customers before making the decision to invest money into a new project.”  

Her journey at Experian mirrors the company’s dedication to consumer empowerment:  

“I’m proud of Lucy’s journey as a digitally driven leader from the Merage School,” said Debbie Hsu, Vice President of Product Management for Experian Consumer Services.  “Lucy and others from the Experian team are working diligently to put consumers in control of their data so they can meet their personal finance goals through consumer empowerment.” 

To her fellow Anteaters, Okamuro stated: 

“I went into the MBA program with a clear vision of where I wanted to be upon graduation—product management. The program at Merage will expose you to new opportunities and career paths. If you know what you want, it will help you cut through the noise.”  

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