CRB Story of Impact: Amelia Forrest Kaye
I first met Amelia when she guest lectured in my Leading People class during my first semester at Haas. She spoke about human connection and trust, emphasizing that relationships built across academics, careers, and social life compound in ways that are difficult to predict but powerful when nurtured with intention. At the time, it felt like a thoughtful framework for leadership. I did not realize how directly it would apply to our own interactions.
A few weeks later, I ran into her at a CRB alumni event. We sat down and spoke about the CRB, Haas, and our respective paths. She asked thoughtful, precise questions about my projects and interests and listened closely. The principles she described in class were not theoretical; they were visible in how she engaged in real time.
When I later sat down with her for this conversation, the same pattern emerged. The conversation was efficient and focused. She answered questions directly rather than delivering what she preferred to say. Listening and trust-building were not used for effect; they were practices embedded in her approach to work and to organizing teams and institutions.
Carving A Path With Intention
Amelia’s understanding of responsible business is rooted in lived experience, beginning with her time working at a local challah bakery. Stationed at the register, she did far more than process transactions. She built relationships. Through shared conversations about bread, family traditions, and weekly rituals, she watched her connections with members of the local community deepen over time. Just as importantly, she saw how the bakery itself functioned as connective tissue. Customers greeted one another, exchanged stories, and bonded over a shared appreciation for something simple but meaningful. The bakery was not merely a place where she made money and patrons bought bread. It was a gathering point and a bridge between neighbors. Those early experiences shaped her conviction that businesses are social institutions, and stakeholder commitment and trust are daily practices.
Her path to Berkeley Haas reflects that same orientation toward people and systems. As a Political Science and Latin American Studies major at the University of North Carolina, she became interested in how institutions shape economic opportunity. She studied the socio-economic consequences of entrenched laws that had an outsized impact on low-income women in Chile, was inspired by water-rights activists in East Africa, and was intrigued by a social entrepreneur in Bangladesh who designed micro-credit as a viable business model. These experiences sharpened her conviction that systems are never neutral: poorly designed systems entrench harm, while intentionally designed ones can expand opportunity and advance human flourishing.
Finding Opportunities & Forging Relationships
Although admitted to several top business schools on full-ride scholarships, Amelia chose Berkeley Haas specifically for its leadership in social responsibility. At the time, the Center for Responsible Business was a faculty research center with limited student involvement. In response to her interest, the CRB launched a fellowship program, creating mentorship and research opportunities for students.
During Amelia’s two years at Haas as the first CRB Fellow, one of her most formative experiences was visiting the offices of Levi Strauss & Co. and touring their sustainability and product life cycle office. She encountered a company that scrutinized every stage of its supply chain, from raw material sourcing to dye disposal, waste management, and product recycling. What distinguished the experience was the level of intentionality. The team examined internal processes and the externalities rather than treating them as afterthoughts. Levi’s demonstrated to her that even large corporations can serve society rather than merely extract from it.
That lens extends beyond environmental sustainability or diversity initiatives. It suggests that the most enduring enterprises are built to care for the people who work within them, the customers they serve, the communities in which they operate, and the externalities created by their operations. This includes safeguarding privacy through heightened cybersecurity when handling sensitive data, exercising power responsibly, treating employees with dignity, and recognizing how corporate decisions reverberate socially and economically. Responsible business is not a separate function or department. It is the posture a company takes toward everyone it touches, embedded in everyday decisions rather than reserved for public statements.
The Essential Business Practices of Responsibility and Care
Today, Amelia has translated that philosophy into her work as a fractional chief customer officer and executive advisor. She partners with companies ranging from early-stage startups to public enterprises, helping them design AI-enabled go-to-market and post-sales systems that scale responsibly. Her work extends beyond retention metrics. She emphasizes disciplined listening to customers, aligning products with promise, and building automation that strengthens accountability. Her focus is to build organizations that customers and communities can trust.
In practice, this means designing feedback loops that genuinely incorporate customer concerns, shaping hiring practices that prioritize ethical treatment of employees, and building systems that reinforce trust over time. Customer success, in her view, is where responsible business becomes operational, where a company demonstrates whether it values its stakeholders or merely markets to them.
Across her career, the through line is consistent. From a bakery counter to the first CRB Fellow to advising executives, she has returned to the same principle: durable growth is built on human-centered design, accountability, and care.
About the Author:
Kiyan Mohebbizadeh(opens in a new tab) is a CRB fellow and a JD/MBA candidate at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and Haas School of Business. He holds a M.S. in Data Science from Columbia University and a B.A. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance from the University of California, Irvine. His work and academic interests focus on the intersection of emerging technologies, financial systems, and legal frameworks.
