Built to Pivot: Elijah Berry's Hybrid MBA Story

When Elijah Berry (MBA 2020) enrolled in the Foster School of Business Hybrid MBA program, he was focused on growing his career at Amazon. He didn’t expect the degree would also prepare him to own a beloved island bakery. Today, Berry is the new proprietor of the Vashon Island Baking Company, where he’s putting everything he learned at Foster to work, from financial planning to forecasting the perfect number of pastries.

Berry says the Foster MBA was instrumental not only in thriving at Amazon, but also in his unexpected pivot to small business ownership. “My first goal is to run a successful business that is a bakery, and not the other way around,” he says. “I’ve known people that started businesses but didn’t do the math. Through Foster, I have the skills to ensure this decision makes sense from a financial perspective.”

An MBA that supports career pivots

From behind the counter of his rustic island shop, filled with the smell of croissants and coffee, Berry explains how the MBA supported his dramatic career pivots. He transitioned from healthcare to tech, then from one of the world’s largest companies to running a small-town bakery. Through each step, he brought the same mindset: learn the fundamentals, build new skills, and apply them.

During the Hybrid MBA program, he developed analytical and forecasting skills that helped him thrive at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Those same tools now guide his approach to managing inventory and daily production at the bakery.

A willingness to embrace change

Berry’s professional journey has included multiple bold pivots. After earning a philosophy degree from St. John’s College in Maryland, job opportunities were scarce, so he took a job as a carpenter in Antarctica. Later, he pursued nursing and served at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, where he helped implement support for opioid withdrawal. After three years, he was ready for a change.

Berry had no experience in sales or tech, but a conversation over drinks with someone in Amazon’s cloud computing division sparked his interest. The field seemed promising.

“I got extremely lucky during the hiring process,” he says. “Amazon was looking for people who they thought could learn and understand this new paradigm and technology, rather than people who had a lot of background in it.”

To succeed, he had to learn everything from pipeline management to acting as a trusted advisor to AWS’s growing client base. He quickly realized he needed to deepen his business knowledge.

“I had reached a point at Amazon where my peers had illustrious careers in technology and often had MBAs,” he says. “I chose the Foster MBA because I needed to fill in the gaps in areas where I didn’t have that background.”

Putting MBA lessons into practice

Foster’s Hybrid MBA format allowed Berry to continue working full-time at Amazon while earning his degree. His background in public service nursing qualified him to use the GI Bill to help fund his education. He appreciated the structure of the Hybrid MBA program, which combines online coursework with quarterly in-person sessions that build community.

“Getting to know my classmates was huge,” he says. “It made me feel like I am someone who graduated from the Foster School, and not just did online coursework.”

While at Amazon, he immediately put his new skills to use. He credits Professor Alexis León’s economics course with helping him understand the financial health of the startups he worked with. “My MBA classes helped me understand the complexity of the balance sheets of the startups that I’d been talking to,” he says. “I learned what goes into their funding rounds and the factors driving their business.”

Baking, by the numbers

Berry later worked at Propel, a startup focused on financial tools for low-income families. But the pandemic prompted him to rethink his path. He was living on Vashon Island and became a regular at the bakery. One day, the owner mentioned she was looking to sell.

“The decision was impromptu,” he says. They came to an agreement, and Berry bought the bakery. Now, he’s applying his MBA to keep the business running smoothly.

“This is what I got from the Foster MBA,” he says, showing a chart that tracks how many of each item is sold daily. That data helps his team decide how many apple fritters to make on a Friday or how much to scale back when demand dips.

The hardest work of his life

Berry has taken on nearly every role in the business: bookkeeping, staffing, equipment repairs, and even cake decorating. He completed a 10-week baking program at the San Francisco Baking Institute to better understand the craft.

“I have a very direct relationship with capitalism and the economic concepts I studied now,” he says. “I buy ingredients. We do the labor, and then I sell to people at a price that represents the product’s value. I understand exactly what’s going on in this business in a way that you can’t when you are part of a larger company.”

He laughs as he describes the pace: “This is the hardest I’ve had to work in my entire life.” On days when he opens the shop, he arrives at 5:30 a.m. to prep for the morning rush. He manages a team of 12 part-time staff, makes tough decisions daily, and embraces uncertainty with good humor.

Looking ahead

Berry enjoys being part of the Vashon Island community. He also stays connected to Foster, mentoring current MBA students and encouraging them to explore unconventional career paths.

“I have always had a very flexible answer to the question of if I can do X, Y, or Z,” he says. “So, if the question is, ‘Can you operate a table saw?’ Well, I see no reason why I couldn’t. Therefore, my answer is, ‘Yeah, I can operate a table saw!’”

Learn more about the Hybrid MBA here. To explore the tempting offerings at the Vashon Island Baking Company, click here.