Araz Khodabakhshian is an electrical engineer by training, but has spent her entire professional years at the intersection of technology, business, and analytics, both educationally and professionally. Eight years ago, she moved to Los Angeles from Tehran-Iran to obtain a Ph.D. in Decisions, Operations, and Technology Management from UCLA Anderson School of Management. Her Ph.D. research was focused on designing optimal product bundling strategies for digital content aggregators, e.g., streaming platforms.

Later she joined Bain and Company as a Management Consultant, gaining a great perspective working across various industries and consulting world-class organizations on their critical strategic and operational challenges. At her current job, she is the Growth Product Manager for Skillz (a competitive mobile gaming platform). She’s an incoming Senior Product Manager for Disney Streaming joining the company in mid-November.

In her spare time, she enjoys exploring the outdoors, swimming, playing the piano, and socializing. She loves being active in the community, especially mentoring the next generation of high school and college students who are exploring their future career paths.