A few weeks ago, our IDC class was visited by the producer of one of the most popular and famous broadway musicals “Dear Evan Hansen”. In my opinion, The producer, Michael Kriak was a really fascinating speaker who is very successful, so it was that much more great and even aweing that I, along with the rest of the class, was fortunate enough to listen to him speak and have a rather lengthy question and answer session with him. While speaking to the class, Michael Kriak told us about his journey of how he got to where he is, particularly focusing on how the start of his journey is very different from the point at which he is now. In addition, I particularly liked how managed to capture the attention of each person in the classroom, by appealing to the fact that we are predominantly business majors by telling us about blockchain and his experience in the corporate world.

Michael Kriak told us about how he started off his career as an accountant, specifically a Certified Public Accountant (a CPA) a profession that generally implies one’s dedication to the corporate world, which makes his branching into and considerable success in theater and musicals especially surprising and awe inspiring. He also told us about how he went to work for other companies such as Mashable as a chief financial officer. Although he was very successful as an accountant as seen by the high ranking positions he held, he said that he was always interested in the arts, an interest that directly segwayed into his career in theater and musicals like “Dear Evan Hansen” which he talked about in great detail. Kriak talked to us about how “Dear Evan Hansen”, a show that was massively successful and yet so pivotally different from his original career, proved to satisfy his interest in theater, his career path of finance, as well as his concern for society, as the musical draws attention to many of societies’ issues through unique methods and an interesting plot.

However, what I personally believe was among the most beneficial and interesting parts of our conversation with Kriak was his telling us of how his never idling and constantly networking both through social media platforms and face to face interactions with people opened an incredible amount of doors for him career-wise. He stressed the importance of not being shy and being open to meeting new people by speaking about his personal experiences and how networking led to him becoming a producer of “Dear Evan Hansen” and eventually getting a Tony award, which is inarguably an incredible attainment, especially for someone who started as a CPA.