Beaver Reflections:
I graduated from Beaver in 1992 and had a fantastic experience while there. The academics were rigorous enough, the athletic department was great, and socially I made many great friends. I played basketball, soccer, tennis and lacrosse. I was also a photo editor for the yearbook during high school. Looking back, one of the people who had the biggest impact on my time there was Tom Manning. He was both my English teacher and my varsity basketball coach. More than anything, I think that Tom Manning was just an incredible person, mentor, advisory, motivator. He was not just a motivator on the basketball court but also inside the classroom. I remember a lot of the lessons and anecdotes he told me.

What is #happeningnow in your life:
After Beaver, I went to Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. After that, I came back to Boston and worked for a law firm called McDermott Will & Emery, as a research associate. However, I did only research and never any “lawyering.” I decided to move to California and got a job at a massive executive search firm called Heidrick & Struggles. I did not have much background in that industry when I first started but ended up working there for around two years. After that I went to a couple of startups and suddenly I had developed a career as a head of recruiting for startups. I then moved to Santa Barbara because Sonos had reached out to me asking to be their head of executive recruiting. I joined Sonos when it was only about 300 people and left ten years later as VP of Global Talent. During the past year, I ended up taking a job at Google working in a special projects group which includes longer-term succession planning. It has been a pretty once-in-a-lifetime experience and I have loved it.

“I think that people don’t necessarily remember that the friends you make in high school can be the friends you keep for a lifetime. It is important to stop and think about the people you meet and the impact they could have on you.”
– Josh Narva ’92

Advice to Beaver students:
Your professional network begins in high school. All of those relationships you foster matter and that is how the world works. Getting in touch with people and building relationships can help you find happiness along with others, but it is also about who you know and how you can manage relationships—things that Beaver instills in you.