Val Oliva, center, has a lucrative job as director of product strategy of American internet company, Foundry Networks, a happy and supportive wife in Jasmin, and children Sami, Dylan, and Jared.
Living his dream in the States By Leah Salterio Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 17:29:00 02/18/2008
Many Filipino professionals in the United States often end up working outside their field of expertise. Engineers become cable television men and doctors end up nurses. Few are lucky enough to land the job they trained for and the financial rewards they expect.
One of these lucky few is Val Oliva, 43. His climb up the corporate ladder of an American Internet protocol (IP) company is an inspiring success story.
Today he’s director of product strategy for the enterprise business unit of the San Jose-based Foundry Networks – a leading provider of switching, routing, security and web traffic management solutions (including local area network a.k.a. LAN switches, backbone switches, application switches, wireless LAN and access points, metro routers and core routers.)
“I am in charge of looking at future strategic enterprise products and solutions for the company. This includes ensuring strategic plans are in place and easily transferred to the product management team.” says Oliva.
Before his present position, he was director of product management for the enterprise business unit in charge of the L2/L3 products — FastIron and EdgeIron — accounting for 60 percent of Foundry’s annual revenues. “I was in charge of inbound and outbound marketing of these products. My career at Foundry is very exciting and has given me exposure in the industry” he says.
Oliva is currently a member of the Board of Directors and secretary of the Ethernet Alliance, responsible for propagating ethernet technology. “I led the technology for 10 gigabit ethernet at Foundry and was a member of the board and vice president for the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance,” he adds.
He joined Foundry Networks in 1999. Before that this former network engineer and architect at Hewlett-Packard spent 10 years building IP networks. “That experience gave me the technical knowledge to move my career forward. It proved to be a great leverage in my work today,” he says. “I also had varying management experiences in the networking field, giving me the ability to lead and invigorate a team.”
Exposure to bigger business
In 1997, Oliva became product manager of a friend’s company where he learned about starting and building a business. He later became product line manager at Network Equipment Technology, giving him exposure in running a larger business.
“All of my technical and business experiences helped in ensuring a healthy and financially rewarding career,” says Oliva. “My career, like life, is in a flux, always changing. I find it invigorating … because it increases your knowledge.”
Foundry’s customers include the world’s premier Internet service providers (ISPs), metro service providers and enterprises like e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial and manufacturing companies.
He’s proud to be part of a company recognized as a technology leader. “Foundry has assisted my career growth by allowing me to lead teams for development, teaching me the fundamentals of a sound business process and enabling me to learn many advanced technologies,” he says.
Oliva’s job has taken him to China, France, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany and Hong Kong. He also gets invited often to be a guest speaker in IP conferences. “I believe what I have is still the best career. I have a very exciting, fruitful and financially viable job. I can’t think of another career at this point,” he says.
Learning the language of business
His typical day at the office is “well-planned,” though it allows for interruptions like reading and responding to e-mail. “I do focus on planning, which is at the heart of all of my activities,” he says. “The biggest part of my job is getting folks excited about our products … my products also compete in the market and there are many competitions. My day-to-day activities are focused on removing those competitions to enable my sales team to sell.
“Another set of challenges is picking the right direction for the products, giving my products a share of the market and allowing us to win key customers. Picking the right direction starts with truly understanding what the customer wants or what the customer needs. You really have to understand your customers’ product requirements.”
Oliva says he leads his people by example, especially in dealing with problems in the workplace. “I rely on my value system in most decision-making, ensuring fairness. If I can’t do it, then I would not expect my subordinates to do it (either.) Handling problems requires that you act as a leader, which means leading by example and using your value system.”
His advice to Filipinos who want to work and settle in the US is to learn the language of business, English. “Studying hard is key, but knowing English well enables any Filipino to express his/her ideas and thoughts correctly,” Oliva says, recalling how his parents “invested in speech training” for him when he was in elementary at Lourdes School. That “greatly helped me enunciate words properly,” he says.
See things as a Filipino
After completing elementary at Lourdes School of Mandaluyong, and high school in Parañaque’s St. Andrew’s School, Oliva took up Electronics and Communications Engineering at St. Louis University in Baguio City. The eldest among four boys, Oliva left the country in 1984 with his three brothers, all of them petitioned by their parents, who have been in the US since the mid-70s.
“I have no regrets because my immediate family lives in the US,” he says. “My brothers and I migrated to the US to be with our parents, and now we have our own families here.” Oliva earned his Computer Science degree at San Jose State University in the US.
Although he is now an American citizen, he has not forgotten his Filipino roots. He has not lost his taste for Filipino food, for one. He likes kare-kare, dinuguan, turon and lechon, finds sunset on Manila Bay inspiring and misses the Philippine night sky that is always full of stars.
On his free time, he listens to Harvard Business Review (HBR) podcast discussions on topics like leadership, salesmanship and marketing.
He also enjoys being with his family—wife Jasmin Soler and kids Dylan, 16; Jared, 14; and Sami, 10—in their modest home in San Jose, California where they have lived for 16 years.
Last December, Val Oliva brought his family home for a two-week vacation, allowing his kids to experience Christmas and New Year in the Philippines for the first time. His children went to simbang gabi, lit firecrackers on New Year’s Eve, met relatives and their parents’ childhood friends. They also tasted taho and dirty ice-cream, went malling and trekked through Vigan, Ilocos Sur and Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.
Asked what he misses most about his birthplace, Oliva says, “I miss the friends I grew up with. I also miss my cousins and the land where I grew up. The Philippines has a great history and a great opportunity for growth.”
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