T'11

Vincent Wu

COO, NewsBreak

Look for areas of disruption where you can apply your fundamental business skillset. That’s where you can grow your career the fastest. Don’t be afraid of the pressure or the uncertainty. In this line of work, every day is an exciting opportunity to tackle the unknown.

By Ashley Rabinovitch

Vincent Wu T'11 doesn’t make headlines, but he makes them possible. In the past eight years, he has quietly breathed new life into major outlets like AOL, HuffPost, and Yahoo News with an intensely data-driven approach to operations and a wide range of skills gleaned from his time in Hanover. As a result, NewsBreak, a local news platform with $1B+ valuation and 50 million users, has experienced growth in revenue by a factor of 25 in less than three years.

“There is no secret sauce to growth,” he says. “Achieving excellence in operations is about challenging the status quo and pushing an idea to its limits—and then going an extra mile on top of that. It’s about having the right people and mindset to make the impossible possible. In many cases, coming up with ideas is the easy part. Execution is what counts.”  

In some ways, Wu found himself in the right place at the right time. He graduated from Tuck at a time when media titans were waking up to the need for versatile, data-savvy managers with the right skillset to steer them through an ocean of disruption. On the other hand, he is unusually gifted at spotting and acting upon opportunities for large-scale impact.  

“I bet on myself and bet on an operations role in the media sector,” said Wu. “Fortunately, it’s paying off.”

Tell us a little about your professional background.
Born and raised in China, I earned an engineering degree before launching my career at Accenture. While I enjoyed consulting for technology companies, I always knew that I needed more business training to move forward. While I didn’t know how that was going to play out, I decided to go to Tuck because I had a gut feeling that gaining a broad base of management and leadership skills would be valuable in the future. That turned out to be one of the best calls I’ve ever made.    

How did you get started in the media industry?
I was always interested in the news, but I never imagined building my career in the media industry. After working at Oliver Wyman for a few years after getting my MBA, I received offers from a few big tech companies. Everyone thought I was crazy when I accepted an offer from AOL, an older company. But at that time, the media sector was undergoing massive disruption. With companies like Facebook entering the media space, mastering data and analytics became essential to succeeding in the content business. I spotted an opportunity to use my skills to help media leaders navigate a changing landscape.

What are some of the highlights of your career?  
My mission has been to use a rigorous data-driven approach to help companies grow. As the director of global strategy and operations at AOL, I helped turn things around by using data to transform the process of content production, distribution, and monetization. Then, as head of operations at HuffPost, I strived to push analytics to the forefront. Based on my insights, HuffPost moved from an article-centric to a video-centric model and grew its audience as a result. I’m perhaps most proud, though, of the growth I’ve achieved at NewsBreak, a startup geared toward reimagining the local news ecosystem. I helped build a company from scratch to a ‘unicorn’ in two years. 

In what ways did your Tuck MBA set you up for success?
Without a doubt, the rigor of the curriculum prepared me to work well in a high-pressure startup environment and get results. Tuck also equipped me with all the fundamentals I needed to connect the dots in my career. It was hard to see where I was going when I was in the program. But when I look back, I can see how Tuck classes like Negotiations, Managerial Accounting, and Decision Science gave me the ability to take on challenges in a wide range of disciplines. My colleagues at NewsBreak half-jokingly call me the “Full-stack COO” because I can do just about everything on the business side. I’m proud of that nickname. My MBA was a major factor in developing the versatility to manage finance, sales, strategy, marketing, fundraising, and every other area of the business. Every skill I took away from Tuck is a skill I use to help News Break grow.  

Any advice for Tuck graduates considering a career in operations? 
Look for areas of disruption where you can apply your fundamental business skillset. That’s where you can grow your career the fastest. Don’t be afraid of the pressure or the uncertainty. In this line of work, every day is an exciting opportunity to tackle the unknown. In operations, there is always a new problem to solve and a new approach to develop.  

Continue Reading

Related Stories

Story & Strategy: Meet TikTok CMO Kate Jhaveri T’03

Building strong, vibrant, and supportive communities like the one she joined at Tuck has been a central theme throughout Kate Jhaveri’s decorated career.

Read More

Owning Her Career Path: Meet Lucile Chung T’08

YouTube Chief of Staff/Product Operations Lucile Chung T’08 has leveraged her curiosity and zeal for problem-solving to build a successful career in tech. 

Read More

How to Be a Successful Operations Leader

To succeed in operations, says ZOE COO Nicole Xu T’11, you need the short-term vision to run the business day-to-day, but you also need to be able to think three to five years ahead to build for the future. 

Read More

Greg Maxwell

After spending eight years in the military, Maxwell says Tuck’s general management curriculum gave him the foundation in business he needed, and he still relies on what he learned in his business strategy, communications, and negotiations courses. “Those soft skills courses really stay with you because they’re timeless.”

Read More

Technology Rules

The next generation of operations leaders looking to drive growth and optimization will need to be students of technology, says Peter Giordano T’11.

Read More

Answering the Call

How Tuck and Amazon prepared Cem Sibay T’05 to embrace change and navigate disruption.

Read More

Caryn Nightengale

With the potential to become the world’s first self-flying air taxi service, Chief Financial Officer Caryn Nightengale T’02 says the company is poised to become a game-changing disruptor in the aerospace industry.

Read More

Driven by Wanderlust: Peter Sisson T’94

For serial entrepreneur Peter Sisson T’94, life has been one big adventure.

Read More

Laura Scott

At Wayfair, Tuck alumna Laura Scott completely transformed the company’s operations. Now she’s dipping her toes into the startup world with Takeoff Tech.

Read More

Work Hard, Dream Big

From Buffalo to the boardroom, Yancey Spruill T’97 has found the formula for success.

Read More

How to Keep Your Company Data Secure

What Alison Connolly T’11 finds fascinating, most corporate leaders find terrifying. The director of strategic partnerships at DarkOwl is an expert on the darknet.

Read More

Juliet Horton

With Everly, Juliet Horton T’14 is changing how couples plan their wedding

Read More

Marketing a Disruptive Brand

Together, two Tuck alumni, Kate Jhaveri T’03 and Michael Aragon T’01, led marketing and innovation at the growing global brand Twitch.

Read More

Susan Hunt Stevens

In 2006 Susan Hunt Stevens T'98 started a blog as a "a guide to going green without going berserk." Years later the idea evolved into WeSpire, a platform that uses technology and social media to promote sustainable living.

Read More

Betsabeh Hermann

Before you know what she is, you first need to know what Betsabeh Hermann T’13 is not: She is not an astronaut. Or at least, not yet anyway.

Read More

Sprague Brodie

Sprague Brodie T’14 works in the heart of Silicon Valley at the sprawling Mountain View, California, campus of tech giant Google.

Read More

Torlisa Jeffrey

One size does not fit all—that’s the philosophy of Torlisa Jeffrey T'12 , a senior product manager for Williams Sonoma. 

Read More

Chris Weasler

As director of global connectivity for Facebook, Chris Weasler T'97 is helping to bring online the 60 percent of the earth's population currently without internet access.

Read More

Gibson “Gib” Biddle

NerdWallet's Gib Biddle T'91 came to Tuck as a marketer, but then realized he was more of a builder.

Read More

Chris O’Neill

Evernote CEO Chris O’Neill T’01 is helping the digital productivity and note-keeping company do more by focusing on what it does best.

Read More

Elisabeth Hartley

As head of strategy and product development for Beats Electronics, Elisabeth Hartley T'05 is on the cusp of creating what the future of music could look like.

Read More

Eric Spiegel

People call Eric Spiegel T'87 the most natural leader they’ve ever met. Now CEO of Siemens USA, a global electronics and engineering powerhouse, he gets to lead on the issues that matter most. To his company and the country.

Read More

Roger McNamee

Investor. Philanthropist. Entrepreneur. Roger McNamee T’82 is all of these and more in a career that has taken him to the top of the tech world.

Read More