Game of success
Mark Otero
Degree: M.B.A.
Graduation year: 2007
Mark Otero grew up humbly in South Korea. Today — and after a UC Davis education — he operates a thriving gaming company in Sacramento.
A self-described serial entrepreneur, Otero and his business partner in three years bootstrapped Sacramento-based KlickNation into a multi-million-dollar social media company creating fantasy and sci-fi role-playing games.
“I love the intense creative process, the capacity to create new products and services,” said Otero, who sold the startup in December 2011 to Fortune 500 gaming giant Electronic Arts.
KlickNation has become BioWare Sacramento, the newest studio of BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts, with Otero as the general manager. Otero, who received his M.B.A. degree from UC Davis in 2007, credits his alma mater with helping to make it all possible.
“The skills and knowledge I gained at UC Davis enabled me to scale KlickNation from two to a team of 70 in just 24 months,” said Otero, who recently made a major gift pledge to establish a faculty fellowship as well as the Otero Faculty Resource Center in Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. Hall, home of the Graduate School of Management.
Alumni like Otero are examples of how UC Davis’ highly ranked M.B.A. program prepares students to excel in leadership and innovation.
