New Hire Spotlight: Kevin Pastrano

Our haku team continues to expand! Welcome to our new Associate Progam Manager, Kevin Pastrano. Born in New York, Kevin moved to Florida in 2001, and recently moved to Miami from Orlando to join us. Let’s get to know him a little more!

What's your role at haku?
I am an Associate Program Manager. My role is to facilitate communication between our Engineers and our Customer Experience Department to help us prioritize upcoming feature releases to our platform. Essentially, I am making sure our day-to-day runs as smoothly as possible while also future-proofing our upcoming projects!

How did you hear about haku? Why did you want to work here?
I actually found the job listing on Indeed while job hunting and ended up falling in love with the company culture based on the webpage alone. I read into haku's LinkedIn profile as well and saw some of the amazing events we are a part of and was over the moon when offered my position! I love to run so being on the “behind the scenes” team was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up!

What motivates you at work?
My peers motivate me at work. One of the biggest pros to working at haku is being surrounded by motivated individuals. Everyone that I have had the pleasure of working with is also striving to leave their best impressions at work day in and day out. This environment is one I have longed for throughout my working career and to finally have it is a dream come true!

Where do you envision your career in 5-10 years? 

5 - 10 years from now sounds like it is so far away! Yet time moves quicker and quicker every single day. At this time, I plan on improving my coding ability and taking my experience to start up my own company revolving around self-improvement. In the past few years, I have taken self-improvement much more seriously in my life and have managed to lose approx. 70 lbs, graduate with honors after being in school for nearly 10 years and developed an ambitious attitude towards life instead of a pessimistic one.

How would your friends and family describe you? 

My friends and family would say that I am a kind and inspiring human being. I strongly believe in empowering the people that surround me and I am over the moon to discover that haku follows this same ideology when accepting their applicants. In all my years of work experience in the tech, healthcare, and commerce fields, I have never encountered a team of fellow ambitious individuals. I truly feel like I have found a family here at haku and guess what? We’re just getting started!

Do you have any unique talents?

I have developed a love for running over the last few years. I even ran a full marathon last June and plan on doing so again this upcoming June!

What is your favorite book?
Easily, “Can’t Hurt Me“ by David Goggins. In this book, David Goggins details his journey from being a 350 lb morbidly obese exterminator to arguably one of the most mentally tough athletes in the world. Through his relentless determination, he became a Navy Seal and broke the Guinness World Record for most pull-ups within 24 hours with over 4,000 done. I cannot recommend this book enough!

What is something you enjoy doing on a day off?

On my day off, I can be found lounging in a hammock with a podcast or audiobook through the afternoon. Beyond that, my other interests are music, gardening, and art. I love finding new artists or music genres so I am always looking for my next jam. I also love cooking so I’ll be in the kitchen meal prepping for the new week!

What’s your favorite food?
Such a hard question! I am a connoisseur of foods haha. If I had to pick one, I would say that my favorite has to be any shrimp dishes. My coastal roots have a heavy seafood diet and it is amazing to me. Fried, breaded, baked, any and all shrimps are welcomed!

Can you speak more than one language?
Yes! I begrudgingly learned Spanish growing up and took some French classes in high school. When I was younger, my mom sent me to spend time with my Ecuadorian family for a month and when I came back home, the language stuck.

Do you have any fun or unique family traditions?
My family dedicates their Christmas time to helping the less fortunate. We put together these “care packages“ full of food, toys, and clothes and distribute them to families in Ecuador. Sadly, there are plenty of families that end up missing out because this is a local effort between my family alone. However, I plan on growing this effort into something that could impact countries as a whole at some point in the near future.

Want to explore an exciting career at haku? We’re growing our team and always looking for talented and outgoing individuals to add to our incredible haku family. Check out our openings here.