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Decision-Making Under Duress: A Framework for Founders and Leaders
October 22 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Social changemakers routinely operate in high-stakes, resource-scarce environments where the margin for error is thin. Early-stage leaders often lack capital, staff, time, information, and reserve capacity, yet are still expected to make consequential decisions under pressure.
This interactive session explores how founders and leaders can make better decisions when their personal and organizational resources are depleted. Rather than treating performance under pressure as a matter of individual toughness, the session reframes elite performance under constraint as the ability to reduce the number, complexity, and timing of decisions required in moments of stress.
The Social Innovation and Change Initiative (SICI) and Harvard Innovation Labs are delighted to host Joseph Choi, former Navy SEAL and Berkeley Haas MBA, and Akonkwa Mubagwa, CEO of Winko, HKS ‘26 MC/MPA, Berkeley Haas MBA, and engineer from École Polytechnique de Louvain, for a practical session on decision-making in challenging contexts.
Joe will draw on nine years of experience making high-consequence decisions under extreme physical and cognitive stress. Akonkwa will draw on his own experience navigating resource depletion while building zero-downtime energy infrastructure for hospitals across emerging markets. Together, they will help participants understand how scarcity changes judgment, how to triage decisions, how to recognize their own degradation patterns, and how to pre-commit to decision rules before a crisis hits.
Willing participants will also take part in a short simulation in which time pressure increases and new information arrives unevenly, forcing them to decide with imperfect information.
All HUID holders are welcome.
About the Speakers
Akonkwa Mubagwa is the founder and CEO of Winko Solar, which builds reliable, zero-downtime infrastructure for hospitals across emerging markets.
He trained as an engineer at École Polytechnique de Louvain, studied management at HEC Paris, and earned an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School. He previously worked in consulting and technology at IBM, SWIFT, PwC, and Bain before founding a forensic technology firm and then Winko.
A Harvard Social Innovation + Change Initiative (SICI) Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow, and recipient of Harvard’s Navab Social Impact Fellowship Fund, Akonkwa won first prize in the Social Impact category of the 2026 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge.
Winko currently participates in Harvard’s Launch Lab X accelerator, was the first African company admitted to Berkeley SkyDeck, and operates in seven sub-Saharan African countries, supporitng critical care delivery to millions of patients.
Joseph (Joe) Choi is a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer who served nine years in the Navy, including seven years with the SEAL teams and three deployments to the Philippines, Guam, and Iraq. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he played water polo, Joe earned an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas and coached Berkeley’s men’s water polo team.
After leaving the military, he held a leadership role at AmazeVR, helping bring a pioneering virtual-reality concert tour to audiences, before joining Amazon Ads.
He is also the author of Empa and Thee: A Tale of Understanding and Kindness, a children’s book exploring empathy through opposing perspectives.
Drawing on his experiences across military operations, sports, and business, Joe brings a practical perspective on making decisions under pressure, communicating effectively, and leading through uncertainty.