The year kicked off with the historic confirmation of one of our own as the nation’s economic leader, and ended with the start of construction of the state-of-the-art North Academic Building.
As we say goodbye to 2014, here are 14 of the year’s top stories.
Berkeley-Haas Professor Emeritus Janet Yellen sworn in as chair of the Federal Reserve.
The historic appointment made Yellen the first woman to lead the nation’s central banking system and monetary policy. Yellen taught thousands of Berkeley-Haas students in the undergraduate, full-time MBA, and Evening & Weekend MBA programs.
A record number of women entered the Full-time Berkeley MBA program.
The Class of 2016 is 43 percent women—the highest among top U.S. business schools. The class reflects the record percentage of women who applied (average GMAT scores increases as well). The Executive MBA program also has a record percentage of women, and the percentage of women in the Evening & Weekend MBA program increased as well.
Haas is also attracting record numbers of vets. This year, 61 students in the undergraduate, MBA, and Master of Financial Engineering degree programs are veterans of the U.S. military.
Oakland A’s legend Billy Beane surprised new MBA students.
As incoming Full-Time Berkeley MBA students warmed up with a case about Major League Baseball management during orientation week, little did they know that A’s Moneyball legends Beane and Sandy Alderson were on deck with real-life lessons.
The Evening & Weekend Program was again ranked #1 by U.S. News.
All three Berkeley MBA programs placed among the top 10 schools in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings, and the Evening & Weekend MBA Program topped the list of part-time programs for the second straight year. The Full-time MBA Program ranked #7 among full-time programs for the seventh year in a row, and the new Berkeley MBA for Executives tied for #9 with UNC Chapel Hill, up from #10 last year.
Haas professors’ research revealed surprising insights about liars, gamblers, and political correctness.
New research debunked the stereotype of entrepreneurs as overconfident risk takers, examined how much willpower it can take to be honest, linked betting behaviors to dopamine levels, and found that the unconscious mind can detect a liar—even when the conscious mind fails.
Other highlights: politically correct workplaces may spur creativity, why paid search doesn’t always pay off, and a hefty award to analyze whether federal inspections actually make workplaces safer, and more.
Homa Bahrami won the 2014 Best Case Series Best Case Award for her Mozilla employee study.
Bahrami, a senior lecturer in the Management of Organization’s Group, studied Mozilla Corp.’s efforts to manage a diverse base of paid employees and volunteers. The Best Case Award was created to showcase unconventional management strategies and disruptive trends. Bahrami’s paper was published in the Fall 2013 issue of the California Management Review.
YEAH program graduate is first to return to Haas.
The Young Entrepreneurs at Haas (YEAH) Program has been helping underserved Bay Area students go to college for nearly 25 years. This year, Palwasha Khatri, BS 15, became the first YEAH graduate to enroll at Haas as an undergrad. “I’m majoring in business because of the YEAH Program,” she says.
The Dean’s Speaker Series brought a diverse group of luminaries to speak at Haas—and mingle with students—throughout the year. Speakers included General Bikram Singh, Former Chief of Army Staff, Indian Army; Haas Professor Laura Tyson and Berkeley Economics Professor Emanuel Saez at a panel discussion on income inequality in the 21st Century; Duncan Niederauer, former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange; Deanna Berkeley, president of alice + olivia; James White, CEO and president of Jamba Juice; and U.S. Army Reserve Brigadier General Tammy Smith.
Other fall speakers included Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California & former United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
And here’s the list of the spring 2014 speakers.
The first class of students completed the new Berkeley MBA for Executives program.
Since its launch in May 2013, the new program has held highly successful immersion weeks in Silicon Valley, Washington DC, and Shanghai. Next up? Brazil.
Green tech investor Stuart Bernstein named Business Leader of the Year
Bernstein, BS 86, is a Goldman Sachs managing director and partner who has shaken up investment banking with his passion for clean energy and the environment. He was honored at the 13th Annual Haas Gala in November.
Undergrads won the right to compete nationally with an IBM Watson app.
Berkeley-Haas Team Patent Fox tapped the world’s most powerful supercomputer, IBM Watson, to design an app that makes searching and filing for new patents more efficient. In January, they’ll compete against nine top schools for $100,000 at IBM Watson’s New York City headquarters. The students are enrolled in the course Open Innovation, Leveraging IBM Watson.
The Big Give raised more than a half million for Haas.
UC Berkeley’s first 24-hour campus-wide online fundraiser was the biggest single-day fundraiser in Haas history. When it ended Nov. 20, Berkeley-Haas raised about $561,000 from 651 donors. Thank you to all our supporters!
Construction of the new North Academic Building began.
The six-story, $60 million building on the north side of our campus will be devoted entirely to student learning and interaction. State-of-the art classrooms and learning labs that reflect the evolution of management education towards hands-on work, an environmentally friendly design, and breathtaking views of the San Francisco Bay are key features. The building is scheduled to be completed for use in the fall term 2016.
Here’s to a #Haasome 2015!