The UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education (CEE), a self-supporting unit based at the Haas School, will become a separate, nonprofit organization to become more flexible, permitting its programs to grow faster and meet the school’s financial goals.
The UC Regents on Nov. 15 unanimously approved the Haas School's proposal to create a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that will own and operate CEE.
Under the new structure, the unit’s revenue after expenses will continue to flow to the Haas School, with a portion also going to UC Berkeley. CEE has become a significant source of revenue that supports academic areas and operations of the Haas School.
CEE also would continue to support Haas in creating linkages with the global business community.
"CEE has already done a phenomenal job serving corporate and government clients around the world with custom and executive programs," says Dean Rich Lyons. "Restructuring CEE is a logical next step to enable it to grow and better serve those clients in an increasingly competitive landscape."
"The change will strengthen our school's reputation as well by connecting us with many more firms across many more geographies," Lyons adds.
Other business schools such as those at Duke, Indiana University, and the universities of Virginia, North Carolina, and Texas have taken a similar path in running their executive education operations under nonprofit entities.
The new structure will lead to more nimble and incentive-based operations, with much greater flexibility in everything from program delivery to back-office processes such as contracting to match the service expectations of corporate clients.
That additional flexibility, in turn, will enable CEE to more quickly achieve its revenue goals, which currently call for reaching $50 million annually within seven years. That would generate $7.5 million to $10 million a year in cash flow for Haas and $3.5 million for the UC Berkeley campus.
In the current year, CEE enrolled more than 2,000 participants in its custom and open enrollment programs.