Author: Haas News

Two Entrepreneurs Become Haas Executive Fellows

| by Haas News
New Haas Executive Fellows Guy Kawasaki and Paul Rice

Haas alumnus Paul Rice, MBA 96, founder of Fair Trade USA, and serial entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki will share their experiences and knowledge with the Haas community as the business school’s newest executive fellows.

“We are thrilled to bring Paul and Guy back to our campus as executive fellows,” says Haas School Dean Rich Lyons. “Both have blazed their own paths as innovative leaders and will enrich our school with their insights.”

The Berkeley-Haas executive fellow is considered a part-time, professional faculty position. It was created in 2007 for respected executives and thought leaders to serve as advisers to the dean, faculty, and staff. Students also are exposed to the trailblazing ideas and expertise of Haas executive fellows through their participation in various events and programs throughout the school year.

Other Haas executive fellows include Twitter co-founder Biz Stone; IDEO General Manager Tom Kelley, MBA 83; and John Hanke, MBA 96, a serial entrepreneur who founded and led Keyhole, which later became Google Earth.

With 11 years of experience working with impoverished farmers in Nicaragua and less than a month’s tuition in his bank account, Paul Rice was an improbable MBA candidate when he arrived at Berkeley-Haas in 1994. But he used his business school training to accomplish his audacious goal: building a Fair Trade movement in the U.S. similar to what he had seen in Europe. Since building a business plan at Haas, Rice has gone on to turn Fair Trade USA into one the most successful and fastest-growing social enterprises in the nation, certifying around $1.5 billion worth of imported products last year.

Guy Kawasaki is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and was one of Apple’s first evangelists in the early 1980s. After leaving Apple, Kawasaki ran a Macintosh database company; wrote for Macworld and Forbes; started a software company called Fog City Software; and created the emailer and a listserv called LetterRip. He also started an angel investor matchmaking service called Garage.com, now known as Garage Technology Ventures, and founded Alltop, an online magazine rack. A longtime friend to Haas who has previously visited as a speaker, Kawasaki is the author of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions.

New Haas Executive Fellows Guy Kawasaki and Paul Rice

MBA Students to Toss Caps May 23

| by Haas News

On Friday, May 23, about 500 students in the Full-Time and Evening & Weekend MBA programs will celebrate the end of their studies at Haas at 2 p.m. at the Greek Theatre. The number of graduates is evenly split between the two programs.

Commencement speaker Cathie Lesjak, MBA 86, CFO of Hewlett-Packard, will share the story of her rise within HP and discuss her experiences helping to lead one of the world’s largest tech companies.

During the ceremony, outstanding MBA students will receive awards for excellence in three areas: academic achievement, for the student with the highest GPA from each program; community service, for the Beyond Yourself fellows who contributed the most volunteer hours; and service and leadership, for full-time MBA students who made the greatest lasting impact in improving their community and the school.

Haas also will announce the winners of the Cheit teaching awards for faculty and graduate student instructors during the MBA commencement ceremony. (Please see related article about Cheit Award winners)

The job outlook for this year’s graduating class is strong, says Jennifer Bridge, director of MBA recruiting. “We continue to see demand from employers with new job opportunities in the technology, health care, and real estate industries,” Bridge says. “In the increasingly popular startup space, offers can take longer to materialize. Students need to dig deeper into their networks and be patient for the right opportunity to present itself.”

Bridge adds, “Some students are receiving multiple offers and accepting right away, while others are declining offers and holding out for the perfect opportunity; they’re interested in making the right decision, even if it means they have to wait a little bit longer.”

Students Honor Faculty, Student Instructors with Cheit Teaching Awards

| by Haas News

Six professors and two graduate student instructors (GSIs) will be honored at the commencements this month for their excellence in teaching.

A panel of students selected the Cheit Award recipients from student nominations. The award is named after Dean Emeritus Earl F. Cheit, who made teaching excellence one of his top priorities.

The faculty winners this year are:

  • Professor Leif Nelson, PhD Program
  • Lecturer Frank Schultz, Undergraduate Program
  • Flavio Feferman, Evening MBA Program
  • Mark Rittenberg, Weekend MBA Program
  • Toby Stuart and Rob Chandra, Entrepreneurship, Full-time MBA Program

Students also are recognizing Alexander Nezlobin and Rob Chandra with honorable mentions in the Undergraduate Program and Lucas Davis with an honorable mention in the Full-time MBA Program.

The winners of the Cheit Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor awards, also to be recognized at commencements this year, are:

  • Kylan Nieh, BS/BA 14 (Bus./Comp. Sci.), Undergraduate Program
  • Adam Chopko, MBA 14, Evening & Weekend MBA Program
  • PhD candidate Isaac Hacamo, Full-time MBA Program

Earlier this year, students in the Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering Program presented a Cheit teaching award to Yu (Ben) Meng, MFE 02, for his Risk Management course, while a graduate student instructor award was given to Te (Tony) Ke.

MBA for Executives Class of 2015 Begins Studies

| by Haas News

Seventy new students join Haas this week as the 2015 class of the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program, including four pilots, two medical doctors, a sustainability-focused urban architect, and leaders from influential tech companies including Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and Cisco.

The 19-month Berkeley MBA for Executives Program kicks off Tuesday, May 13, with a welcome reception at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, where students will stay during the program. A one-day orientation will be followed by Thursday-to-Saturday classes on campus at Haas.

With an average age of 37 and work experience of 13 years, this class has a breadth of international experience ranging from software entrepreneurship in Japan to deep banking experience in China, says Marjorie DeGraca, executive director, admissions. While incoming students hail largely from the Bay Area, 29 percent of the class is coming from outside the region, including Tennessee and Georgia.

Thirty-one percent of this year’s class is comprised of women. Two students, meanwhile, also have children who attend UC Berkeley, DeGraca says.

Launched last year, the Berkeley MBA for Executives program is based on the Haas School's innovative leader curriculum that was first introduced in the Full-time Berkeley MBA Program in 2010. However, the curriculum is specifically tailored to working professionals at the executive level. The program consists of five terms, which include on-campus classes capped by off-campus immersion, where emphasis is placed on how business in a particular region or industry works.

Key "off-sites" include :

  • Silicon Valley, led by Professor Toby Stuart, faculty director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, who will teach his entrepreneurship curriculum and take students to meet founders and C-level executives at startups and venture capitalists during this Silicon Valley Immersion.
  • Washington, DC, led by Professor and former Clinton adviser Laura Tyson, who will discuss how Washington impacts business and industry, with a particular policy focus on financial services reform and tax and health care reform. She will take students to meet many of Washington's policy makers and other influencers.
  • Shanghai, led by Marketing Professor Teck Ho, director of the Haas School's Asia Business Center, who will focus on marketing and pricing topics related to U.S. companies entering China and Chinese companies expanding internationally.

Experiential learning is critical to this program, says Mike Rielly, director of the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. “This group of students, all working professionals, is looking to take what they learn in the classroom and during our immersion weeks and apply it to their work in real time. Theory to practice,"  he says.

The 2013-14 students are already mingling with the incoming class, Rielly says. A number of career development events, as well a pre-game tailgating party at a Cal-Oregon football game at Levi’s Stadium in October, are planned to provide more networking opportunities.

One incoming student, Richard Wilson, a chemist by training, enrolled in the program after more than 20 years out of school in order to further his career.

“I wanted a formal business education to keep up with all the factors involved in getting drugs approved,” says Wilson, who is the associate director of project and alliance management at Theravance, a pharmaceutical company in South San Francisco. “We get work done through partnerships with big companies. I want to try to understand how to strike business deals and alliances and help my company grow.”

Two Haas Defining Principles, Students Always and Confidence Without Attitude, struck a chord when he was choosing a school to attend, Wilson says. "Confidence Without Attitude is an attribute I’ve always valued most," he says. "The more I met people at Haas—talking to Dean Lyons, talking to members of the class of 2014—everything just felt right. It was just a really good fit for me."

He adds, "It's a phenomenal opportunity to live, study, and work alongside a group of such accomplished people."

Students to Cheer Culmination of Undergraduate Journey

| by Haas News

More than 375 undergraduate students will receive their diplomas May 19 in a ceremony beginning at 9 a.m. at the Greek Theatre.

Entrepreneur Mark DiPaola, BS 99, will deliver the commencement address. The chairman and co-founder of inMarket, founder of Vantage Media, and member of the Dean’s Advisory Circle at Haas has established a strong career in startups since launching his first company at the age of 15.

Graduating students who will be recognized at the ceremony include Departmental Citation winner Ja Yoon (Staci) Heo, who had the highest business and cumulative grade point average, and Haas Community Fellows winner Adena Ishii. Nishan Budhraja was selected by his classmates to be the student speaker.

Staci Heo held leadership positions in the Berkeley Business Society; helped prepare tax returns for lower-income families; tutored elementary school students; and provided pro-bono consulting services to CommunityGrows, a nonprofit involved in environmental education of lower-income children.

Adena Ishii logged 1,800 volunteer hours during her time at Haas—more than double those of the student with the second highest number of hours. She served as a Haas public service leader and the program coordinator of the Transfer Service Community (TSC), a program she co-founded that helps students get involved in their communities and transfer from community college to four-year universities.

Nishan Budhraja, the student speaker, has most recently served as president of Berkeley Consulting after participating on several teams with the nonprofit, student-run consulting organization on campus.

In addition, Champion of Culture awards will be given to four graduating seniors who exemplify the four Haas Defining Principles:

Cody Feng: Beyond Yourself
Feng served a leadership role in Berkeley Project, one of the largest community service organizations on campus.

Raymond Wong: Student Always
Wong will be honored for always looking for the next opportunity to figure something out, whether it's a new skill, a new gadget, or a deep lesson about himself, and also was credited with a desire to help others learn as well.

Tyler Coster: Confidence Without Attitude
Coster will be recognized for his willingness to help others and share his knowledge, experiences, and ideas with genuine delight.

Kiron Chandy: Question the Status Quo
Chandy will be recognized for her combination of scholarship and world citizenship, demonstrated through her leadership in co-founding and expanding Consult Your Community, a program in which college students provide pro bono consulting services to low-income and minority small business owners in their communities.

Job Market

The graduating seniors, meanwhile, are entering a job market where demand remains firm on the heels of a strong 2013, says David Woodward, the UC Berkeley Career Center counselor for Haas undergraduates.

“The traditional areas for higher levels of recruiting — accounting, consulting, and finance — show an increased or sustained demand. Other areas, such as sales and marketing, showed an increasing level of activity," Woodward says. "Organizations have stated a desire to start or grow their recruitment activities at Haas, which suggests the demand for high-caliber Haas students is set to continue to grow.”

PhD Students Celebrate Major Milestone

| by Haas News

Seven PhD students were the first Haas graduates to toss their caps into the air this spring at their program commencement on Saturday, May 10, in the Wells Fargo Room.

This year’s graduates are moving on to faculty positions in finance, accounting, and marketing at some of the world’s top business schools. Graduates are heading to the University of Chicago-Booth, the Wharton School of Business, the University of British Columbia, Cal Poly, University of San Francisco, Indiana University Bloomington, and Baruch College CUNY. One student is leaving academia for a position with memory storage giant SanDisk.

“We’ve had very strong placements the last four or five years, and this year’s class is continuing that trend,” said Professor Martin Lettau, director of the PhD Program. “It’s a very high-quality class. The placements have been fantastic.”

Ron Berman, PhD 14, who is taking a position at Wharton, says what he enjoyed most about his experience at Haas was not only getting help from his advisers but also collaborating with them and other students. "Also, because we're so close to Silicon Valley, we got to interact with companies and learn what problems they’re working on," he adds. "This helped immensely in preparing me for my next job."

PhD graduate So Eun Park

Berkeley MBA Alumni Have Most Job Satisfaction, Says Forbes

| by Haas News

Berkeley MBA alumni have the highest job satisfaction of full-time MBA alumni in the U.S., according to a Forbes survey released April 16. They are the second most satisfied alumni overall among U.S. full-time MBA programs.

The findings are based on a prior survey of 4,600 alumni for 2013 for Forbes’ biennial ROI ranking. In addition to current job satisfaction, the survey measured alumni’s level of satisfaction with their education and with the preparation their education gave them.

“Alumni of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley had the highest level of job satisfaction,” rankings editor Kurt Badenhausen wrote in an online article that will appear in the May 5 issue of Forbes. “Haas’ top employers are heavy on consulting and tech, led by Google, eBay, McKinsey, BCG, and Deloitte.”

The article quoted alumnus Bonghun Lee, MBA 08, who said he went to Berkeley-Haas to strengthen his financial knowledge and entrepreneurial skills after working for the Korean government as an investment banker. “Haas provided me with opportunities to interact with diverse professionals with various insights and also helped me to form global networks, which function as a strong leverage for my career,” Lee told Forbes.

Read more about the Forbes ranking

Rooting for Peace: Berkeley Team Helps Brand a Humanitarian Organization

| by Haas News

This semester, a group of Berkeley students is putting its marketing muscle to work helping a humanitarian organization turn mines into vines. As students in the Haas School’s Social Sector Solutions (S3) course, the team this month presented a strategic communications plan to Roots of Peace, an organization founded and led by Cal alumna Heidi Kuhn, BA 88 (Pol. Econ. of Indust. Soc.), which is building sustainable crops on war-torn land once too dangerous to traverse.

The students’ help comes just in the nick of time.

On March 28, the organization’s headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, was hit by Taliban suicide bombers. Although no one from the organization was hurt, the various attackers died. With the increased media coverage, the organization has had an immediate opportunity to use the student team’s recommendations to present an updated vision of itself to the world—and use the incident as another opportunity to promote peace among local people.

“Throughout the years, we have remained 'true to our roots' with a strong commitment to peace, yet we did not know how to quite articulate this powerful message to the world,” says Kuhn, who founded the organization in 1997. “The Berkeley students took a comprehensive look at our demine-replant-rebuild model and came up with the grounded business phrase, ‘Economic Empowerment for Peace.’ They hit it!"

“These five outstanding students have been able to properly articulate our worldwide message,” she adds. “In the coming months and years, we will all be able to see the 'fruits of their labor' as we raise both funds and awareness for the 'Economic Empowerment of Peace.’”

What began as an effort to unearth dangerous landmines in countries affected by war has grown into an organization that empowers farmers and families in Afghanistan, Croatia, the West Bank, and Vietnam to grow and export high-value crops.

“Roots of Peace also indirectly and directly tackles the drug trade, gender inequality, violence, hunger, and poverty, all through one powerful mechanism—economic recovery,” says Daniel Rachman, MBA 14, an evening and weekend Berkeley MBA student and member of the S3 team.

Moreover, the organization takes a business-oriented approach to local empowerment, with the farmers paying for a portion of the demining, agricultural resources, and training required to develop their land. “It’s more high-impact than a direct charity,” Rachman says. 
 Charged with helping Roots of Peace expand its global visibility, the Berkeley students have conducted surveys and interviews with country directors to develop recommendations for rebranding. “We’ll be providing them with a roadmap for using social media” at the end of the semester, says Jessica Clayton, who is earning her master of development practice (MDP) at UC Berkeley and leading the S3 team. The team has also assessed the funding market to help the organization expand its funding base.

“I love hashing out problems with the team because it seems like there’s nothing we can’t solve. We’re a diverse group of five and enjoy bouncing ideas off of each other,” says Rachman. The team includes Jacie Jones, MDP 15; Sergio Ruíz, BS 15; Ravi Agarwal, MPP (Master of Public Policy) 15 . 

The students’ work has also included participating in the U.N.-created International Landmine Awareness Day by participating in a tree-planting ceremony in Marin County, which also included Kuhn and her three children (pictured).

Heidi Kuhn, BA 88, and Kyleigh, Christian, and Tucker Kuhn

Classified: Undergrad Class on Job Success Taps MBA Student Expertise

| by Haas News

This article is part of a series called Classified, in which we spotlight some of the more powerful lessons faculty are teaching in Haas classrooms. If you have a suggestion for a class to feature, please email Haas Newsroom editor Ronna Kelly at [email protected].

One afternoon, two entrepreneurs were talking to undergraduates about their divergent professional paths in Cheit 220. Ben Einstein, BA 14 (Develop. Studies), founded an eBay e-commerce store and is now developing a product recommendation app—think Consumer Reports magazine for smartphones. Another entrepreneur, Dave Wilkinson. is dissolving Vega Football Club, his soccer-for-underprivileged youth venture, as he seeks a new way forward in that field.

The entrepreneurs were the latest guests to speak in a DeCal class called The Workshop: Interview Prep and Job Success, created by Haas undergraduates Caleb Kenney, Harvey Williams, Eric Sassano, and David Noland, all BS 14. DeCal, which stands for democratic education at Cal, is a program in which Berkeley undergraduates can create their own classes with a faculty sponsor.

“The main goal is to help students develop the skills required to successfully navigate the recruiting process for either an internship or full-time job while raising the professional standards of the school as a whole,” explains Kenney.

In a unique twist, Kenney and Williams also have teamed up with Berkeley MBA students to help guide the 60 students in their course, who for one assignment are required to meet with an MBA student for a mock interview.

Steve Lescroart, MBA 14, wished he’d had a similar class as an undergrad studying accounting at the University of San Diego. Students in the DeCal class have tapped Lescroart’s wide exposure to banking, private equity, and corporate strategy to find out if they want to pursue careers in the same fields. Students who are serious about marrying their academics, ambition, and social skills shine, Lescroart says.

During the first half of the semester, the course focused on networking, interviewing, and resume and cover-letter writing skills. The class also has featured several guest speakers talking on such topics as professional dress codes and tips for success in the early years of a career after graduation.

For the rest of the semester students will hear from panels of accounting, banking, and consulting professionals. Haas alumnus and visiting professor John Briginshaw, PhD 03, agreed to sponsor the student-run class after being impressed by Kenney and Williams in his accounting class. Briginshaw says he likes the balance their DeCal class places on academics and social skills.

“It came across very clearly that (Einstein and Wilkinson) were smart people who showed dedication to both their academic and business goals. That's the balance that students need to strive for,” says Briginshaw, who will be sponsoring the class again next semester with two new students (Alexander Moskowitz, BS 15, and Stephanie Wang, BS 16) running it.

Among the advice from the entrepreneurs: Don’t network for the sake of networking—try to get to know people you may want to work for; the 24/7 corporate world isn’t for everyone; find what you are really good at and get better.

Students in the class, meanwhile, say it’s helping them focus their goals. Although she isn’t a Haas student, Frances Tyner, BS 14 (Poli. Econ.), says the exposure the DeCal class has given her to finance is pointing her towards a career in development and microfinance.

Until this course, Tyner says, "I have never been in a position where I have been able to mix with students studying all of these different aspects of business.”

MBA 14 students Chaitan Kanungo and Ton Chookhare (seated in front of white board) speak about their careers in the undergradate class titled The Workshop: Interview Prep and Job Success. 

Top: Caleb Kenney and David Noland; Bottom: Eric Sassano and Harvey Williams. All will graduate this year.

New Breakfast Club Offers Interdisciplinary Forum for PhD Women

| by Haas News

Over coffee, fruit, and pastries, about two dozen female PhD students–and a few male peers–spent one morning talking about dynamic pricing of sports tickets, noisy data, and the impact of gold mining on health and education.

Welcome to the first women’s breakfast for PhD students from Haas, UC Berkeley’s Economics Department, and the Agriculture and Resource Economics Group. The new forum was inspired by a breakfast hosted by WEB, or Women in Economics at Berkeley, a group started in the Economic Department.

“We already like hanging out together,” says Aisling Scott, a second-year Haas PhD student in the Business and Public Policy Group, who organized the new interdisciplinary breakfast with Lydia Ashton and Megan Stevenson, both in ARE, and Sandile Hlatshwayo, in the Economics Dept.  With women in all three departments in a clear minority, the women wanted to create a “comfortable space” for them to talk about their early research and receive feedback, says Scott.

The students plan to hold three breakfasts per semester — each hosted by a different unit — with one student from each unit presenting for 20 minutes at each breakfast. Male PhD students are invited to attend but cannot present their work.

“This is such a great idea to share research across areas,” Kate Ashley, PhD 15, a student in the Haas Operations Management Group, said at the kickoff breakfast as she began her presentation on dynamic pricing for sporting events.

As Ashley talked about fluctuations for a recent Portland Trail Blazers vs.  L.A. Clippers basketball game, students in the audience peppered her with such questions as what other fields outside of sports see such changes? Airlines, hotels, rental cars—services with limited capacity—answered Ashley, who went on to describe a structural demand model for studying the strategy.

“Even though the timeframe for my presentation was short,” Ashley said later, “just getting my work out there led to some valuable conversations afterward. A couple people emailed me about the paper and suggested other papers that are relevant to my research.”

“There is still a much smaller percentage of women in business school PhD programs than men, so I think it’s important to have programs that give us an opportunity to develop our presentation skills,” Ashley added.

“And I really enjoyed hearing the other presentations, too,” she said. “I think it’s good to build these connections in other groups.”

PhD organizers Lydia Ashton, Sandile Hlatshwayo, Aisling Scott, and Megan Stevenson

Alumnae Share Career Lessons on Women Empowerment Day

| by Haas News

Nine alumnae returned to Haas to inspire and prepare nearly 60 young undergraduate women for success at the second annual Women Empowerment Day April 4.

Speaking to students at small, intimate tables over tea in the Wells Fargo Room, the alumnae talked about everything from the value of mentors to their different experiences working with male and female bosses and supervising male and female employees. Students also heard about a huge variety of career paths in such fields as consulting, technology, and even the caviar business.

“What is investor relations?” undergrad Chelsea Itaya, BS 14, asked alumna Wendy Lim, BS 99, who oversees investor relations at Yelp and has had several roles at the company since it has grown from about 50 employees to 1,500.

After explaining that her main responsibility is to communicate to the investment community (current investors, potential investors, analysts, etc.), Lim estimated that community, about one out of every 100 is a woman. But Lim says she might make only slight adjustments to the way she acts in that male-dominated world. “I think there is something about projecting an air of confidence and making sure your voice is heard,” she advised.

Lim also explained how her career path didn’t lead directly to Yelp. She worked at Bain directly after graduating from Haas but felt unsatisfied developing recommendations for clients and not seeing the results of those recommendations put into action. After working at eBay, Clorox, and Yelp, and earning her MBA, she now knows exactly what she likes to do: “I like to build new functions and teams and solve really messy problems.”

After the half-day event, Jesar Shah, BS 15, who is double-majoring in business and computers science, commented on how it provided a rare opportunity to be in a room with so many women.

“A lot of my professors are male,” says Shah, so “meeting all these women in powerful roles was a great opportunity. It was really refreshing.”

One big theme, she says, was balancing family and work. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive, alumna Shaoching Bishop, BS 97, CEO of Sterling Caviar, told Shah and the other students at her table. Bishop, the mother of two, had arrived at the event fresh off a plane from Asia. “She said that due to different cultures people may not accept what you are doing, but at the end of the day what’s important is what makes you happy,” Shah recalls.

“It was very inspiring to be there, and it helped me think of things a little differently,” Shah adds.

The event also featured talks by nationally renowned coach and author Valorie Burton and screenwriter and author Gina Grant. It was organized by Haas Lecturer Krystal Thomas, BS 94, and Undergraduate Program Director Erika Walker.

“Your number one job at Cal is to discover who you are and what your purpose is,” Thomas told students after Grant’s keynote talk. “Don’t have the world tell you what your story should be.”

 

– Lecturer Krystal Thomas, BS 94

UC Berkeley Foundation to Honor Eight Haas Alumni and Friends

| by Haas News

Gerson Bakar, BS 48, and Barbara Bakar will be recognized with the Chancellor’s Award from the UC Berkeley Foundation and six additional Haas alumni will receive awards from the foundation at a special event May 8 at the Claremont Resort & Spa.

The Chancellor’s Award is the Berkeley Foundation’s most prestigious award, honoring an alumnus or friend of UC Berkeley who has given consistently distinguished service to numerous major fundraising programs or campaigns of the university. In 2007, Bakar, a prominent San Francisco real estate developer, and his wife gave $25 million to the Haas School to create at least five new faculty positions. The gift is the largest individual donation in the Haas School’s history.

To honor the Bakars, the Haas School named its faculty wing the Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Building. He also was honored as the Haas School’s Alumnus of the Year in 1991.

After earning his undergraduate business degree at Berkeley, Bakar went on to develop several notable projects in California, including Levi Plaza, San Francisco’s Northpoint Apartments and Mall, Stanford’s Oak Creek Apartments, Carmel Plaza in Carmel, and Park Newport in Newport Beach.

Bakar has been an adviser and consultant to the Haas School for more than 20 years and has served several terms on the Haas School’s advisory board. He also was a founding member and continues to serve on the advisory board of the Haas School’s Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics. In 2007, friends and colleagues of Bakar established the Gerson Bakar-Fisher Center Policy Advisory Board Real Estate Scholarship in his honor. Each year, the fund provides a $10,000 merit scholarship to a Berkeley MBA student with entrepreneurial drive and a passion for real estate.

In addition to Bakar, four members of the Haas community will receive Trustees’ Citation awards to recognize their years of service and support to UC Berkeley: Leo Pircher, BS 54, JD 57; Dato’ Sri Prof. Dr. Tahir; Michael A. Torres, BS 82, MBA 86; and Mike Wood, BS 79.

Two Haas alumni – Kinman Tong, BS 03, and Tyler Wishnoff, BS 13 – will be honored with Young Bear Awards, which are given to a current student, young alumnus, or friend who has demonstrated outstanding achievement on a fundraising project or has accomplished successful outreach to the community or alumni.

  • Tong’s devotion to development at Berkeley started when he was a student leading his Senior Gift Campaign, in which he presented then Chancellor Robert Berdahl with a check for $73,000 raised from his fellow classmates. Since graduating, he has served Berkeley-Haas on several committees, including the Haas Alumni Council, the Development Council, his 10th year reunion committee, and the first Haas Undergraduate Leadership Committee. A CPA by training, Tong is a devoted ambassador to the Haas School who has strengthened the culture of philanthropy among young alumni and current students.
  • Wishnoff began giving back to Berkeley virtually the moment he enrolled as a transfer student his junior year, when he joined the class of 2012 Senior Gift Campaign and then applied his knowledge the following year when he co-chaired both the Berkeley-Haas and the campus-wide senior gift campaigns. As a student, he was a member, and then president, of the Haas Business Student Association, and highly dedicated to building awareness among undergraduates of the Haas School’s Defining Principles. He also managed the Haas Undergraduate Student Blog highlighting student life at Haas. His love for Cal didn’t end when he graduated: While working at Cisco, he has continued to serve the school as his class engagement officer, reaching out to classmates on behalf of the university.

Learn more about the UC Berkeley Awards.

Haas Helps Prof. Alan Cerf Celebrate 90th Birthday

| by Haas News
Haas Professor and alumnus Alan Cerf

Even today living to be 90 years old is still a major milestone. Add teaching a Taxation class to 60 undergraduates each semester to that milestone and you have a rare and impressive accomplishment recently achieved by Haas Professor and alumnus Alan Cerf, who was celebrated at a surprise birthday party earlier this month in the Wells Fargo Room.

Students, alumni, faculty, staff, and family members came out for the festivities, sharing heartfelt words about Cerf, BS 44, who earned his degree when the business school was called the College of Commerce and the dean was E.T. Grether.

“This is an extraordinary lifetime of contribution not just to this institution but to so many people’s lives,” Dean Rich Lyons said at the party. “He’s advanced the careers and made better lives for an awful lot of our students.”

Cerf has taught an estimated 14,000 students since joining the Berkeley faculty in 1955. He currently teaches the Federal Income Taxation in the undergraduate program.

“I’ve seen the school grow, and now Rich is leading us in great new directions,” Cerf told the well-wishers.

Alumnus Brian Rowbotham, BS 72, MBA 73, is among those 14,000 students whom Cerf has taught. He marked the occasion by presenting a $3,000 check to the Center for Financial Reporting and Management.

“When you look on Professor Cerf’s bio for the school, it says, ‘On Duty,’ which really says it all,” Rowbotham added. “You’ve got a lot of miles, but you are still young at heart.”

Rowbotham noted that a big jump in women in business school is among the many changes Cerf has seen over the years. Indeed, the school’s Center for Financial Reporting and Management has is now led by Maria Nondorf.

“I’ve been here for 11 years, which is a tiny drop in the bucket compared to Alan’s experience,” Nondorf said. “My first day, Alan stopped by my office. He made me feel so welcome and has been a great colleague and a great mentor for me throughout my time here.”

Another alumnus, Paul Reshke, BS 82, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, credited Cerf with shifting the direction of his career 32 years ago. He already had landed a job at a Big 8 accounting firm when he decided to take Cerf’s tax class his senior year. “Little did I know that (would) put a seed in my head and within five months of starting … I moved out of auditing and transferred to tax and ended up making it my career,” Reshke said.

For the last several years, Reshke has returned to Cerf’s class to sit on a tax panel and guest lecture on estate and gift taxes. While describing that experience, Reshke alluded to one possible secret to Cerf’s longevity, recalling how during one visit, Cerf asked if he could interrupt the talk for a short exercise break.

“Sure enough one of his students comes down halfway through the lecture, and she leads the class through some exercises,” Reshke recalled lightheartedly.

“When I sit in the classroom,” Reshke added, “it’s clear that the students really enjoy your never-ending enthusiasm and that you still enjoy teaching young people. It’s neat to see.”

Student Startup Roundup: Brandizi, Teaman, and Volunteer Forever

| by Haas News

This is part of an occasional series of articles spotlighting students who are juggling their studies with starting a new business or social enterprise.

BrandiziSoftware Pivots
Kim Cabot, MBA 14
Co-founder, Brandizi

As a marketing director at a big company, Kim Cabot used to think about all the ways she could improve communication. The company worked in silos, with everyone running their own email and social media campaigns. “Things were inefficient and (software) tools were expensive,” she says.

Cabot’s idea for Brandizi slowly took shape.

By the time she started at Haas, Cabot had co-founded Brandizi with her husband, who earned his MBA at Babson College, and was a half-million lines of code into building new software.

Yet during Sara Beckman’s Problem Finding, Problem Solving class, Cabot realized that her product, designed without potential users’ feedback, “was not going to happen the way we were building it.” Cabot was accepted into the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program overseen by the Haas School’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship.

“We told Lester Center Director Andre Marquis, ‘We’re a little backward. We have something built and now we have to figure out if anyone wants it and for what,” she says. That wasn’t all that unusual among entrepreneurs, she discovered.

During the I-Corps Program, the Brandizi team found the product wasn’t a perfect fit with marketing managers. They told the team to take it to sales managers, who rely heavily on email and social media. “Sales managers said, ‘This is great. It helps me sell,’” she recalls.

The product automates and improves email, social media, and other communication streams between a company and client during the sales cycle and ongoing company relationship.

“We’re adding customers all the time now,” Cabot says, “and learning that the customer discovery process never ends—we have I-Corps to thank for that.”

Brandizi currently has 25 customers, who typically have about 10 users each, and has raised $1 million in angel funding.

Now Cabot is working with entrepreneurship lecturer Dave Charron, MBA 95, in independent study. “He’s been amazing,” she says. “He’s super smart. He can listen to anyone talk about their company in any industry, and he just gets the weak link.”

The best advice Cabot received from Charron: "Don’t be afraid to ask for more money for your product. And think big.”

TeamanA Real Gem
Alastair Trueger, MBA 15
Co-founder, Teaman & Company

Alastair Trueger co-founded Teaman & Company to bring fine gemstones and luxury, custom-made jewelry to a market beyond the very wealthy.

Based in San Francisco, Teaman & Company was recently accepted into 500 Startups, an incubator program in Silicon Valley that provides early-stage companies with up to $250,000 in funding. “It’s exciting,” Trueger says. “It shows that we have traction and we’re doing interesting stuff.”

Teaman’s products range from $30 gemstones like the aquamarine to a $17,500 raspberry-pink Tourmaline ring from Brazil. “There’s an entire world of stunning gemstones beyond diamonds that most people have never heard about,” says Trueger, who stresses that Teaman sells only ethically sourced and conflict-free jewelry.

The company is tapping the cutting-edge technology to introduce the world to these gems. Customers worldwide can create their own jewelry designs, and Teaman then sends them a model created using a 3D printer to review before the final product is created.

Trueger began working on the company last July with his co-founder, Chloe Alpert, a certified gemologist who was raised in the jewelry industry. The two met in London, where Trueger previously lived. (He’s American and British and has worked in India and the Philippines.)

A vast support network at Haas has helped Trueger navigate his job at Teaman, he says, citing classes in leadership and operations and valuable feedback from Professor Toby Stewart, faculty director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, and Haas Lecturer Rob Chandra, a senior adviser to Bessemer Partners.

The company’s first sale? An engagement ring for a classmate. “She’s been a fantastic evangelist for us,” Trueger says.

Volunteer Forever LogoHelping Volunteers Abroad
Kelly Ling and Steve Weddle, both MBA 15, Co-founders
Volunteer Forever

Like many startups, Volunteer Forever emerged to solve the pain points of its co-founders. Both Steven Weddle and Kelly Ling had volunteered abroad, Weddle in India and Ling in Costa Rica, and found the experience expensive and a bit unnerving.

“I was more nervous landing in New Delhi than when I landed in Afghanistan with the Air Force a few years back,” says Weddle, who served in the Air Force for seven years.

After paying $2,000 for airfare, travel, and insurance, he wasn’t sure the organization he’d volunteered to work for was legitimate, or whether anyone would even pick him up at the airport. Nonetheless, he says, his three weeks working in an orphanage for children with HIV/ AIDS turned out to be remarkable.

Still, Weddle couldn’t stop thinking about how to make the experience easier for others. After meeting Ling at the start of the MBA program, the pair began discussing a Kickstarter-like platform that could be used by individuals who want to raise money to cover the costs of their trips, coupled with Trip Advisory-style program reviews for potential volunteers to read about the experience of others.

Since coming out of beta in fall 2013, Volunteer Forever now receives 50,000 visits a month and has about 3,000 users. Collectively, volunteers have raised well over $500,000 to travel largely to Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central America. Volunteer Forever makes money by collecting 5 percent of each donation and will soon earn revenue through advertisements from international volunteer organizations.

Sara Beckman’s Problem Finding, Problem Solving class helped Ling and Weddle to think more about how other people understood their idea and to consider designing it in ways not done before.

They also entered the Global Social Venture Competition and UC Berkeley Startup Competition to seek feedback from users and investors with a potential cash prize.

PhD Student Michael Weber Receives Top Finance Graduate Award

| by Haas News

Michael Weber, PhD 14, has been recognized with a Top Finance Graduate Award by the Copenhagen Business School, becoming the first Haas PhD student to receive this honor.

The award recognizes the graduate whose dissertation and broader research potential carry the greatest promise of making an impact on the finance practice and academia. The selection committee is composed of six of the most influential finance scholars worldwide. Weber was among six students selected to receive the award in 2014; another Berkeley student, Victoria Vanasco, from the Department of Economics, also received the award this year; her advisers include Haas professors William Fuchs and Christine Parlour.

Weber was recognized for his dissertation “Nominal Rigidities and Asset Pricing,” which he will present to the selection committee In June at the Copenhagen Business School.

A native of Heidelberg, Germany, Weber is starting a position as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in July. He says that his nervousness passed after the first five minutes of the University of Chicago interview and he began to enjoy the questions from his future colleagues.

“The tough yet transparent attitude of the Chicago finance group fits my attitude toward research very well,” he says. In Chicago Weber will teach MBA students their core finance class in Investments.

In his dissertation, Weber shows that the inability of firms to adjust their product prices to economic shocks exposes firms to higher systematic risk. Being riskier implies these firms earn a return premium. His favorite example of price rigidities is the Wall Street Journal, which charged a constant nominal cover price of 5 cents during the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and World War II despite large swings in macroeconomic fundamentals.

The importance of price rigidities has been long recognized in macroeconomics and is actually considered the leading explanation why the Federal Reserve can stimulate the real economy with purely nominal monetary policy. But finance as a field has largely ignored rigid prices, mainly due to data restrictions.

Weber’s research interests span the fields of asset pricing, macroeconomics, international finance, and household finance. Working papers he co-authored include “Antisemitism Affects Households’ Investments,” “Are Sticky Prices Costly? Evidence from the Stock Market,” and “The Term Structure of Equity Returns: Risk or Mispricing?” Another paper, “Conditional Risk Premia in Currency Markets and Other Classes,” co-authored with Haas Professor Martin Lettau, was awarded the prestigious AQR Insight Award in 2013 and is now forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Economics.

May 12: Celebrate the Haas Courtyard Dedication

| by Haas News

The entire Haas community is invited to the dedication of the Robert G. O’Donnell Courtyard on Monday, May 12, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. The redesigned courtyard, which opened last spring, has been officially named in recognition of the $5 million contribution O’Donnell, BS 65, MBA 66, and his wife, Sue, made to the campaign to transform the Haas campus.

The O’Donnell Courtyard is a larger, more inviting, and more flexible outdoor hub of activity than the area before the renovation. On any given day it buzzes with conversations and collaborations among members of the Haas and broader Berkeley communities.

“The courtyard is a fitting space to bear Bob O’Donnell’s name as he excels at inspiring community,” says Haas Dean Rich Lyons.

O’Donnell, a retired portfolio manager and director of Capital Research and Management Company, improved the partnership between trustees and campus deans when he served as vice chair and then chair of the UC Berkeley Foundation Board of Trustees from 2003 to 2007. A longtime Cal benefactor, he has been a pro bono lecturer at Haas for more than 10 years, sharing his insights from a successful investment management career. In 2011, Haas named him its Business Leader of the Year.

The courtyard renovation replaced intrusive elevated planters with smartly landscaped stretches of uninterrupted space shaded by 12 new maple trees. New stone pavers engraved with the Defining Principles lend a subtle reminder of the culture that unites the school. The tables, already a popular gathering spot for lunches and group meetings, can be configured to accommodate a variety of functions, including career fairs, alumni events, and class orientations.

The dedication will feature the unveiling of a new plaque naming the courtyard, and guests will enjoy ice cream and Italian ices.

Learn more about Bob O’Donnell in this 2011 CalBusiness (now BerkeleyHaas) magazine cover story.

Financial Engineering Grad Lands on Magazine Cover

| by Haas News
Varun Tomar on the cover of Traders Magazine

Recent Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering graduate Varun Tomar’s 15 minutes of fame came this week when his picture at Berkeley-Haas was splashed across the cover of Traders Magazine.

Varun’s photo was featured in the April 2014 issue Traders as part of a cover feature on the top 10 trading schools, including the Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) Program. An article titled “Young Guns Hit the Trading Floor” begins with Tomar earning his master’s in financial engineering this spring and heading to Chicago to work as a quantitative trader on the currency and U.S. Treasury desk at Sun Trading, a quant hedge fund.

“When I was at Berkeley, there were students from all over the world, PhDs, physicists, even professors who had come back to school for a master’s in financial engineering,”  Tomar said in the article. “This is the culmination of a lifelong ambition for me.”

The April 2014 issue of the magazine also featured its list of the top 10 trading schools, selected by a judging panel that included buy-side traders and insiders who have hired recent graduates. A section on the Berkeley MFE Program highlighted it as one of the nation’s first financial engineering programs offered by a business school and also noted the school’s required internship, which it said creates a focus on career development. The article also noted the school’s ties to such firms Citibank, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs.

Read about the Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering Program in Traders Magazine.

 

Undergrad Program Ranks #1 for ROI, Full-time MBA Makes Top 10 in Mexican Ranking

| by Haas News

The Haas Undergraduate Program ranked #1 among business schools based on their 20-year return on investment in a recent ranking, while the Full-time Berkeley MBA Program placed #6 among US schools in a ranking by Spanish-speaking publication CNN Expansión.

Undergraduate Ranking

Haas was the only business school  to have a 20-year ROI of more than $1 million for California residents and more than $900,000 for out-of-state residents, according to a ranking compiled by the salary-tracking website PayScale. PayScale estimated the annual ROI of a Haas undergrad degree at 11.6 percent for California residents and 8.6 percent for out-of-state residents.

PayScale calculated the ROI by determining the total income a graduate will earn 20 years after graduation, minus both what they would have earned as a high school graduate and the cost of college, minus the average financial aid amount awarded to students at that school.

See the ranking at payscale.com/college-roi/full-list/by-major/Business.

Full-time MBA Ranking

In the CNN Expansión ranking, the Full-time Berkeley MBA Program again ranked #6 among U.S. schools and #8 worldwide.

The ranking is based on data supplied by participating business schools and an Expansión readership survey. It considers:

  • Academic quality: GMAT scores, faculty research (as published in the Financial Times), and percentage of faculty with PhDs.
  • Return on investment, based on post-graduation salaries.
  • A program’s internationalization: percent of international students and number of countries represented.
  • A program’s reputation among Expansion’s readership.

The U.S. ranking is in keeping with other sources that evaluate our Full-time MBA Program. For example, the full-time program was ranked #3 by The Economist, #7 by U.S. News, and #8 by the Financial Times.

See the CNN Expansión ranking at cnnexpansion.com/tablas/2014/03/05/los-mejores-mba-globales-2014.

Global Social Venture Competition to Award Record $55K in Prizes, Celebrate 15 Years

| by Haas News

Eighteen entrepreneurial teams from around the world will gather next week at the Haas School to compete for a record $55,000 in prizes at the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) finals.

Held from April 9 to April 11, the GSVC global finals will showcase a broad range of innovative business ideas addressing everything from celebrity-sponsored nonprofit fundraising to salinity sensors for small-plot shrimp farmers—all designed to generate positive social impact.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the competition has awarded more than $500,000 to emerging social ventures since its founding by Berkeley MBA students.

To help celebrate the anniversary, several GSVC alumni will give presentations during a conference that coincides with the April 11 public finals. Keynote speakers will include Kirsten Saenz Tobey, MBA 06, founder and chief impact officer of 2007 GSVC winner Revolution Foods, and Priya Haji, MBA 03, co-founder and CEO of SaveUp and co-founder of GSVC 2005 winner World of Good. Carlos Orellana, MBA/MPH 10, founder and CEO of salaUno is the keynote speaker for a private awards dinner on April 11.

Conference breakout sessions include : GSVC Alumni: Learnings from 15 Years of Global Change; Social Intrapreneurship: Making a Big Impact Inside a Big Company; and Financing Social Ventures, among other topics.

“For the last 15 years, the GSVC has empowered entrepreneurs to launch sustainable ventures that are improving the health of ecosystems and communities from Berkeley to Burkina Faso,” says GSVC Co-chair Ali Kelley, MBA 15. “As students, we are encouraged to apply business skills to effect positive, real-world change. Social impact is ingrained in Haas culture.”

This year’s competition attracted some 500 team entries from 44 different countries.

Teams are drawn from a global network of 14 partner schools and outreach organizations, including two newly added Latin American schools: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. After competing in one of several regional semifinals, the top two teams from each region advance to the global finals held each spring at UC Berkeley.

This year, 22 teams, including 12 Haas-affiliated teams, participated in the U.S. western regional semifinals held March 21 at Haas. The two regional winners that will move on to the global finals are LegWorks and earthenable.

LegWorks, which includes Emily Lutyens, MBA 13, has developed an artificial knee joint that it says costs less than one-tenth that of existing products and enables users to walk more efficiently, safely, and comfortably. The group hopes its device will help lower-limb amputees in developed as well as under-resourced countries, where disabilities often lead to poverty.

“Our vision is to develop and supply all components of a complete prosthetic leg solution for amputees no matter where they live or their ability to pay,” Lutyens says.

Earthenable makes earthen floors that provide Rwandans with a healthier alternative to dirt floors. The $30 earthen floors—made of packed, sealed materials such as gravel, sand, clay, and fiber—cost far less than the $300 to $500 for concrete floors.

Next week’s GSVC global final consists of two consecutive rounds. During the private first round on April 10, the 18 finalist teams will present to a panel of judges, which will then choose six to eight teams to compete the following day for cash prizes at the public global final.

In addition to the $25,000 grand prize, $15,000 second prize, and $7,500 third prize, the finalists on the second day can win the $1,500 People’s Choice Award, which is bestowed by audience votes. All remaining finalists from the first day are eligible to win the $1,000 Quick Pitch Award, which is also determined by audience votes.

This year’s competition also features a $5,000 award sponsored by Intel for the best technology solution. All finalist teams will also benefit from an April 9 GSVC boot camp (offered last year as well) that provides workshops and educational training to finalists.

Registration is required for the April 11 GSVC global finals, which runs from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information about the GSVC global finals and conference, visit gsvc.org/finals-conference.

Haas Real Estate Conference to Drill Down on Big Data, San Francisco Gentrification

| by Haas News

Hot topics like Big Data and land-use conflicts and development in San Francisco will be among the subjects discussed at the 19th Annual Fisher Center Real Estate Conference April 28 in San Francisco.

In addition, Fisher Center Chairman Ken Rosen will share his popular forecast for the upcoming year. He will be joined by Cal alumnus Robert Lalanne, BA 78 (Archit.), UC Berkeley’s new vice chancellor for real estate, as the other keynote speaker.

Conference panels will also tackle issues including government involvement in capital markets, the intersection of real estate and Big Data, and what’s ahead for California in residential markets.

Industry experts who will speak at the conference include :

The conference runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, immediately followed by a cocktail reception.

Registration link: regonline.com/19thAnnualConference Conference website: groups.haas.berkeley.edu/realestate/ExecEd/AnnConfinfo.html