Author: Haas News

Melissa Hacker, BA 02, the new director of student affairs for the Berkeley-Haas PhD program, brings a wealth of graduate program experience and a depth of financial expertise to her new role.

Hacker succeeds Kim Guilfoyle, who retired after nine years in the job. Hacker started at Haas Aug. 18th.

Hacker, who grew up in San Francisco, spent more than seven years as undergraduate and graduate student services advisor in the UC Berkeley Department of Music. As graduate advisor, she worked closely with all 55 PhD students on all aspects of the graduate program, guiding them through the qualifying exams, degree requirements, and dissertation filings. 

She also managed multi-year financial packages and fellowships.  In addition to developing financial projections to determine funding and yield strategies, she also evaluated and advised on fellowship nominees.

Most recently, Hacker served as program administrator with the Center for Jewish Studies at UC Berkeley, where she directed operational, administrative, and financial functions for the Center.

Senior Assistant Dean for Instruction Jay Stowsky and PhD Program Director Martin Lettau appointed Hacker.

Stowsky says he was impressed by her proven ability to manage the complicated structure of Berkeley’s music department, where she oversaw three PhD student concentrations. “Melissa is used to managing in a complex environment, where there are different subject matter groups, as well as a need to work to attract external resources,” he says. 

Last year, Dean Rich Lyons established a new financial model to strengthen the PhD program. Enrollment this year is up to 79 total students in six fields of study: accounting, business and public policy, finance, marketing, management of organizations, and real estate.

“That structure needs to be managed by the director and we’re confident that Melissa will keep the program strong,” Stowsky says, adding that Hacker will benefit from a strong Berkeley campus network she’s built over the years, as well as the guidance she received from having Guilfoyle as her staff mentor in the staff Mentorship Program. “She learned from the very best,” he says.

As director of student affairs, Hacker, who works closely with Assistant Director Bradley Jong, oversees academic advising, financial aid, recruitment, and PhD admissions. Hacker will also advise the associate dean, group chairs, and faculty in areas needing clarification or review and in identifying solutions to new challenges in the PhD program.

The incoming class of 14 PhD students is a diverse group, half international, with students hailing from China, Pakistan, Israel, the Netherlands and Russia. They enter Haas from institutions including UC Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Columbia, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Tsinghua University, and the London School of Economics. About 36 percent of the class is comprised of women.

Leaving one’s job to become an entrepreneur is inarguably risky. But it may not be the fear of risk that makes entrepreneurs more determined to succeed. A new study finds entrepreneurs are also concerned about what they might lose in the transition from steady employment to startup.

In Entrepreneurship and Loss-Aversion in a Winner-Take-All Society, Prof. John Morgan and co-author Dana Sisak, assistant professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, focused on the powerful impact of loss aversion.

Loss aversion, or the fear of losing one’s salary at a full-time job, along with its prestige, is directly linked to the amount of effort an entrepreneur puts into a startup. Loss aversion, the researchers found, is what drives most entrepreneurs, not a love of risk.

“There is a view that entrepreneurs are often overconfident gamblers, who thrive on risk, yet there is little evidence to support this view,” says Morgan, who studies competition in online markets at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. “Entrepreneurs aren’t Steve Jobs. They’re just ordinary people who want to start a business. I wanted to try to understand a little better what motivated those individuals.”

Many studies focus on what makes a successful entrepreneur different than the rest of us. Morgan sought to learn what motivates individuals to sacrifice a secure job, and what determines an entrepreneur’s effort to succeed.

The study is based on a theoretical model the researchers developed and was inspired by the dramatic stories people like to tell about risk-taking entrepreneurs.

All entrepreneurs have a “reference point,” which defines how they feel about their salary or, say, happiness level, compared to others, Morgan says. That reference point is not connected to profits and losses, but is directly linked to how much or little the entrepreneurs are willing to lose when starting a company.

Morgan and Sisak found an entrepreneur’s level of ongoing concern about loss aversion correlates with entrepreneurial effort. In other words, entrepreneurs who put a high stake on avoiding loss – more so than acquiring new gains – worked harder.

Morgan used a winner-take-all framework, which is common within the Internet startup environment, for his study of entrepreneurs. Startups such as Facebook or Twitter might not offer the best platforms, but still dominate their markets. In markets such as real estate, where there is no clear single winner, this model would be less appropriate, Morgan says. “For every Facebook, there were hundreds of failed ventures,” he says. “We model this aspect of entrepreneurial markets explicitly.” This research can help entrepreneurs gain self-knowledge so they make better decisions and have a clear understanding of “why they’re doing what they’re doing,” Morgan says.

“One of the most important traps entrepreneurs fall into is when they’re not experiencing success and they become increasingly willing to take risks because of where they are psychologically,” he says. “One lesson from the research is to be careful when you are behind. It’s not necessarily the best decision to double down.”

In other words, risk aversion can be a good thing.

Morgan recently presented the paper at the Summer Institute in Competitive Strategy, presented by the Haas Marketing Group and sponsored by the Institute for Business Innovation.

See the paper here: http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/rjmorgan/LossAversion.pdf

Ben Mangan, a veteran social enterprise leader and Haas lecturer since 2011, has been named the new executive director of the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership (CNPL).

For the last four years, Mangan has taught management and leadership of nonprofits and social ventures to Haas undergraduates each spring. He plans to teach year-round in his new role, which he started August 18.

Meantime, Nora Silver, the former director of the CNPL, has been named its first faculty director. In her new role, Silver will focus on curriculum development, research, professional teaching faculty, and making the center’s work more visible.

The decision to split the directorship into faculty and executive director positions reflects an expansion of the center’s research work and increasing interest in social entrepreneurship and social impact work.

Mangan co-founded and, for nearly 14 years, served as president and CEO of EARN, a provider of goal-based savings accounts to low-wage workers in the U.S. As part of his move to CNPL, Mangan stepped down as EARN’s CEO.

“We are delighted to welcome Ben as the new executive director of the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership,” says Laura Tyson, faculty director of the Institute for Business & Social Impact, which houses CNPL. “Ben comes to the center as a successful social entrepreneur who has built a nonprofit that provides savings opportunities for the unbanked and low-income communities. He is recognized nationally as an innovator and thought leader who 'thinks beyond himself' to tackle significant social challenges.”

As director of CNPL, Mangan says he plans to implement new approaches for creating social impact.

"Haas and CNPL are incredibly well positioned to suggest a more prescriptive way to achieve social impact,” he says. “The idea is to adapt proven principles of business leadership and practice—like human-centered design and the lean principles—to the social sector much more deeply, much as EARN has done.”

Mangan holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard, with concentrations in finance and strategic management, and an undergraduate degree from Vassar College, with a major in Native American History.

In late 2011 Mangan helped launch the award-winning UC Berkeley chapter of Enactus, a national nonprofit that trains students to use business skills for social good. He also regularly advises Haas undergrads, MBAs, and other students on leadership and innovation.

Recognized for his leadership by Fast Company, the James Irvine Foundation, Tipping Point, and others, Mangan also blogs for the Huffington Post and is an influencer on LinkedIn.

Contact Ben Mangan at [email protected]. (415)-217-3662.