Diverse Cast of Speakers to Visit Haas This Fall

Researchers from around the globe and executives from such companies as Peet's Coffee and Tea, Goldman Sachs, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will share their insights with the Haas community at various speaker series this fall.

Center for Responsible Business

Next week the Center for Responsible Business is sponsoring a panel discussion titled “Are Bankers Aiming at a Sustainable Financial Sector” featuring Haas Professor Jim Wilcox and bankers from Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo and a former banker with BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors.

Dean Rich Lyons will moderate the panel, which will run from 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15, in the Bank of America Forum. Register for the event on Facebook.

For more details on upcoming events hosted by the Center for Responsible Business, visit http://responsiblebusiness.haas.berkeley.edu/events.html.

Open Innovation

The Open Innovation Speaker Series is bringing 14 authorities in the field of open innovation to Haas this semester. The sessions take place in Room 250 of Sutardja Dai Hall in the northeast corner of campus on Tuesdays, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

“More than 50 percent of the speakers are professors and researchers from other institutions around the world coming to share research on how open innovation is opening up new avenues to adapt to the changing global environment and promote sustainability for businesses,” says Solomon Darwin, associate director of the Haas Center for Open Innovation.

The speakers include Robert Rodriguez, founder and chairman of Security Innovation Network, who will talk on sharing cyber security inventions and innovations in order to make the world a safer place (Sept. 28); and Dan Cherian, general manager, sustainable business innovation,  at Nike, which is working with other companies to ensure its shoes can be readily recycled into other products (Oct. 10).

For the Open Innovation Series schedule, visit http://openinnovation.haas.berkeley.edu/speaker_series.html.

Entrepreneurship

The Lester Center’s Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum will bring John Foraker, CEO of Annie’s Inc., and Laila Tarraf, chief people officer of Peet’s Coffee and Tea, to Andersen Auditorium on Sept. 23 to discuss the challenges of the food business.

The forum, entitled “Food Entrepreneurship: The Story of Two Local Companies,” will be moderated by Greg Beattie, a partner at MBV Law, a Bay Area law firm, and will run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. There also will be a networking hour featuring tables with representatives from ten companies, including Lotus Foods, Navitas Naturals, Purity.Organic, and Rock Wall Wines.

For more details on upcoming Lester Center events, visit http://entrepreneurship.berkeley.edu/news/.

Nonprofit and Public Leadership

The Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership’s Schwab Charitable Speaker Series will have two programs this fall. Jodi Nelson, the director of impact at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Emily Parker, the foundation’s senior strategy officer will speak on “What Bill and Melinda Gates Do, Strategy and Metrics for Social Impact,” from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Sept. 30 in the Wells Fargo Room.

For more details on events sponsored by the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership, visit http://nonprofit.haas.berkeley.edu/events.html.

Energy

Energy researchers, meanwhile, will be presenting their ongoing work at the Energy Institute at Haas’ seminar series on Fridays from 3:40 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the institute at 2547 Channing Way, Berkeley.

Among this fall’s programs are “The Effect of Gasoline Prices on the Demand for Fuel Economy in Used Vehicles: Empirical Evidence and Policy Implications,” presented by Jim Sallee, professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, on Oct. 29. Haas Professor Severin Borenstein, co-faculty director of the Energy Institute at Haas, and Assistant Professor Lucas Davis will present “The Equity and Efficiency of Two-Part Tariffs in U.S. Natural Gas Markets,” on Dec. 10.

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