Haas to Honor Financier and Bluegrass Benefactor Warren Hellman, BA 55, at Gala

Alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends are invited to celebrate the Haas School and honor 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Warren Hellman, BA 55, at the annual Haas Gala on Friday, Nov. 5, at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

The black-tie-optional event will start with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by dinner, award presentations, and live music and dancing. The master of ceremonies will be Diane Dwyer, BS 87, an NBC Bay Area news anchor who is now teaching an undergraduate media course at Haas.

The evening will honor Hellman in recognition of his countless accomplishments in business and philanthropic efforts, including the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival last weekend and generous support of the Haas School and UC Berkeley.

Hellman, a Haas Board member since 1987, is the co-founder of Hellman & Friedman, a well-regarded private equity firm in San Francisco. He also served as president of Lehman Brothers and founded a venture capital firm in Boston now called Matrix Partners. Although Hellman is probably best known for starting and funding the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park, he is also a supporter of several nonprofits, including the San Francisco Foundation, the San Francisco Free Clinic, and the Bay Citizen news website.

Hellman, who triple-majored in economics, political science, and history at Cal, also has supported UC Berkeley in many ways. In 2004, he joined three partners to endow Cal's aquatics program. In 1994, Hellman and his family gave a $5 million gift to create the Hellman Fellows Program, which has supported the research of more than 200 junior faculty.

"Warren Hellman is a man of great humility, despite his amazing track record in building successful companies and undertaking new ventures for the community," says Dean Rich Lyons. "He is an archetype of the leader we aim to develop here at Berkeley-Haas."

During the gala, IDEO General Manager and alumnus Tom Kelley, MBA 83, also will be awarded the school's Leading Through Innovation Award. (See related story here.)

In addition, the Haas School will honor Marcelo Vasquez, MBA 02,with the Raymond E. Miles Alumni Service Award; MBA 2009 graduates Mahta Eghbali, Jacob Rios, Santiago Rodriguez de Miguel, and Nora Tucker, as winners of the UC Berkeley Young Bear Award; and the East Bay Chapter of the Haas Alumni Network as the winner of the HAN Chapter of the Year Award. Our Haas Leadership Society members and Class Gift Committee members will recognized and thanked for their generosity and legacy.

To attend the Gala, RSVP by October 22 at the Gala website.

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