UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY'S HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—Douglas E. Goldman, M.D. received the Berkeley-Haas Business Leader of the Year award at a gala on Nov. 15 in San Francisco. The honor recognizes Goldman's successful business career, philanthropy, and commitment to the University and the Haas School of Business.
“I am both thrilled and honored to be named Berkeley-Haas Business Leader of the Year,” said Goldman, “I shared an extremely close and endearing relationship with my grandfather, Walter Haas, and receiving this special award from the institution that bears his name is especially meaningful to me and my family.”
Goldman is chairman and founder of Certain, Inc., a leading global provider of enterprise-level, event-management, SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions; president and co-founder of the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, a private charitable foundation that provides support for numerous organizations in the Bay Area and beyond; chairman and CEO of the Stern Grove Festival Association; and immediate past president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, which awards the Goldman Environmental Prize –aka the “Green Nobel” –to grassroots environmental organizations around the world.
The fourth of five generations of Cal alumni in his family, Goldman has remained engaged with the University since his days on campus when, in 1974, he earned a BA in psychology. He has served as a trustee of the University of California, Berkeley Foundation and as an advisory board member at the Haas School of Business, among other volunteer roles. Of numerous commitments to academics, he and his wife supported the Lisa and Douglas E. Goldman Scholarship Fund and the College of Letters & Science’s cross-disciplinary “Big Ideas” curriculum, bringing prominent professors from divergent disciplines together to teach undergraduate courses focused on a single vital concept or controversy.
Since 1970, Berkeley-Haas has annually presented the Business Leader of the Year or Lifetime Achievement Award to a graduate or notable business leader in recognition of professional accomplishment, business leadership, and service to the University and Haas School. Federal Reserve Board Chair nominee and Berkeley-Haas Professor Emeritus Janet Yellen received last year’s award.
Also honored at the 12th annual Haas Gala: Revolution Foods co-founders and Berkeley-Haas alumni Kristin Groos Richmond and Kirsten Saenz Tobey. The team received the Leading through Innovation Award for helping transform the way K-12 students eat at school. Their company serves one million healthy meals every week to students in nearly 1,000 schools across the US and recently expanded into retail with a line of natural Meal Kits. Richmond and Tobey each earned an MBA from Berkeley-Haas in 2006.