Author: Laura Counts
Prof. Severin Borenstein: Making policy in an uncertain world
Prof. Catherine Wolfram: Do Utilities Like Heat Waves?
Bringing Fairness to Energy Programs
Remembering Real Estate Leader & Philanthropist Gerson P. Bakar, BS 48
Prof. Lucas Davis: Stop Blaming Drivers for Mexico City’s Smog
14 Haas Highlights From 2014
The year kicked off with the historic confirmation of one of our own as the nation’s economic leader, and ended with the start of construction of the state-of-the-art North Academic Building.
As we say goodbye to 2014, here are 14 of the year’s top stories.
Berkeley-Haas Professor Emeritus Janet Yellen sworn in as chair of the Federal Reserve.
The historic appointment made Yellen the first woman to lead the nation’s central banking system and monetary policy. Yellen taught thousands of Berkeley-Haas students in the undergraduate, full-time MBA, and Evening & Weekend MBA programs.
A record number of women entered the Full-time Berkeley MBA program.
The Class of 2016 is 43 percent women—the highest among top U.S. business schools. The class reflects the record percentage of women who applied (average GMAT scores increases as well). The Executive MBA program also has a record percentage of women, and the percentage of women in the Evening & Weekend MBA program increased as well.
Haas is also attracting record numbers of vets. This year, 61 students in the undergraduate, MBA, and Master of Financial Engineering degree programs are veterans of the U.S. military.
Oakland A’s legend Billy Beane surprised new MBA students.
As incoming Full-Time Berkeley MBA students warmed up with a case about Major League Baseball management during orientation week, little did they know that A’s Moneyball legends Beane and Sandy Alderson were on deck with real-life lessons.
The Evening & Weekend Program was again ranked #1 by U.S. News.
All three Berkeley MBA programs placed among the top 10 schools in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings, and the Evening & Weekend MBA Program topped the list of part-time programs for the second straight year. The Full-time MBA Program ranked #7 among full-time programs for the seventh year in a row, and the new Berkeley MBA for Executives tied for #9 with UNC Chapel Hill, up from #10 last year.
Haas professors’ research revealed surprising insights about liars, gamblers, and political correctness.
New research debunked the stereotype of entrepreneurs as overconfident risk takers, examined how much willpower it can take to be honest, linked betting behaviors to dopamine levels, and found that the unconscious mind can detect a liar—even when the conscious mind fails.
Other highlights: politically correct workplaces may spur creativity, why paid search doesn’t always pay off, and a hefty award to analyze whether federal inspections actually make workplaces safer, and more.
Homa Bahrami won the 2014 Best Case Series Best Case Award for her Mozilla employee study.
Bahrami, a senior lecturer in the Management of Organization’s Group, studied Mozilla Corp.’s efforts to manage a diverse base of paid employees and volunteers. The Best Case Award was created to showcase unconventional management strategies and disruptive trends. Bahrami’s paper was published in the Fall 2013 issue of the California Management Review.
YEAH program graduate is first to return to Haas.
The Young Entrepreneurs at Haas (YEAH) Program has been helping underserved Bay Area students go to college for nearly 25 years. This year, Palwasha Khatri, BS 15, became the first YEAH graduate to enroll at Haas as an undergrad. “I’m majoring in business because of the YEAH Program,” she says.
The Dean’s Speaker Series brought a diverse group of luminaries to speak at Haas—and mingle with students—throughout the year. Speakers included General Bikram Singh, Former Chief of Army Staff, Indian Army; Haas Professor Laura Tyson and Berkeley Economics Professor Emanuel Saez at a panel discussion on income inequality in the 21st Century; Duncan Niederauer, former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange; Deanna Berkeley, president of alice + olivia; James White, CEO and president of Jamba Juice; and U.S. Army Reserve Brigadier General Tammy Smith.
Other fall speakers included Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California & former United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
And here’s the list of the spring 2014 speakers.
The first class of students completed the new Berkeley MBA for Executives program.
Since its launch in May 2013, the new program has held highly successful immersion weeks in Silicon Valley, Washington DC, and Shanghai. Next up? Brazil.
Green tech investor Stuart Bernstein named Business Leader of the Year
Bernstein, BS 86, is a Goldman Sachs managing director and partner who has shaken up investment banking with his passion for clean energy and the environment. He was honored at the 13th Annual Haas Gala in November.
Undergrads won the right to compete nationally with an IBM Watson app.
Berkeley-Haas Team Patent Fox tapped the world’s most powerful supercomputer, IBM Watson, to design an app that makes searching and filing for new patents more efficient. In January, they’ll compete against nine top schools for $100,000 at IBM Watson’s New York City headquarters. The students are enrolled in the course Open Innovation, Leveraging IBM Watson.
The Big Give raised more than a half million for Haas.
UC Berkeley’s first 24-hour campus-wide online fundraiser was the biggest single-day fundraiser in Haas history. When it ended Nov. 20, Berkeley-Haas raised about $561,000 from 651 donors. Thank you to all our supporters!
Construction of the new North Academic Building began.
The six-story, $60 million building on the north side of our campus will be devoted entirely to student learning and interaction. State-of-the art classrooms and learning labs that reflect the evolution of management education towards hands-on work, an environmentally friendly design, and breathtaking views of the San Francisco Bay are key features. The building is scheduled to be completed for use in the fall term 2016.
Here’s to a #Haasome 2015!
Fighting Gender Bias, MBA in Hand, is Grad’s Goal
One Stone, No Birds: Policy Undermines CA’s Climate Change Leadership
Energy Institute: Benefitting from Green Jobs
Startup Roundup: Market Games, LookFwd, SmileyGo
Startup Roundup is an occasional series highlighting new enterprises created by Berkeley-Haas students and recent alumni.
Company: Market Games
Founder: Torsor Kotee, EMBA 16
As a chartered financial analyst who spent more than a decade working in private equity, investment banking, and consulting, Torsor Kotee has always been excited about finance. So when he noticed that some of his executive MBA classmates—even those who had proven themselves in the market—didn’t share his enthusiasm in their core finance course, it was hard for him to understand.
But then Kotee noticed a problem: the textbook. It was a 1,000-page static tome that was not only stuck in time, but quite expensive.
That realization—paired with Kotee’s newly acquired design thinking skills and a serendipitous offer from a professor—led him to develop Market Games, a line of business games and other digital resources aimed at boosting undergraduate business learning.
With the help of his cohort classmates, Kotee initially started exploring the textbook problem as a research project in his marketing course. But he shifted gears after connecting with Sara Beckman, who had taught him how to use the design thinking approach to identify problems and insights before rushing to conclusions, and who served as his informal advisor.
“Sara was invaluable. She provided the framework and resources to understand the challenges within the education market and to determine the optimal entry point given my resources and constraints,” he said.
After speaking to over 200 students across the Haas MBA and undergraduate programs and conducting secondary research, Kotee was even more convinced that the textbook was indeed the problem. Overwhelmingly, he found students want a resource that saves them time and money. Undergraduates in particular see textbook costs as a major pain point.
With this clarity, Kotee reached out to Asst. Dean Jamie Breen, who heads the MBA programs for working professionals, and Erika Walker, assistant dean for the undergraduate program, who provided a list of professors who might be receptive to his ideas. Kotee landed an opportunity with Prof. John Briginshaw, who teaches an undergraduate business class.
“Professor Briginshaw uses games in his class,” Kotee said. “Although he liked my finance idea, he thought it was best if I became his graduate student instructor (GSI) and learned more about the business games that he uses. It was a blessing!”
As a GSI, Kotee observed how freshmen and sophomores were excited to learn core business concepts through dynamic games. Unlike the textbook, where students read first and are given problems at the end, students were presented with a business problem first. They then had to perform research and leverage core business concepts to solve it.
That experience led Kotee to rethink and expand his initial idea to a learn-by-doing approach. And instead of focusing on one discipline (finance) and expanding to others down the road, he decided to build a game that would integrate all core business disciplines (finance, marketing, operations, economics, leadership) and allow students to go on a personalized learning path.
“Interdisciplinary learning is a more effective and realistic way to learn business,” he said.
Kotee remains firmly committed to “building the new textbook for business education that is both affordable and engaging.”
Market Games will be beta testing its MVP (minimum viable product) over the summer and running a pilot at Haas in the fall. Kotee credited several students for helping him bring the idea to life: Julie Wong, BA 19, (Cognitive Science) served as UI/UX designer; PhD students Sahar Yousef (Vision Science) and Anand Kulkarni (Industrial Engineering & Operations Research) helped on instructional design and led software development; and Peter Hodgins, EMBA 16, is serving as an advisor.
“The Berkeley community has been very supportive,” he said. “If wasn’t for the school, there would be no Market Games.”
Company: LookFwd
Founder: Michael Ebel, MBA 17
A chance encounter with an old college friend at a bar in Los Angeles led to an unlikely outcome for Michael Ebel: the idea for his startup, LookFwd.
Ebel, who was working at the time for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, wondered if there was a more efficient way to know when your friends are free.
“I thought, ‘Do I know what 20 of my close friends are doing this weekend? No, I don’t. So, why don’t I know that? It’s incredibly valuable information that regularly influences the quality of my relationships, and yet I can’t find it in a consolidated place.’ That got me thinking about the need for a better system.”
Ebel knew from his experience as a bartender that there’s also not an efficient way to attract customers to a bar or restaurant in real time. When he put these two problems together, he realized he could create a two-sided marketplace: matching bars and restaurants looking to attract customers with groups of friends looking to hang out.
He began developing an app that would allow vendors to push real-time offers to users based on current demand in their bars or restaurants, giving them the ability to influence consumers who are actively deciding where to go.
After building general prototypes, Ebel tested the LookFwd app on classmates and used their feedback to enhance the product. An iOS version of LookFwd, which recently launched for iPhone, makes it easy to coordinate with friends by allowing people to indicate their availability. During the planning process, friends receive exclusive offers from local bars and restaurants that help them decide where to go.
Ebel, a lieutenant in the Air Force Reserves, says he arrived at Haas ready to become an entrepreneur.
“I always felt that I had the leadership and management acumen that would be needed to found and run a company,” he said. “But I really wanted to come to Haas to get the entrepreneurship exposure I needed. That’s been a big help getting to this stage.”
In class and as president of the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Association (BEA), he gained insight into what it takes to run a company. He also credits the professors and lecturers—many of them former company founders and venture capitalists—who helped refine his thinking.
“Haas does a really great job at that,” Ebel said. “They’ve really gone the distance with me, especially Lecturer Deepak (Gupta), who has been a great resource. When you come with nothing more than an idea, he helps you think about what the idea could eventually look like, giving someone the benefit of the doubt that they’re an entrepreneur—even before you’ve ever had a chance to prove it.”
Company: SmileyGo
Founders: CEO Pedro Espinoza, BS 17 & CTO Joseph Pereira, BS 16 (Computer Science)
When Pedro Espinoza recounts the roots of his startup, he points to an eye-opening teaching trip he took to a poor village in his native Peru. He asked a young girl there what she wanted to be when she grew up.
“When she told me a farmer I knew that was only because she didn’t have access to computers or books,” he said. “It was a huge discovery moment and I began thinking about how nonprofits could help to change lives.”
That led Espinoza down a winding path to developing SmileyGo, which provides a data-science platform that companies can use to organize their philanthropic efforts.
The startup is a work in progress. An early version of SmileyGo was built as a social app that let university students audit nonprofits. But Espinoza and his co-founder, computer science grad Joseph Pereira, BS 16, pivoted to retool SmileyGo for companies.
The latest version of the app allows businesses to tap into indexed data compiled by trade groups, lobbying associations, and chambers of commerce to better inform their giving and public policy investment decisions.
Espinoza credits a business ethics class he took with Prof. Alan Ross with influencing the decision to take SmileyGo in a new direction.
“His class opened my horizons in terms of where I should focus,” he said. “It taught me how businesses leverage their public policy strategy to influence legislation with their budgets for government relations and community relations. Businesses also want to influence public policy through funding and investing in nonprofits.”
Espinoza, who recently won the campus-wide “I am a UC Entrepreneur” sweepstakes for a selfie video describing his company, is now working to raise a venture financing round.
SmileyGo received a grant from the Berkeley-Haas Dean’s Startup Seed Fund and help from UC Berkeley-backed accelerator SkyDeck, which introduced him to other companies that have raised funding. SkyDeck also connected him with the person who became SmileyGo’s seed investor, Frank Baxter, BA 61 (Economics), the former CEO of Jefferies & Company and a UC Berkeley Foundation trustee.
Hands-on Focus at 3rd Annual Africa Business Forum
The big-picture theme of 3rd annual Berkeley-Haas Africa Business Forum is how technology is disrupting every industry on the continent.
But the focus of the event, to be held April 29 at Sutardja Dai Hall on the UC Berkeley Campus, is on interaction, discussion, and building a network.
“The Berkeley Haas Africa Business Forum seeks to act as a magnet for people with a vested interest in private sector development in Africa, and as a catalyst for action,” said Co-chair Thato Keineetse, MBA 17. “Our goal is to build a diverse network of change agents who are capable and motivated to tackle the complex challenges and vast opportunities present in African economies.”
Adds Co-chair Hady Barry, MBA 17, “This is not about attending an event and being talked at—we want our guests to be engaged and contribute to the conversation.”
The forum was established by MBA students three years ago to fill out a line-up of student-led conferences that includes Asian and Latin American business conferences. It was first large-scale event at Berkeley to focus on African business, and has attracted students from throughout campus as well as professionals from throughout the Bay Area and beyond.
While nearly 200 people registered last year, Barry said organizers are capping attendance at 150 this year to keep it intimate and interactive.
To that end, the morning will be spent on a case study on the African startup Azuri Technologies, a commercial provider of solar systems to rural off-grid communities. “The case study session will also be an opportunity to showcase the design-thinking approach to problem find and solving we’ve learned at Haas,” Barry said.
Following a networking lunch, afternoon panels will feature African tech entrepreneurs, the growth of fintech in Africa, as well as “big tech’s ambitions in Africa.”
Speakers include Nigerian entrepreneur Olu’Yomi Ojo, who founded branding firm Urbanbaze Advertising and Printivo, a custom printing company for small businesses that is expanding to other African countries; as well as Toro Orero, managing partner of Silicon Valley VC fund DDF Capital, which invests in scalable African startups.
Berkeley Asia Business Conference is Back on Campus
For those who seek to gain a competitive edge in the US-Asia connected markets, the 2017 Bridge Berkeley Asia Business Conference will offer a strategic look at the region, open dialogue with world-class executives, and an intimate opportunity to network.
The 17th annual conference, themed “Unlocking Value and Impact,” will take place on Friday, April 14 from 1 to 7pm on the Berkeley-Haas campus.
“We chose the theme because we will have specific examples and success stories from our speakers, as well as a special section on impact investing this year,” said Tumy Nguyen, MBA 17, who is co-chairing the conference with Warot Wainiya, MBA 17. “Despite the call for protectionism and de-globalization, there are plenty of opportunities to be unlocked for business, growth and impact between the two most dynamic regions in the world: the US and Asia.”
In his keynote address, Peter Goodson—a Haas finance lecturer and private equity innovator who over the past 50 years has invested in 65 companies worth $100 billion throughout the world—will share a real-life case of an Asian business he helped build into the largest of its kind.
“What we’ve learned is that Asia is a better opportunity than what we’re presented with in the United States,” said Goodson. “The wonderful thing is that what we’ve learned over the years is so applicable: How do you build a great business? How do you scale a business? How do you help local entrepreneurs—who are frankly smarter than we are but just don’t have the experience—grow those businesses?”
The conference also includes:
- A panel on Asian Markets 2.0, featuring Helen Wang, a strategic consultant, author, and entrepreneur who is an expert on China’s middle class
- A panel on investment and exit strategies between Silicon Valley and China featuring Kyle Lui, a principal at DCM Ventures, a venture capital firm that has invested in more than 300 technology companies across the US and Asia, and Binh Tran, managing partner for seed-stage investment fund 500 Startups Vietnam.
- A closing keynote on impact investing in Asia by TedX speaker Beau Seil, co-founder and managing partner of Unitus Impact, a venture capital firm focused on scalable companies that increase incomes for the working poor in Southeast Asia and India. He’ll speak on how underserved markets can become the next mass-market opportunities.
Early-bird tickets are available through March 27: $15 for students, $30 for alumni, and $45 for professionals.
21st Women in Leadership Conference to Focus on Gender Collaboration
The crowd at the 21st Women in Leadership Conference may look a little different this year, with more men filling the seats and receiving high billing on the agenda.
That’s because the conference theme, “Power of Us: Collaborate, Inspire, Lead,” focuses on the need for men and women to work together to achieve full gender equity in the workplace and at home.
“When we started talking about this year’s theme, we thought about the issues we care about the most,” says Chiaki Nakajima, MBA 17, who is co-chairing the conference with Shipra Agarwal, also MBA 17. “We decided to use it as a platform to create a more open dialogue between men and women.”
The conference is expected to attract about 400 students, alumni, and other professionals to campus on March 11.
As the oldest student-led conference at Haas, Women in Leadership has long served as a forum for women to network, hear from high-profile female leaders, and to discuss the unique challenges and barriers women face.
Designed for dialogue
While this year’s gathering still provides plenty of those opportunities, with conference stalwarts like workshops on career navigation and feedback, it also includes panels designed to spark dialogue and action. Ultimately, it’s about getting as many men as possible engaged in the conversation, Agarwal says.
“All over the world, we tend to label people as being sexist or feminist,” she says. “But a lot of men are just neutral, and they just don’t think much about these issues. They need to learn how they can be better allies.”
For example, the morning plenary panel, “Leveling the Playing Field: Building Gender Equity Movements” is all about giving attendees tips and tools to bring back to their workplaces, says VP of Content Mike Matheson, MBA 17—the first man to serve on the conference leadership team.
The panel “Boss vs Bossy: How to be Both Ambitious and Approachable” will focus on the double standard for men and women who are assertive. Another panel, “Can we have it all? Leadership and Work-Life Balance” addresses an issue all men and women face: how to be a great leaders while also enjoying life outside of work.
Journalist and author Josh Levs will give a keynote address on a similar theme. After being denied fair parental leave after his child was born, he fought back and won. Levs went on to write a book on how workplace culture fails dads and families, and he has become an expert on the work-life balance issues facing modern families.
Over the past two years, men at Haas have become increasingly active in gender equity efforts. About a third of the men in the full-time program have signed a pledge naming themselves as “manbassadors.” Matheson and Patrick Ford, MBA 17, who co-led the manbassadors group last year, created a suite of programming for men who want to learn more about gender dynamics and how to better support women.
Agarwal says the conference team has also been encouraging conference sponsors and attendees to educate themselves on these issues. Organizers are also offering a 20% discount on each ticket for men and women who attend together.
For more information and tickets, visit wilconference.org.
Leaning In, Berkeley-Haas Style: EWMBAs Embrace Peer Support
By Laura Counts
As an engineer at Motorola Solutions with little access to female mentors, Nancy Hoque started a network of virtual Lean In Circles that quickly spread to 160 women at the global company.
When she launched a similar Lean In peer-support initiative as a new student in the evening & weekend MBA program last fall, Hoque was pleased to find a similarly enthusiastic response. But there was a key difference.
“Compared with Motorola, where we had just one man join us, we have about 40 percent men in our group at Haas,” says Hoque, EWMBA 19. “This isn’t about women sharing their problems. Many of the men want to talk about the same things as the women do, and all men have women in their life who they care about.”
It’s Lean In, Berkeley-Haas style.
Drawing on the Lean In Circles framework and library of leadership materials—which grew out of the bestselling Sheryl Sandberg book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead—Hoque and a small group of classmates attracted more than 100 students—from both the EWMBA and full-time MBA programs. Their first two sessions focused on salary negotiations and speaking with confidence.
They’ve written their own charter, which states: “We hope to encourage women and men to pursue their ambitions, and change the conversation from what we can’t to do what we can do.”
“It’s a chance to talk about things we don’t talk about in the classroom, and you can’t talk about in a bar,” says Hoque (above). “We are more than just colleagues—we are people learning together, helping each other, on a journey together.”
To fit into the busy schedules of working professionals, their plan is to build virtual circles of ten students who meet monthly via video chat, and then hold larger in-person sessions focused on specific topics every two months. Hoque also hopes to organize career treks with industry leaders focusing on diversity and inclusion, and is seeking funding to support the program.
“I’m so impressed with the supportive community these students have built,” says Courtney Chandler, who served as Assistant Dean for the EWMBA program until January, when she became Interim Chief Strategy & Operating Officer/Senior Assistant Dean. “Having a forum to talk about the personal and professional issues students are facing, at a time when they are thinking deeply about their careers, is bringing the class closer together.”
Showcasing Stories
The group also started a Facebook group, where students share stories in a Humans of New York-style format, describing personal and professional achievements, or barriers they’ve faced. The page comes alive with portraits by Atul Prasad, EWMBA 19, a photographer and filmmaker.
“Plenty of corporate tales of success, achievement and failure have been told from a man’s perspective,” says Prasad, who created the Lean In Stories series. “This seemed like a way to know the other equally important perspective. It allowed me to learn about the challenges women face as leaders, in particular, and how they get past these hurdles.
Hoque recently wrote about her struggles for acceptance as a Muslim woman engineer and working mother.
“At work, I had an invisible barrier to penetrate in order to prove my technical and business worth,” she wrote. “However, I learned to demonstrate my abilities, and became part of the team. Over the years I was ‘one of the boys’ and spread my influence.”
Tess Peppers, EWMBA 19, described the reactions she got when she told people that she’d was starting the MBA program while working and parenting.
Peppers said that participating in the Lean In circles and guided discussions has given her some tools to combat common workplace problems. She also feels that as a single mom, she’s able to offer a valuable perspective to the group.
“I’ve seen several male classmates get involved and learn more, which has been so refreshing,” Peppers said. “In general, our cohort is amazing but this has only made us closer. I wish everyone participated!”
Human Problems
Men are sharing stories as well, even using the private Facebook group to reveal that they are battling the same kinds of insecurities women often wrestle with. Jesse Johnston, MBA 19, recently shared his struggles with feeling like a fraud—something that Sandburg also cops to in Lean In.
“Every one of my life’s greatest accomplishments has been overshadowed by an unshakeable case of imposter syndrome—the fear that I didn’t belong, that I didn’t deserve whatever success I encountered regardless of the time and effort I had invested…,” he wrote.
Hoque says that participating in Lean In Circles is helping her, and classmates, to gain the confidence to take new risks. Since starting the MBA program, she decided to leave her job of nine years at Motorola to become an MBA Fellow Product Manager at a fintech startup called OpenInvest, focused on socially responsible investing.
She also says that in the midst of the current political and social upheaval, having a peer support group has taken on added importance.
“Berkeley has been the cradle of many initiatives of social change, and many of us are here at Haas because we value social change,” she says. “We are gaining the skills, as leaders, to shape what will happen next.”
Berkeley-Haas Top 12 for 2016
With the new year just around the corner, we’re celebrating the highlights of 2016—from the launch of an exciting new undergraduate program, to the alumni-backed Pokémon Go craze, to undergrad Ryan Murphy’s astounding triple Olympic gold medal wins.
Top of the Class: All Haas programs made the Top 10 in all the major rankings. The Evening & Weekend MBA Program was ranked #1 among part-time programs for the fourth straight year by U.S. News, which also ranked the Undergraduate Program #2; the Master of Financial Engineering ranked #1 in two major rankings.
Topping Off: The final I-beam was raised atop our new North Academic Building in June. The six-story building is 100% funded with private donations from alumni and friends of the school, and features state-of-the-art classrooms, spaces for students to meet and work in small groups, a new café, and a top-floor event space with sweeping views of the Bay. It’s expected to open in early 2017.
Alumni Go! One of the year’s top crazes originated with John Hanke, MBA 96, CEO of Niantic Labs. Hanke was the driving force behind Pokémon Go, the hottest game to hit smartphones—ever. It was one of those moments, The New York Times declared, “when a new technology—in this case, augmented reality or A.R., which fuses digital technology with the physical world—breaks through from a niche toy for early adopters to something much bigger.” (Berkeley-Haas also published a case study that delved into Hanke’s decision to sping Niantic Labs off from Google.)
Double Degree: In August, Berkeley-Haas launched a pioneering new degree program, the Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology (M.E.T.) Program. The highly competitive program, which allows undergraduates to earn concurrent degrees at Berkeley-Haas and Berkeley Engineering, received thousands of applications for 30 slots. About 50 students are expected to be accepted for the fall.
Olympic Gold x 3: Inspiring backstroker Ryan Murphy, BS 17, returned from the Rio Olympics with three gold medals. Murphy, BS 17, won both the 200m and 100m backstroke. He also swam to victory in the 400m relay medley with Olympic legend Michael Phelps, Cal alum Nathan Adrian, and Cody Miller.
Fabulous Faculty: This year we mourned the passing of a much-beloved professor, real estate and finance expert Dwight Jaffee. We celebrated a Global Economy Prize for Nobel Laureate Prof. Emeritus Oliver Williamson; the American Accounting Association’s Seminal Contribution to Accounting award for Prof. Richard Sloan; and the 2016 Moskowitz Prize for Assoc. Prof. Adair Morse. Profs. David Teece & Ross Levine achieved an extraordinary 100K citations on Google Scholar, and Prof Ulrike Malmendier was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Berkeley-Haas also welcomed three new professors: Asst. Prof. Drew Jacoby-Senghor, Asst. Prof. Hoai-Luu Nguyen and Asst. Prof. Abhishek Nagaraj.
Bigger Give: The Big Give online fundraiser raised twice the amount for Haas as last year, tallying almost $1.3 million from more than 600 alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends. Berkeley-Haas undergraduates exceeded their participation goal by 250 percent. Many thanks to all our generous donors!
Top Leaders: We welcomed a dozen industry leaders to share insights with the Haas community in the Dean’s Speaker Series, including (clockwise from top left) Deborah Hopkins, Chief Innovation Officer, Citigroup (with Dean Rich Lyons); Christie Smith, Managing Principal, Deloitte University Leadership Center for Inclusion; Bob Shanks, EVP and CFO, Ford Motor Company; and Rosalind Brewer, President and CEO, Sam’s Club. The series also included an expert panel on Brexit.
Honoring Obama: President Barack Obama was honored at the World Open Innovation conference for “Outstanding Global Leadership in Open Innovation” (Obama is expected to visit the Berkeley campus early next year.)
Business Leaders of the Year: For their efforts to improve local schools, Susan, MBA 87, and Steve Chamberlin, were named Berkeley-Haas’ 2016 Business Leaders of the Year—the highest honor the school bestows.
Thought leadership: Our faculty research was covered by top media worldwide in 2016, including studies by Prof. Cameron Anderson, who found an unexpected payoff to being buff; Prof. Jennifer Chatman, who studied the downside of groupthink by analyzing Himalayan trekking accidents; and Prof. Laura Kray, who found that while women women tend to be more ethical than men when acting on their own behalf, they are more likely to lie to help others.
Dauntless Students: Our students continue to inspire us. Alvaro Silberstein, MBA 17, who was left partially paralyzed by a drunk driver at age 19, is wrapping up the year on a quest to make Patagonia’s Paine del Torre National Park more accessible. He’s trekking the park’s most iconic route in a specialized wheelchair, with a support team that includes a Berkeley MBA classmate.
We look forward to great things to come in 2017!
Two Berkeley MBA Alumnae Take Top University Leadership Roles
Beginning with the new year, two Berkeley MBA alumnae and senior Haas leaders are moving into new leadership posts.
Haas Chief Strategy & Operating Officer Jo Mackness, MBA 04, will take the top human resources role on the UC Berkeley campus, serving as Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources. Taking her place on an interim basis at Haas is Courtney Chandler, MBA 96 and Assistant Dean for the Evening & Weekend MBA Program.
Mackness and Chandler took a few moments to answer some questions on their new roles.
Jo Mackness, MBA 04
Why were you interested in taking on the role of Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources?
I’m a product of the UC system (my undergrad degree is from UCLA, my MBA is from Berkeley-Haas), and I’m both passionate about and dedicated to supporting the institution that has given me and so many others a rich springboard for professional and personal growth. I’ve always been committed to using my career to create positive social change, and because UC Berkeley is such a powerful social mobility engine, moving into a role that more directly supports the entire university was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
What will be your top priorities in your new role?
My first priority will be to lean on the Haas Defining Principles and do a great deal of listening (Students Always) and gathering of data (Confidence Without Attitude). While I have a bias toward action, and I plan to move forward on time-sensitive/urgent issues, I’ll be setting strategic priorities only after I get a better sense for the unique assets, areas of opportunity, and any gaps that may exist within the HR organization—and in the places where HR touches other parts of the university.
You’re a full-time Berkeley MBA alumna. How did Haas prepare you for this leadership role? What are some of the skills you gained from the program that you bring to the job?
The most important thing I learned at Haas is that culture matters, and working with people who share your values is the most important thing to look for in a company or organization. Even way back when I was admitted to Berkeley-Haas, before our Defining Principles were codified, Pete Johnson and his admissions team were looking for people who exhibited confidence, without any attitude, and they welcomed my unique voice (I wrote about my electric-blue wig—a “most prized possession”—in one of my essays!). I, and many of my classmates, sought and landed a Beyond-Yourself, social-impact role upon graduation. Haas, back then and today, reinforces that while we are all different, it’s that diversity of thought, cultural context, and experience that brings a richness to our community. It’s our shared values that create a safe place for people to show up as themselves—as Berkeley Leaders—to thrive as individuals, collaborate within and across teams, and contribute their very best to our organization. This is what I learned at Haas, and it underpins how I approach leadership and the type of organizational climate I try to create.
Courtney Chandler, MBA 96
Why were you interested in taking the Interim Chief Strategy & Operating Officer/Senior Assistant Dean role?
I am deeply connected to this school and believe wholeheartedly in what we do here. So, when (Dean Rich Lyons) presented the opportunity to me, I jumped at the chance to touch areas of the school in new and different ways. I am particularly interested in being part of the decision-making process school-wide, as well as problem-solving and generating big ideas for areas that need it. Finally, I am looking forward to working closely with our campus partners as UC Berkeley goes through this transitional period.
What will be your top priorities?
I am sure my priorities will change as I get further into my role, but a top priority now is to continue the momentum around our Strategic Business Plan. Jo has done amazing work on this and my goal is to continue to execute on our strategies. We still have many great things to accomplish as a school and I am excited to help make them happen.
Beyond that, I plan to be a student first and learn as much as possible. One thing that energizes me is bringing people together, whether in groups or across organizations. Having worked at all levels of the school in staff roles and having worked closely with faculty while running the EWMBA program, and having experienced Haas as student and an alum, I hope to bring a unique perspective to the dean’s office.
What are some of the skills you gained from the Berkeley MBA program that you bring to the job?
As an MBA student at Haas, I was incredibly fortunate to have amazing professors (Rich Lyons, Andy Rose, Jenny Chatman, Ben Hermalin, Richard Stanton, and David Vogel, to name a few), and extraordinary classmates (go Class of 1996!). So, my time as a student had a profound impact on me. I think most importantly it provided me the opportunity to gain new perspectives. My classmates and I were some of the first students to inhabit what we now know as our Berkeley-Haas campus, and having this wonderful space contributed to our strong community and culture. I know our new building will do something similar for our students today. While our Defining Principles hadn’t yet been articulated when I was a student, they were still very much a part of my experience and would absolutely describe the culture we had back then. This culture prepared me to take on new challenges confidently and tackle difficult situations by learning and listening. Additionally, it helped me hone my creativity and fascination with new ideas while being able to create connections between seemingly disparate circumstances. My hope is to bring all of what I learned as a student and since graduating to my new role as Chief Strategy & Operating Officer.
Manbassadors’ Bold Idea: Create a B-school Movement
With the nation’s ultimate leadership glass ceiling still unbroken and women still the minority at top MBA programs, gender equity is top-of-mind for many aspiring female executives. But a group of men at Berkeley-Haas is working to ensure that it’s also high on the consciousness of male leaders.
The Haas “manbassadors,” led by two 2nd-year students through the Women in Leadership Club (WIL), have involved about a third of full-time MBA men in programming that not only encourages men to engage in club events but creates opportunities for self-education and personal growth around gender equity at Haas and beyond.
Their work has been so successful that a faculty member is using their materials in her corporate consulting work; the WIL is framing this year’s conference on the theme of dialogue between men and women; and the manbassador leaders are reaching out to ally groups at other b-schools to find ways to collaborate.
“This has really become a conversation throughout our campus, and hopefully this will become a movement at business schools across the country,” said Mike Matheson, MBA 17 (above left), who co-leads the manbassador program with Patrick Ford, also MBA 17 (above right).
Their argument is simple: “For real change, men need to be at least 50 percent of the conversation on gender equity,” says Patrick Ford, MBA 17, VP of manbassadors for WIL. “Business school is a time for self-reflection and developing our leadership skills, so this is the perfect time for this work.”
The program—which first started about three years ago—has two main goals, Ford says: “Getting individual men to educate themselves to become more aware of the reality of unconscious gender discrimination and of their own behavior, and bringing that awareness into the workplace to create a level playing field.”
One of the reasons the effort has caught on is that Ford and Matheson built it on personal relationships and voluntary participation, and developed programming and materials to support it. A natural connector who also serves as VP of communications for the Haas MBA Association, Ford began last spring by asking individual male students to sign up for a “weekly 5 sentences” email he developed.
The email includes a vocabulary word related to gender dynamics—terms that have moved into common parlance such as “mansplaining” and “implicit bias,” and less-well known concepts such as “office housework,” defined as administrative tasks that help but don’t pay off professionally (and which are disproportionately taken on by women), such as taking notes, cleaning up after meetings, or planning social events. It includes an example of someone’s experience at Haas or at work; a fact; and a way to take action.
“I think everyone I asked said yes, they’d sign up for it,” Ford said. “Probably a lot of it at first was because they knew me.”
Ford and Matheson also started asking men if they’d like to sign up to become manbassadors, by filling out survey that allows them to choose from a range of voluntary commitments. They run the gamut from simply “listening to women actively and with an open mind” or “observing in-class behavior as it relates to gender,” to attending a gender-related event, sharing something they’ve learned with other men, or taking a leadership role. So far, more than 90 men out of about 300 in the full-time program have signed up.
Ford also wrote guide called “Tips for Men at Haas From Other Men at Haas,” which points out “common situations we see around Haas and the unintentional behavior patterns that we believe most men share. Even men who have been working on this for years still don’t do things perfectly. We’re not singling anyone out—we think almost every man (and almost every woman too) could benefit from thinking about this stuff, the authors of this guide included.”
One popular activity that Ford and Matheson created is a regular event called “Guy Talk,” based off a McKinsey model and billed as a “nonjudgmental space for men to learn, share ideas, and ask questions.”
Irene Kang, MBA 17, said she recently attended a Guy Talk session that included four women and four men. Following a “fishbowl” format, the women sat in the middle of a circle and had an informal discussion about personal safety and sexual harassment while the men listened and then asked questions. All the women had experienced sexual harassment in some form in their work or personal lives.
“They were speechless. They had thought of sexual harassment as something that only happened on occasion,” Kang said. “One guy said, ‘these are things that I never think about.’ I wish everyone could have these kinds of conversations.”
Erin Robinson, MBA 17 and co-president of WIL (along with Farah Dilber, MBA 17), said that while it’s important for women to have a forum to talk with other women about personal and professional challenges, “Women in Leadership discussions with only women can become an echo chamber.”
“For women to be empowered, men have to understand and empathize with women’s everyday life, and adjust their behavior or address their implicit biases,” she said. Robinson also noted that gender is increasingly discussed on a spectrum, and “we hope to involve transgender men and women more in the conversation.”
To further break down barriers, WIL Conference Co-Chairs Chiaki Nakajima and Shipra Agarwal, both MBA 17, chose “The Power of Us” as this year’s conference theme—with “us” referring to everyone. “We felt strongly that the it’s time to involve both men and women in the conversation about women in leadership.” Nakajima said. The group plans to launch a manbassador program for alumni at the conference, and also “support sponsor companies to work toward gender equity by sharing Haas’s materials, research, and approach,” she said.
Assoc. Adj. Prof. Kellie McElhaney has already done so with her corporate consulting clients.
“It’s brilliant, what they’ve created,” said McElhaney, who teaches The Business Case for Investing in Women and has worked closely with students on gender equity efforts at Haas. “It’s comprehensive, it’s accessible. I’ve put the manbassador materials into a package that I use in my corporate work.”
The manbassadors are also using the program to support the Haas Gender Equity Initiative—a student-driven, research-and-action based effort to improve the program climate and increase the proportion of women in the program (which now stands at 40 percent). First-year student Khalid Alali recalled his surprise at hearing a man stand up at a Days at Haas admissions event last year and declare he was a feminist.
“I was shocked to hear a man confidently make this declaration in front of a room full of over 100 prospective students,” wrote Khalid, a native of Saudi Arabia, in a recent blog post. “His declaration showed me that Haas is an environment where men feel confident in supporting feminism.”
Now, Alali wrote, he counts himself among the manbassadors, and proudly calls himself a feminist too.
>Play 2016 Digital Media Conference Explores On-Demand Culture
The days of rushing to be in a particular place at a particular time to watch a particular thing seem like a quaint, bygone era: we now expect to watch or listen to whatever we want, wherever we want—and we’re frustrated when it takes too long to load.
The >play 2016 Digital Media & Technology Conference will explore how on-demand culture is transforming the media and entertainment landscape. The conference is expected to attract 600 students, professionals, and industry leaders to San Francisco’s Regency Center on Friday, Nov. 4.
“This year we wanted to move away from a broad technology focus and shift back to digital media and entertainment,” said Cynthia Song, MBA 17, who is co-chairing the conference with Mike Matheson, MBA 17. “As the dominant industry trend, on-demand culture was the logical choice for a theme.”
Organized by students in the Digital Media & Entertainment Club, >play is the largest student-run digital media and technology conference in the country. A team of more than 40 students from the full-time and evening & weekend Berkeley MBA programs has been working since last spring to put on the 12th annual event.
Each of the four panels and speakers will touch on how on-demand culture has changed how content is created, distributed, and consumed—including new developments in augmented reality and virtual reality. “On-demand content is becoming more dynamic via games and video entertainment on new, immersive devices,” Matheson said.
The morning keynote speaker is Adrienne McCallister, MBA 03, Google’s director of global partnerships for AR/VR, who helped launch the company’s Chromecast streaming device and led content partnerships for Google TV.
Panel topics include new media and how user-created content has altered the “relationships between suits, creatives, and fans;” navigating online identities in digital marketing; what’s next for the music industry; and the future of AR and VR—expected to be a $150 billion market by 2020.
The conference also includes product demos by HTC Vive, Oculus Gear VR, and video animation producer Baobab Studio, as well as a career fair with recruiters from Amazon, Google, and more.
>Play is sponsored by SoFi and TubeMogul, along with Google, Deloitte, and Amazon.
Tickets and more information can be found at playconference2016.com.
Haas MBA Students Create an Open Forum to Discuss Race
Part 2 in a series of articles covering diversity and inclusion at Berkeley-Haas
By Laura Counts
More than 80 MBA students spent a recent lunch break in an unusually candid conversation on a topic that many shy away from: race.
Bolstered by an online platform that allowed all participants to submit questions anonymously and an agreement that all comments and stories would be kept in the room, a panel of students with diverse backgrounds opened themselves up to classmates eager to gain fluency in discussing race and, learn how to be better allies.
“Fear of saying the wrong thing and fear of asking questions often prevent the dialogue necessary to address issues of race,” said Lauren Dugard, MBA 17 and class VP of diversity, who co-organized the event and moderated the panel. “We wanted to create an event where people could overcome this hesitation.”
The event, called “Ask Me Anything: an Open Conversation With the Black Business Students Association (BBSA),” was sparked by a Black Lives Matter demonstration organized last month by BBSA co-presidents Jenelle Harris and Jay Obaze, both MBA 17. After more than 200 Haas students, staff, and faculty showed up at short notice to stand with the BBSA in solidarity, they were inspired to carry the conversation forward, Obaze said.
“I was genuinely moved by the groundswell of support that arose here at Haas,” Obaze wrote in a letter to the community. “I am aware that conversations on race in America are often very difficult for people, but Haas has shown that it’s open to learn and be educated on the issues that are directly impacting people of color in this country.”
The “Ask Me Anything” format allowed participants to ask questions anonymously via the web platform sli.do; others could vote up those they found most compelling.
“Don’t take time to toil over the vocabulary you use in your questions,” said Dugard, as she introduced the panel. “We’ll assume everything is coming from a place of love here today.”
Many of the questions reflected students desire to learn what they could do to support black classmates and future colleagues. What kinds of “micro-aggressions” (actions or comments that feel dismissive or offensive) have you experienced at Haas? What can I say to support black friends after police shootings without adding more stress? Are you tired of talking about police brutality and is there something you’d rather see addressed? Does it feel exhausting to be in a white-dominated environment all day, and what can we do to change that?
Other questions were about how to avoid blunders that might be seen as insensitive—or downright racist. “When I see a group of black students I often won’t approach because I think you’re in a safe space at that moment and don't want to interrupt. Is this good, bad?”, or “Can you talk about how to balance personal safety as a female with not wanting to be perceived as discriminatory?”
Answers reflected the diversity of experiences on the panel, which included two students from Nigerian families, one student with an Ethiopian father and white mother, a student who is half Trinidadian and half Haitian, and a white student who recently married a black partner. All agreed, however, that even though panelists were sharing their experiences that day, people of color shouldn’t bear the responsibility of educating non-minorities on racial issues.
“When I see people who look like me being shot in the streets, it’s hard to go to work and have no one say anything about it,” said another panelist. “I appreciate it when someone other than me can help bring it up as a conversation.”
“It’s important to have these conversations while I’m in the room, but it’s just as important to have these conversations when I’m not in the room,” one panelist said. “Part of this conversation is about making sure that when we are all in positions of power, we can ensure there is no discrimination taking place.”
“Ask yourself, ‘do I want to work with my black colleagues as much as with my white colleagues?’ If not, why?” another added.
Event organizers Jay Obaze, MBA 17, and Lauren Dugard, MBA 17
Participants also watched a video providing context on racially discriminatory legislation dating as recently as the past 60 years, myths about “black crime,” and data on income disparities (e.g., the median white household is now worth 13 times more than the median black household, a gap which has widened during the economic recovery according to the Pew Research Center).
“Part of being an ally isn’t necessarily saying things like ‘I don’t think that’s nice,’ but having the facts to say ‘That’s not true,’” Dugard said. “It’s not just showing up and being willing to wear a black shirt, it’s being willing to dive deep and know the facts.”
The session also revealed the depth to which some black students feel traumatized by the relentless series of police shootings now under media scrutiny, and how much the issues they’ll face in the workplace weigh on them. In response to a question to panelists on how they experience the color of their skin on daily basis, one student described walking down the street as a tall black man and seeing people hug their purses to their bodies—even when he’s wearing a suit. Another student expressed frustration with managers hesitant to give her the same feedback as white colleagues because “I don’t look like them.”
“This gave insights into what many people in the room might not have known about the black experience, and also that the black experience is not monolithic,” Obaze said after the session.
The BBSA is planning more events to bring discussions of racial issues into the open. Next month, the group plans to organize a screening of the documentary “13th,” which makes the case that when the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution outlawed slavery, it ushered in a new racist system of mass incarceration.