Author: Laura Counts

Haas Expands World-Class Faculty

| by Laura Counts

The Haas School is kicking off the fall semester with three new tenured professors from some of the East Coast’s top business schools: new Lester Center Faculty Director Toby Stuart, a management and entrepreneurship professor from Harvard; Professor Ross Levine, from Brown, ranked one of the ten most-cited finance experts in the past decade; and Gustavo Manso, from MIT, who already has won an award teaching full-time Berkeley MBA students since arriving in the spring.

The Berkeley-Haas faculty also has been bolstered by five new assistant professors and more than a dozen new lecturers and visiting faculty.

“We continue to hire at the very top of the faculty market,” says Haas Dean Rich Lyons. “It is a part of what’s making us stronger and stronger. Great faculty attracts great students and great staff─a virtuous circle, and we are in it.”

Toby Stuart

Toby Stuart, a visiting professor at Haas from Harvard for the past two years, officially joined the faculty’s Management of Organizations (MORS) Group this summer. He holds the Leo Helzel Chair in Entrepreneurship.

Stuart’s research focuses on social networks, venture capital networks, and the role of networks in the creation of new firms. He is the recipient of the 2007 Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship, granted every other year to recognize an individual’s contributions to entrepreneurship research. Stuart also received the Administrative Science Quarterly’s Scholarly Contribution (best paper) award.

Stuart says one of his goals is to develop the curriculum’s aim to teach students to think like entrepreneurs regardless of their fields. “Even if they don’t plan to launch a startup company, students can learn how to use innovation to strengthen organizations in any field,” says Stuart, who earned his PhD from Stanford and his AB, summa cum laude, in economics from Carleton College.

Ross Levine

Professor Ross Levine, previously at Brown University’s economics department, is the Haas School’s new Willis H. Booth Chair in Banking and Finance, and a member of the Economic Analysis and Policy Group.

Levine’s just-released book, Guardians of Finance: Making Regulators Work for Us, with James Barth and Gerard Caprio critiques the role of U.S. and international regulators in causing global financial crises and proposes strategies for improving their performance.

Levine’s primary research examines how financial sector regulations and the operation of financial systems affect economic growth and poverty, economic stability, and the distribution of income and economic opportunities. His scope ranges from international finance to entrepreneurship, including the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. He has published more than 100 articles.

Levine is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as well as a senior fellow at the Milken Institute. He received his PhD in economics from UCLA after graduating Phi Beta Kappa in economics from Cornell.

Gustavo Manso
Haas Finance Group Associate Professor Gustavo Manso arrived at Haas in January 2012 and, after just one semester, students in his MBA corporate finance students nominated him for a teaching award. Manso previously taught for five years at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

In 2010, Manso received the Swiss Finance Institute’s Outstanding Paper Award. He was also honored with the Review of Financial Studies Young Researcher Award in 2009. As co-founder of the Finance Theory Group, Manso helps foster theoretical research in the areas of corporate finance, financial institutions, and financial markets.

Studying financial incentives, Manso’s research has revealed that combining tolerance for early failure with reward for long-term success is effective in motivating both creativity and innovation.

Manso earned his PhD in Finance from Stanford, an MS in mathematics from the Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada in Brazil; and his BA in economics from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Brazil.

New assistant professors, visiting faculty, and lecturers

Berkeley-Haas also is welcoming five new assistant professors: Andreea Gorbatai; Jose Guajardo; Alexander Nezlobin; Sameer Srivastava; and Brett Green.

  • Andreea Gorbatai, who has a PhD in organizational behavior and an MBA in sociology from Harvard, studies social structures and mechanisms of collective production, open innovation, and collective entrepreneurship.
  • Jose Guajardo, PhD from Wharton, focuses his research on service operations, supply chain management, operations strategy, and business analytics.
  • Alexander Nezlobin, who earned his PhD at Stanford and a BS in applied Mathematics from the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University in Russia, studies equity valuation, managerial performance measurement, profitability analysis, and monopoly regulation.
  • Sameer Srivastava, who earned his PhD in organizational behavior and sociology from Harvard, studies network analysis, culture and cognition, and research design and methods.
  • Brett Green, previously a visiting professor at Haas from Northwestern, earned his PhD at Stanford and studies information and sports economics, including news and liquidity in markets when traders have different information.

The Haas faculty also will be strengthened by four visiting professors:

  • Haas alumnus Nicholas Economides, PhD 81, a visiting professor from NYU’s Stern School of Business, is an internationally recognized academic authority on network economics, electronic commerce and public policy and has published more than 100 articles in top trade journals.
  • Hanno Lustig, visiting associate professor from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, won the 2009 Terker Family Prize (First Prize) for a co-authored paper on risk factors in currency markets and the 2010 NASDAQ OMX award for the best paper on asset pricing.
  • Adair Morse, visiting professor from the University of Chicago, studies tax evasion and corporate fraud as well as equity markets, including activist investors and performance in private equity.
  • Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, visiting professor from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, studies household consumption and portfolio choice, stock market participation, returns to entrepreneurial investment, and corporate governance.

In addition, a well-rounded group of lecturers will be joining Haas this fall:

  • Ajay Bam, a former senior product manager at Nokia who also has more than 10 years of experience with startups, is teaching the undergraduate Introduction to Entrepreneurship course.
  • Colin Boyle a San Francisco-based partner and managing director with The Boston Consulting Group is teaching the MBA course Strategic Management of Nonprofit Organizations.
  • Asiff Hirji, a Partner with TPG Capital with a specialization in financial services, technology and e-commerce and formerly president of TD AMERITRADE, and Theodore Kuh, BS 82, former managing director and global head of Citigroup’s retail industry, are co-teaching Private Equity: from LBOs to Emerging Markets.
  • Don Howard, head of the San Francisco office of the Bridgespan Group, an advisor for nonprofits, will co-teach Advanced Social Sector Solutions.
  • Bhavik Joshi, BCEMBA 08, co-founder of an early-stage startup and senior fellow at Haas’ Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, and Bob Neher, a founding partner, president, and CEO of St. Ives Laboratories beauty care products and CEO of Botalia Pharmaceuticals, will co-teach Advanced Entrepreneurship in the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program.
  • Safwan Shah, an executive with Total Systems, which processes electronic payments for financial and nonfinancial institutions, is co-teaching Entrepreneurship in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program.
  • Brian Steel, executive in residence in the Cleantech to Market Program with 30 years of business innovation and leadership experience, is co-teaching the MBA course.

Haas Signs on to U.N. Principles of Responsible Management Education

| by Laura Counts

Demonstrating its commitment to a sustainable future, the Haas School became a signatory of the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) in June.

The aim of PRME is to inspire and champion responsible management education, research, and thought leadership globally. “PRME provides a framework to guide schools’ efforts to continuously improve curricula and research related to corporate citizenship and sustainability,” says Jo Mackness, executive director of the Haas School’s Center for Responsible Business (CRB). The center will serve as the primary hub to coordinate and report the Haas School’s activities to the U.N.

Dean Rich Lyons added, “PRME’s principles are very much aligned with our school’s culture and vision to develop pathbending leaders.”

Haas was one of the first high-ranking business schools to sign onto PRIME.

PRME signatories commit to principles that include :

  • the development of students as future generators of sustainable value for business and society;
  • engagement in research on the role of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental, and economic value;
  • interaction with corporate leadership to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting social and environmental responsibilities.

Being a PRME signatory also involves conducting an annual project in support of PRME, such as heightened efforts around improving energy efficiency or launching new courses, and sharing progress against PRME aims publicly through an annual report to stakeholders.

“We have been doing many of these things for years,” says Mackness. “We hope to be in a position five years from now to see our graduates continuing to apply these principles in practice and to serve as a model for other business schools.”

UC Berkeley Skydeck Welcomes New Director, Gears Up for Fall

| by Laura Counts

The UC Berkeley Skydeck, a startup accelerator, is soaring to new heights with the appointment of a new full-time executive director and a busy lineup of fall events, including an open house and a hackathon.

Jeff Burton, a member of the founding team of video game maker Electronic Arts, was named Skydeck's executive director this summer. Throughout his more than 30-year career in the startup world, Burton has served as a founder, CEO, and owner of a variety of consumer-facing software technology companies. At Electronic Arts, he was responsible for the company's early entry and success in international markets.

“We are excited to have Jeff working hands on with our entrepreneurs as well as helping turn Skydeck into a focal point of education and connection for UC Berkeley startups," says Lester Center Executive Director Andre Marquis. "He has a tremendous network, great experience, and has been helping Cal founders for years.”

Burton is looking forward to fostering a community of UC Berkeley–affiliated entrepreneurs in order to help drive the creation of successful, scalable startup companies. Burton will work with the Lester Center and its Skydeck partners─the College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology and the UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Research’s Office─to help run campus and community events, scale the mentor network for the Skydeck teams and other UC Berkeley-affiliated startups, and build UC Berkeley’s entrepreneurial community. (Skydeck also was created with support from the City of Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.)

“Developing the world’s leading business startup ecosystem is certainly within reach, given the preeminence in the world of UC Berkeley’s research resources,” says Burton.  “It is truly inspirational.  The students, faculty, and broader community deserve credit for enabling a place like Skydeck, and my mission is to spotlight the exceptional talent we have here.”

Burton already has begun working with the 13 startup teams who have taken up residence at Skydeck, located on the top floor of the highest building in downtown Berkeley. In addition, he will be meeting members of UC Berkeley's entrepreneurial community at an invitation-only open house Oct. 18 at Skydeck.

In September, meanwhile, Skydeck with be buzzing with activity from another corner of the entrepreneurial community. On Sept. 21 and Sept. 22, Skydeck will host Hacking Health, UC Berkeley's digital health hackathon. For the second year in a row, professionals and students of all stripes─developers, designers, entrepreneurs, health experts, and clinicians—from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, and the Bay Area community will come together to design, build, and pitch digital health innovations in 24 hours or less.

Solutions from last year's event spanned personalized health forecasting, mobile therapeutics, chronic disease online communities, and concierge medical tourism. Participants have gone on to be funded by Rock Health and Y Combinator and receive recognition throughout the digital health ecosystem.

For more information on Hacking Health, visit blogs.ischool.berkeley.edu/hackinghealth/. For more information about Skydeck, visit skydeck.berkeley.edu.

Haas Undergrads Compete in U.S. Amateur Golf Tournament

| by Laura Counts

Two Haas undergrads─Michael Weaver and Brandon Hagy, both BS 14─competed in the U.S. Amateur golf tournament this month, with Weaver making it all the way to the championship match and Hagy reaching the semifinals.

Weaver teed off against Steven Fox, a senior at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, in the championship match Sunday, Aug. 19, at the 112th U.S. Amateur in Colorado. Weaver, the third Golden Bear ever to reach the event's finals, led Fox by two holes with two remaining before Fox made a late comeback to win amateur golf’s biggest prize, the Havemeyer Trophy.

Despite the heartbreaking defeat, Weaver earned an exemption to participate in the U.S. Open and also a likely invite to The Masters in 2013 by reaching the finals.

"The finish was unfortunate, but I'll grow from it," said Weaver. "It really was a great experience."

Hagy, meanwhile, reached the semifinals before also falling to Fox, Weaver and Hagy were among five Cal players to compete in the U.S. Amateur─more golfers than any other collegiate program in the nation for the second time in three years.

Both Hagy and Weaver redshirted on the golf team to gain admission into Berkeley-Haas. "I do want to attempt to play professionally, and, hopefully, make it," he was quoted saying on the U.S. Golf Association website. "But I also wanted to pursue a degree that I was interested in and something I thought would be useful should things not work out with golf.”

A third Haas student, Joël Stalter, BS 14, also plays golf for Cal but did not compete in the U.S. Amateur. Hagy and Stalter were named to the Pac-12 Conference Men's Golf All-Academic teams in June.

Michael Weaver, BS 14

Fall Peterson Series Launches with Talk on Global Sustainability Megaforces

| by Laura Counts

The Haas Center for Responsible Business (CRB) will kick off its fall Peterson Series Sept. 5 with two sustainable business experts who will talk about the sustainability megaforces─from climate change and resource scarcity to urbanization and food security─that will impact business over the next 20 years. 

Mark Lee of the think tank and strategy consultancy SustainAbility and Chris Coulter of the public research consultancy GlobeScan will provide an overview of these megaforces, discuss the implications for today’s managers, and lead a rich discussion on strategies for mitigating the risks and harnessing the opportunities they present.

Lee, executive director of SustainAbility, has more than 15 years of experience in key leadership positions in the sustainability field. Accountable for SustainAbility’s global consulting strategy, he directly advises such companies as Ford, Gap, Nestlé, Nike, Shell, and Starbucks.

Coulter is the president of GlobeScan, a public opinion research consultancy that conducts reputation, brand, sustainability, engagement, and trends research. He has 15 years of experience advising global companies, guiding GlobeScan’s project teams, and developing partnerships with long-term clients and external consultancies.

The Peterson Series was created in 1997 through a generous gift from Rudolph Peterson, a 1925 UC Berkeley graduate and former CEO and president of Bank of America.

The Sept. 5 Peterson Series talk will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the Howard Room at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club. Lunch will be provided.  Student attendees will be able to sign up for office hours after the event, with either speaker. To register for the event, visit www.eventbrite.com/event/4130496426.

Haas Alumni Network North Bay Chapter Names Two Honorees for Embodying Defining Principles

| by Laura Counts

Virgil Caselli, BS 63, is a San Franciscan through and through, having served in top positions with Ghirardelli Square, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and the Fisherman’s Wharf Merchants Association. Laura Bertolli, BS 84, saved her father’s struggling San Rafael auto body shop in 1988, despite knowing little about car repair, and today she’s a leader in the local business community.

Both have been recognized by the North Bay Chapter of the Haas Alumni Network for embodying one or more of the school’s Defining Principles: Question the Status Quo; Confidence Without Attitude; Students Always; and Beyond Yourself. The annual North Bay award, now in its third year, comes with a $1,000 prize, which Bertolli (below left) and Caselli (below right) will split.

“Virgil exemplifies the Haas principles of someone who is realistically confident and who can see possibilities far beyond the present,” wrote Bill Bockwoldt, one of the chapter’s board members. The North Beach native has led numerous historic preservation projects and participated in nonprofit work as a complement to his long career as an executive at a national real estate development and management company.

Bertolli, who worked for a CPA after graduating from Berkeley, “exemplifies the Haas principles of continuous learning and extending beyond one’s self in both goals and commitments,” Bockwoldt wrote. “Her personal, professional, and charitable accomplishments are inspirational.” In addition to continuing to run the car repair business she managed and then bought 24 years ago, Bertolli is active in civic matters and was recently elected incoming chair of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors.

Download “Culture Issue” of Berkeley-Haas Magazine on the iPad

| by Laura Counts

The summer 2012 issue of Berkeley-Haas magazine, "The Culture Issue," is now available on the iPad, complete with extra videos.

Extra iPad videos include :

  • What's Next?
    Six class of 2012 MBA grads talk about their new jobs and takeaways from Haas.
  • Relentless
    Cal Women's Basketball Captain Talia Caldwell shares her philosophy on the court.
  • Brain Candy
    Asst. Prof. Ming Hsu on neuroeconomics.
  • Curriculum Pioneer
    Senior Lecturer Sara Beckman explains her Problem Finding Problem Solving course.
  • Inspiration
    Alumni Shantanu Narayen, Adobe CEO, and Margaret Alexander, Acumen Fund Chairman Emeritus, speak at graduation.

Download the Berkeley-Haas magazine today at itunes.apple.com/us/app/calbusiness-magazine/id453741930?mt=8.

If you don't have an iPad, the online version of the magazine features the same multimedia extras. Stay tuned for an Android edition coming soon!

Best-Selling Corner Office Author to Speak at Haas, Sept. 20

| by Laura Counts

Best-selling author and New York Times editor Adam Bryant, who has interviewed such top CEOs as Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and Alan Mulally of Ford for his Corner Office book and column, will speak at Haas at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 20 in the Wells Fargo Room.

Turning the table on Bryant, Dean Rich Lyons will interview him as part of this Dean's Speaker Series Event. Registration will be required for his talk; registration details will be available on the Dean's Speaker Series website as the event date approaches.

Bryant is part of a roster of several impressive speakers slated to speak at Haas this semester as part of the Dean's Speaker Series:

  • AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Sept. 6
  • Intel CEO Paul Otellini, MBA 74, Oct. 3
  • Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director, McKinsey & Company, Oct. 30
  • Haas Professor Emeritus Janet Yellen, Vice Chair, Federal Reserve, Nov. 13

Bryant, the deputy national editor of the New York Times, has been a journalist for more than two decades. Using simple open-ended questions, he started interviewing CEOs and other leaders in early 2009 to launch the "Corner Office" feature in the Sunday Business section of the New York Times.

After developing a loyal following to his column and noticing several themes, Bryant studied more than a million words from more than 70 interviews, identified five qualities that set high-performers apart, and gleaned concrete and specific advice on how to lead and manage others. The result is his new book, The Corner Office: Indispensible and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, which combines his own analysis with the voices of CEOs.

Two Haas alumni have been featured in Bryant's "Corner Office" column in the past year: Joe Jimenez, MBA 84, CEO of Novartis and John Riccitiello, BS 81, CEO of Electronic Arts.

Prof. David Vogel Wins Academy of Management Book Award

| by Laura Counts

Professor David Vogel has won the Academy of Management Organization and the Natural Environment Division Book Award for his book The Politics of Precaution: Regulating Health, Safety, and Environmental Risks in Europe and the United States.

In The Politics of Precaution (Princeton University Press, April 2012), Vogel argues that there has been an overall shift towards greater regulation to manage risk in Europe than in the United States in the last five decades. Vogel, who holds the Soloman P. Lee Chair in Business Ethics at Haas, examined case studies and risk regulation over this period and found regulations–once more stringent in America–have become less comprehensive and innovative than those in Europe since that time.

One of the Academy of Management judges called Vogel's book an "excellent historical explanation of what happened to environmental, social, and health regulation in U.S. and rest of world in last 40 years.” Another wrote, "Vogel brings an in-depth knowledge about the issue. I truly enjoyed reading this book. This is excellent scholarship.”

Vogel's award was announced at the Organization and the Natural Environment Division Business Meeting during the annual Academy of Management Conference earlier this month. The academy judged entries for the award on four criteria: originality of substance and approach; significance for scholarly policy debate in the field; rigor in approach and analysis; and readability.

Vogel, the author of 15 books, has been at the forefront of research on corporate social responsibility throughout an academic career that spans nearly four decades. He has been a faculty member at Berkeley’s business school since 1973 and editor of the school’s journal, California Management Review, since 1982.

Read a Q&A with Vogel about The Politics of Precaution

International Consulting Experiences Expand for Evening & Weekend MBA Students

| by Laura Counts

A power outage at Uganda’s Entebbe airport sparked an “a-ha” moment this summer for Michael Edde, a student in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program. Edde, MBA 13, was in Uganda on a team consulting project through the Haas School’s International Business Development (IBD) course, offered for the first time this year to evening and weekend MBA students.

Edde’s team traveled to Uganda to strategize on deployment of solar suitcases to health facilities, with the specific aim of powering lights and fetal monitors to make night-time labor and delivery safer for women. "While waiting to clear passport control, we experienced our first blackout and were reminded why we were here,” Edde wrote in a blog post. “If a country’s only major airport can lose power in the middle of the day, what does it mean for the hospitals and mothers giving birth?”

Edde was among the 20 evening and weekend MBA students spread out across seven countries this summer as the program expanded its portfolio of international experiences to include IBD, a course pioneered in the Full-time MBA Program that gives students hands-on experience in consulting projects worldwide.  Forty evening and weekend students also traveled this summer for the Seminar in International Business, a course exposing them to different business environments through two-week treks featuring corporate visits in countries from China to Chile.

For IBD, five teams spent two weeks in-country on projects that included conducting strategic analysis for a German software giant in Shanghai and developing a marketing and sales strategy for an insurance software developer in Brazil. The Uganda team was advising We Care Solar on entering the country with its compact solar suitcases, which can power lights and fetal monitors to increase the safety of women delivering babies at night.

Before traveling overseas, IBD students spent five Saturdays in the classroom, building capabilities in teamwork, navigating ambiguity, and wielding influence with clients. Lecturer Frank Schultz, the instructor, also brought in consultants from Capgemini Consulting and McKinsey & Co. to work with students on defining project scope and other critical consulting skills. Capgemini consultant Tina Doede, MBA 08, observes that negotiating the project scope with clients gives students complete ownership for the project—and the outcome: “This program offers some really meaty challenges that let students demonstrate a breadth of consulting skills in a fairly abridged format."

Alumni also played a role in the Seminar in International Business. The course, taught by Haas Lecturer Greg La Blanc, culminates with two-week treks. As students traveled to China, Chile, and Argentina, Berkeley-Haas connections opened doors to meetings with Nicolas Goldstein, MBA 03, CEO of airline LAN Peru, and executives at Silicon Valley Bank, Gap, and Apple in Shanghai, thanks to introductions by Ann Hsu, MBA 98, head of the Shanghai Haas Alumni Network chapter.

Alvaro Peon-Sanchez, MBA 14, blogged about the China trip, sharing highlights such as the Terracotta Army and coming down from the Great Wall via toboggan. His favorite quote from the trip: “In China, everything is difficult, but everything is possible.”

Read more about students' international experiences in the Haas in the World blog. 

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to Speak at Haas Sept. 6

| by Laura Counts

AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, a veteran in the ever-evolving telecom industry, will kick off the fall semester Dean Speaker Series with a talk at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6, in the Wells Fargo Room.

The event is free and open to the Haas community, but registration will be required.  Details on registration will be posted on the Dean's Speaker Series website at the end of August.

Stephenson began his career in telecommunications in 1982 with Southwestern Bell Telephone (later renamed SBC) and rose through the ranks in a variety of leadership roles, including international director of finance, senior vice president for consumer marketing, and chief financial officer. Stephenson served as AT&T's chief operating officer from 2004 to 2007, when he was named chairman and CEO.

Stephenson also served as chairman of the board of Cingular Wireless when the company was having initial discussions with Steve Jobs on whether Cingular, which eventually became AT&T, would support the iPhone.

 “I remember asking the question: Are we investing in a business model, are we investing in a product or are we investing in Steve Jobs?” Stephenson told the New York Times in May. “The answer to the question was, you’re investing in Steve Jobs. Let’s go after this thing. And we went after it, and the rest is history.”

Under Randall's leadership at AT&T, the company has expanded its AT&T U-verse advanced digital TV platform and created the AT&T Aspire educational initiative, a $350 million set of programs to help foster college and career readiness for at-risk students. As part of Aspire, company employees, including Stephenson himself, have been involved in more than 100,000 job-shadowing experiences for Aspire’s student participants.

Haas Fund Receives Record Alumni Gifts

| by Laura Counts

Alumni giving to the Haas Fund broke records across a number of key metrics in fiscal year 2012, which ended June 30.

A total of 4,261 donors gave $3.06 million to the annual fund—the highest dollar amount given by alumni in a single year. With an additional $169,000 in matching funds from the New Alumni Challenge, the annual fund totaled $3.22 million for fiscal year 2012.

A total of 3,857 Haas School alumni, representing 10.2 percent of the school's total alumni, donated $2.69 million. The average alumni gift size was $698.

"Support from our alums is why Berkeley-Haas continues to excel, even relative to other top business schools, in this era of so little state funding," says Dean Rich Lyons. "We are very grateful for their generosity."

Full-time MBA alumni broke their record of giving with $1.53 million; Berkeley-Columbia MBA alumni gave more than $66,000, the most in that program's history; Master of Financial Engineering alumni donated at their highest level yet, with $7,484; and a record number of PhD alumni made gifts. The Haas Fund also received more gifts in the $1,000-$2,499 and $5,000-$9,999 levels than in any other year. The fund received the most online gifts ever, at 2,066.

Non-alumni friends of Haas also donated in record numbers, with 404 individuals contributing more than $344,700.

The Haas Fund supports every aspect of the Haas School’s mission and priorities. Donors may direct their gifts to their choice of four areas: school-wide support, Dean Rich Lyons’ priority initiatives, faculty research and excellence, or degree programs. School-wide support includes student scholarships and fellowships; career resources; experiential learning programs; and alumni networking, online resources, and professional development.

91 Faculty Members Make “Club Six” for Spring Teaching

| by Laura Counts

Students gave 91 faculty members, or 64 percent of instructors, a mean teaching score of at least six on a seven-point scale during the spring semester.

The "Club Six" ranking is based on written evaluations from students in all degree programs. It is a key metric used by Haas to measure the teaching performance of its instructors.

Among the Club Six instructors, 22 faculty members, or 15 percent of all instructors during the spring semester, had means of 6.0 and above in multiple courses.

The following faculty members deserve special mention for earning "Club 6" in multiple programs last semester:

  • Sara Beckman (EWMBA, XMBA)
  • Henry Chesbrough (EWMBA, MBA)
  • Ernesto Dal Bo (EWMBA, MBA)
  • Rui de Figueiredo (EWMBA, PHD)
  • Pnina Feldman (EWMBA, PHD)
  • Peter Goodson (EWMBA/MBA, MBA)
  • Brett Green (EWMBA, PHD)
  • Edward Kass (EWMBA, MBA, UG)
  • Gregory La Blanc (MBA, MFE)
  • Alastair Lawrence (EWMBA/MBA, PHD)
  • Gustavo Manso (EWMBA/MBA, MBA)
  • Reza Moazzami (EWMBA, MBA)
  • John Morgan (MBA, PHD)
  • Minjung Park (MBA, PHD)
  • David Robinson (MBA, UG)
  • Omar Romero-Hernandez (MBA, UG)
  • Toby Stuart (EWMBA/MBA, PHD)
  • Alexei Tchistyi (PHD, UG)
  • Paul Tiffany (EWMBA/MBA, XMBA)
  • Suneel Udpa (EWMBA, MBA)
  • Lynn Upshaw (EWMBA, MBA)
  • Cort Worthington (EWMBA, UGBA)

See a comprehensive list of the Club 6 scores (Haas password required)

Haas Undergrad Writes Advice Book for Law School Hopefuls

| by Laura Counts

Michael Bloch, BS 13, was considering a career in law. Make that carefully considering. Wanting to make the most informed decision possible about choosing to go to law school, the Haas undergrad sought the advice of seasoned attorneys—including former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, a UC Berkeley distinguished visiting professor, and former SEC Chairman David Ruder. Bloch then turned what he’d learned into the new book Learning From Precedent to guide others through the same decision-making process.

Aimed at high school and college students wondering if law school is right for them, Learning From Precedent provides a look at the diverse pathways open to law school graduates.  Bloch’s interviews focus on how a law degree shaped the careers of such lawyers as sports agent Leigh Steinberg, the inspiration for Jerry Maguire; ACLU President Susan Herman; and James McPherson, judge advocate general of the Navy.

“The Haas defining principle of Beyond Yourself served as motivation for writing,” Bloch says of the book. In addition to donating 10 percent of book sales to charity, Bloch wanted to “provide other students with necessary information they might not be able to get themselves.”

Bloch has been debating whether to apply to law school since he began his studies at UC Berkeley. His decision to apply to Haas was an easier one, thanks to the experiences of older sister Doreen Bloch, BS 10. “She told me about the people she was meeting, the opportunities made available to her, and the overall incredible experience there was to be had─I knew I wanted to be a part of it all,” says Bloch.

As for Bloch's future, the verdict is in: He plans to apply to JD/MBA programs following his undergraduate studies and become a management consultant in New York City. He hopes Learning From Precedent similarly helps fellow prospective law students “find clarity on their future careers and whether law school is indeed right for their life aspirations.”

Prof. Katz Testifies Before Congress on Mobile Payments

| by Laura Counts

Smart phones and tablets will revolutionize how merchants manage customer relationships, but new technology that enables consumers to pay by swiping their phone rather than a credit card will produce only evolutionary changes, Professor Michael Katz testified in Congress July 10.                                            

Katz, the Sarin Chair in Strategy and Leadership, was among three experts to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in part two of a hearing on "Developing the Framework for Safe and Efficient Mobile Payments."

Katz said the largest driver of widespread adoption of mobile payments will be the ubiquity of smart phones and mobile devices and the information they convey about where consumers are and what they are doing.

To make his point, Katz described this hypothetical example: On a warm summer day, a mobile payment app alerts a coffee retailer at 10:45 a.m. that a person who usually buys a cup of coffee by 10:30 a.m. is leaving her office and has yet to visit a coffee shop. Taking into account the heat and the coffee retailer's uncrowded café, the retailer could send an email or text message to the consumer offering a discount on an iced coffee if she visits the store three blocks away in the next 30 minutes.

"This information can be analyzed to predict consumer behavior and used to generate personalized, context-specific, merchant-to-consumer communication delivered in real time," said Katz. "The ability to predict consumer behavior and send such targeted messages is a very powerful marketing tool that will be worth tens of billions of dollars annually to merchants."

Katz cited three obstacles to revolutionary change triggered by mobile payments:

  • A chick-and-egg problem: Merchants don't want to bear the cost of a new payment service if only a few consumers us it, and consumers don't want to sign up for a new payment service if few merchants accept it.
  • Convenience: While a "digital wallet" could be more convenient than a traditional wallet packed with multiple payment cards, traditional wallets are going to be necessary for some time to hold driver's licenses and insurance cards.
  • Security concerns: Katz noted that surveys show consumers question the security of mobile payments.

Katz is a former chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission and former deputy assistant attorney general for economic analysis in the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division.

Professor Michael Katz

Journal Recognizes Haas Faculty’s Rich History in Accounting

| by Laura Counts

Five Berkeley-Haas professors and alumni dating back to the beginning of the 20th century were featured in the Journal of Accountancy's list of the 125 top leaders in the accounting profession, published in its June 2012 issue.

Professors Henry Rand Hatfield, Maurice Moonitz, Robert Sprouse, and William Vatter joined alumnus Michael Chetkovich on the list of 125 leaders who left a mark on the accounting profession.

"This is a fine reminder of the tradition of excellence in accounting here at Berkeley-Haas," says Dean Rich Lyons. "We are very proud of the hallowed lineage of our accounting faculty."

Henry Rand Hatfield secured the first full-time professorial appointment in accounting in the United States as an associate professor at Berkeley in 1904 and a year earlier published the first paper in the United States on accounting theory, presented at an American Economic Association meeting. He e went onwent on to become the second dean of Berkeley's College of Commerce (the predecessor of Haas) in 1916 and helped found the American Accounting Association, which he served as president in 1919.

Maurice Moonitz, BS 33, MS 36, PhD 41, who passed away in 2009, earned his three business degrees from Berkeley, returned as an associate professor in 1947, and retired in 1978. A prolific scholar who wrote or edited approximately 70 articles and books on accounting, Moonitz was the first associate dean of Berkeley's newly formed Graduate School of Business Administration from 1955 to 1959.

Robert Sprouse, who passed away in 2007, served as vice chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board for 11 years after joining as a member in 1973. His first teaching position was at Berkeley, where he co-authored at least one article with Professor Maurice Moonitz (listed above). In total Sprouse wrote two textbooks and more than 40 articles and co-authored major studies for the Accounting Principles Board. He served as president of the American Accounting Association from 1972 to 1973.

William Vatter wrote an influential text on managerial accounting in 1950 and was a pioneer in the field of methods for allocating costs. His Standards for Cost Analysis report to the comptroller general was the principal conceptual basis of the Cost Accounting Standards Board’s initial pronouncements.

Michael Chetkovich, BS 39, MBA 40, served as president of American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, advocating for fundamental changes in the 1970s as Congress examined the accounting profession's ability to regulate itself. Chetkovich was also a managing partner of the firm Deloitte Haskins & Sells, and after retirement was appointed a regents' professor at the business school, which he served as director of external affairs. The business school awarded Chetkovich its Alumnus of the Year Award in 1973 and established an endowed chair in accounting in his name in 1978. He received Berkeley's Alumnus of the Year Award in 1985 and the Chancellor’s Award in 1986.

Read the Journal of Accountancy's Top 125 List

Management Consultant and Alumnus Peter Kontes, MBA 74, passes away

| by Laura Counts

Peter KontesPeter Kontes, MBA 74, principal of Greenwich Advisory Group and co-founder and former CEO of Marakon Associates, has passed away at the age of 65.

Kontes, an expert in maximizing company value and shareholder returns, wrote two books, The Value Imperative (1994) and The CEO, Strategy, and Shareholder Value (2010). He served as an executive-in-residence and distinguished faculty fellow at the Yale Graduate School of Management.

Kontes spent his early career working as vice president at Wells Fargo Bank and as assistant vice president at Bank of America, both in San Francisco. In 1978, he co-founded Marakon Associates, a management consulting firm in which he played a leadership role until he retired in 2003. During his time at Marakon, Kontes was an advisor to CEOs of more than 30 large corporations in the U.S. and Europe.

Kontes is survived by his parents, two sons, and a brother.

More Job Postings, Breadth of Hiring Firms Reflect Continued Demand for Haas Grads

| by Laura Counts

Salaries are on the rise for Berkeley MBA grads, job postings are up for Haas undergrads, and PhD graduates are fanning out to positions around the world as the employment landscape shows signs of improvement in some areas this year.

MBA Employment

From JP Morgan to McKinsey and from Amazon to Zynga, members of the full-time MBA class of 2012 will be working with some of the world's top companies–and at a higher median salary than last year.

Early employment data shows both the mean and median base salary for the class currently trending to exceed last year’s. Eighty-eight percent of the class had received offers by graduation, compared to 87 percent at this time last year.

Thus far, students will be working for 106 organizations in 22 countries. Top hiring firms in consulting include Bain, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, LEK Consulting, and McKinsey & Company. In finance, top hirers to date are JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. Top hiring tech firms include Facebook, Google, Microsoft, PayPal, and Zynga. Clorox and Genentech are also among top hiring firms.

"Despite uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment, demand for our MBA students continues to be strong," says Lisa Feldman, executive director of the MBA Career Management Group. "As evident in the number of different organizations hiring our students, our MBAs want to make an impact on the world in diverse ways and have been creative in landing opportunities that allow them to do so."

One student looking forward to making an impact is Sue Young, MBA 12, who has joined Facebook as a product marketing manager. Young, who interned with Facebook last summer, says mock interviews were particularly helpful in her job search. "Companies have a small window to learn who you are and I realized early on the importance of presenting myself and my ideas effectively," she says. "I practiced my interviews with alums, our student career coaches, the Career Services team, and with a network of career consultants–the practice was invaluable." Her best advice to current job seekers: "Don't make your career search a solo endeavor."

MBA Internships

As for the class of 2013, just less than 98 percent of them have reported receiving an offer for a summer internship. Top hiring companies for internships include Amazon, Apple, Autodesk, Bain, Boston Consulting Group, Citi, Deloitte, Dow Chemical, Genentech, Google, Intel, McKinsey, Monitor Group, Opower, and Pacific Gas & Electric.

Undergraduate Employment

For the Haas undergraduate class of 2012, job postings and on-campus interviewing increased this year compared with last year, according to Tom Devlin, director of UC Berkeley's undergraduate Career Center. Employment participation in career fairs, meanwhile, jumped significantly, he says.

Preliminary results of a survey of graduating seniors show that 80 percent of Haas seniors landed jobs and 10 percent are still seeking employment. "This year we have seen a strong return of the big three industries – finance, accounting, and consulting," says Devlin. "That will capture two-thirds of the class."

Another 10 percent of the class report being self-employed, working in post-graduate internships, or going to graduate school.

PhD Employment

Several Haas PhD graduates, of course, are moving on to careers in academia. In the U.S., graduates from the class of 2012 have landed positions at USC, NYU Stern, and Drexel. Three students will be leaving the country–one for a position at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, one for a position at the Ivy Business School at University of Western Ontario, and one as a research fellow at the National University of Singapore.

Three other graduates also will be doing post-doc work, at Wharton, Princeton, and Berkeley.

In addition to careers in academia, two PhD graduates will be working for the Securities and Exchange Commission, one graduate will move to Boston to work at the Federal Reserve Bank there, and another student will work for BlackRock. 

Kyungsuk Lee, MBA 12

Undergrad Kylan Nieh to Carry Olympic Torch in London

| by Laura Counts

Kylan Nieh, BS 14, spent countless hours training to be an Olympic gymnast before an injury ended that dream about six years ago. Now, in recognition of the philanthropic and entrepreneurial feats that he accomplished with the time he had previously used for training, Nieh has won the opportunity to participate in the games in another capacity: as an official torch bearer carrying the Olympic flame in London.

"It's interesting how everything takes a turn, and now I’m going to the Olympics and in a way fulfilling the dream I've had since I was a kid," says Nieh, one of 22 individuals selected by Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola to carry the torch in London in July.

The company selected torchbearers who inspire others to live positively; strive to make a positive difference in communities near and far; and are active in recycling, sustainability, or conservation programs that help the planet.

After an elbow injury just before high school ended his Olympic dreams, Nieh found himself with hours of extra free time and realized that he needed to set new goals and find new passions.

"Something that I was really grateful to do with that free time was create strong relationships with my grandparents," he says. That, in turn, led Nieh to co-found Internetting Family, a nonprofit organization that has taught hundreds of senior citizens computer skills, as well as founded WEducate, which provides educational supplies for students from low-income families. He also got involved in high school student government, becoming president; becoming a six varsity-letter athlete in track and field and gymnastics (which was less intense than his private training); and excelled in school, becoming the class valedictorian.

Nieh has brought the same energy and enthusiasm to Cal, teaching a leadership course for three semesters starting freshman year. As president of Nestlé's Very Best in Youth Foundation, he also is running a nationwide campaign to collect educational supplies to give to students in need.

Nieh's trip to London will be his first time in Europe, and he will take advantage of the opportunity to visit Germany, France, and Italy with his parents. But he's most excited about "being in the moment" as a torchbearer and representing the spirit of giving and perseverance.

"My motto in life is: give to others and you will receive as well. It's reciprocity," says Nieh, who hopes to become a social entrepreneur after finishing his schooling. "Because of my injury in gymnastics, I was able to learn that. It was one of the best things that happened to me because I was really open to spreading my wings and opening my eyes to the world and learning so many new things."

Kylan Nieh, BS 14/By Doug Duran, Bay Area News Group

New Behavioral Lab Expands Faculty Research Opportunities

| by Laura Counts

A new behavioral lab has opened on the fifth floor of the Haas School’s faculty wing, enabling faculty to complete more small-group studies.

The behavioral lab, comprised of six small offices, was built to support cross-disciplinary behavioral research, which typically involves one to six participants at a time. One office features a big-screen TV and video game console, complete with steering wheel, for experiments; another offers food samples for marketing research. The facility was built in space previously used as a hallway. Faculty held a grand opening celebration of the facility on May 10.

Before the lab was constructed, 20 faculty, post-doc, and doctoral student researchers used the Koret classroom breakout rooms, logging in

more than 6,700 participant hours last year. The new lab will increase the capacity to more than 8,000 participant hours annually and allow a greater number of small-group studies to run simultaneously. 

“The behavioral lab is a totally critical component in my research,” says Assistant Professor Dana Carney in the faculty’s Management of Organizations Group. Carney’s research on success, leadership, and adaptive behavior involves looking at participants’ physiological changes, including increases in testosterone, cortisol, heart rates, and temperature.

Carney can’t talk about her current research in the behavioral lab because it involves Haas volunteers. But she notes that the behavioral lab at Columbia, where she previously worked, allowed her to study how being given power in a lab context makes people more stress-resilient. Participants could give a speech without becoming stressed and keep their arms in buckets of ice-cold water longer, evidence of higher pain tolerance, she recalls. Her conclusion: “Power changes us physiologically to endure the stresses of life. It literally acts as a drug to help us better handle the challenges of our lives.”

Such work would not be possible without a behavioral lab, which is why Carney says she is “very, very excited about the new lab at Haas.” “These studies have to be done in closed rooms where you have two people or a small group interacting,” she says.

Other lines of research that will be explored at the lab include :

  • the effect of experimental variation on people’s confidence and feelings about procedural justice;
  • the effects of quantitative complexity on risk-taking in financial investments;
  • impression management and the effects of overconfidence on credibility;
  • how differences in perceived power and status affect behavior in small groups;
  • factors that influence how people negotiate.

The Xlab, a unit of the Institute of Business and Economic Research, continues to operate at Berkeley-Haas. During the past year Xlab ran more than 200 experiment sessions involving nearly 6,000 participants.