Author: Pamela Tom

Financial Engineering Student Alfred Yuan Wins Morgan Stanley Competition

| by Pamela Tom

Alfred Yuan, MFE 13, won the $5,000 Morgan Stanley Prize for Excellence in Financial Markets for a paper focused on designing and implementing an algorithm to accelerate the computations of complex financial systems.

Yuan, whose paper competed against more than 100 entries from other financial engineering and PhD students around the country, was presented the prize Wednesday night in New York. In addition, he will intern with Morgan Stanley Strats & Modeling this summer and interview for a full-time position at the firm.

"We congratulate Alfred for this outstanding achievement," says Linda Kreitzman, executive director of the Haas School's Master of Financial Engineering Program. "He is a dedicated and gifted MFE student who has excelled in our program, which encourages innovation among our students at so many levels."

The second place winner, Mu Cai, is earning a PhD in statistics from UC Berkeley, and the third place winner is a physics PhD student from Princeton.

Yuan earned a bachelor's degree in statistics and actuarial science from Renmin University of China. After graduation, he enrolled in Stanford's School of Management Science and Engineering to study math and finance to improve his quantitative skills. He has interned as a quantitative analyst at China International Capital Corp., worked on several academic projects in the quant finance field, and teamed up with others on several entrepreneurial tech projects.

In his winning paper, Yuan addressed how the constant improvement of computing has created a tendency to build always larger, more complex financial models. Inspired by qualitative physics, Yuan's algorithm in turn addressed that complexity by seeking to accelerate the computation of financial equation systems by decomposing the challenge into several sequential smaller ones. His paper included theoretical analysis of algorithms, case study, empirical experimental results, and discussion on possible parallel implementations for this project.

Professor Emeritus Michael Conant Passes Away

| by Pamela Tom

Michael Conant Professor Emeritus Michael Conant, a Haas faculty member for more than three decades whose research spanned the fields of law and economics, passed away at his Kensington home Dec. 7. He was 88 years old.

Born Misha Cohen in Peoria, Ill., on Aug. 9, 1924, Conant served in the U. S. Army during World War II and then attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning a BS degree in economics.  From there he attended the University of Chicago, where he earned a doctor of philosophy degree in economics, with Nobel laureate Milton Friedman serving as one of his PhD examiners.  At the suggestion of his girlfriend, Helene Mandel, Conant stayed on at the University of Chicago to earn a doctorate of law (JD).

In 1948, Conant and Mandel, an accomplished violist, married and remained together until Mandel’s death in 2010.  They lived for three years in the Hyde Park district of Chicago while Conant worked at a private law firm. In 1954, Conant joined the faculty of UC Berkeley’s business school. He was known for his excellence as a teacher and his expertise in antitrust economics, law, and economic regulation.

Conant continued his scholarly endeavors after his retirement in 1991, continuing to publish numerous journal articles and several highly respected books.  His 2008 book The Constitution and Economic Regulation: Objective Theory and Critical Commentary was well-received by scholars in the field.

Conant is survived by his sister, Anita Segalman of Northridge, Calif; many members of his extended family; and numerous good friends and colleagues. Friends and colleagues are invited to attend a memorial service Sunday, Dec. 16, at 2 p.m. at the home of Dan Segalman, Conant’s nephew. Please RSVP to Ruth Ancheta, Conant’s niece, with the number of people in the party: [email protected], (262) 893-7561.

Tax Evasion in Greece: Billions Earned by High Income Professionals Go Untaxed

| by Pamela Tom

Adair MorseWide-scale tax evasion in Greece accounts for 28 billion Euros in unreported taxable income –just among the self-employed, according to a new study, “Tax Evasion Across Industries: Soft Credit Evidence from Greece,”  by  Adair Morse,  a visiting assistant professor of finance at Berkeley-Haas.

At a tax rate of 40 percent, that’s a revenue loss responsible for nearly one-third of Greece’s deficit in 2009 or almost 50 percent of the deficit in 2008, according to the study co-authored by Margarita Tsoutsoura, assistant professor, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Nikolaos Artavanis, PhD candidate, Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business.

Using bank data on household borrowing, the paper finds that highly paid, highly educated professionals are at the forefront of tax evasion in Greece:  doctors, engineers, private tutors, financial services agents, accountants, and lawyers. Morse contends the findings are troubling from a perspective of inequality in the financially struggling country.

“The goal of the paper is to use our rich bank data to provide a country-representative estimate of tax evasion in aggregate and by occupation, and to offer analysis relating to factors that allow the tax evasion to persist,” says Morse.  “But we were also very aware that understanding who is paying taxes and who is not is important to the people of Greece. One might ponder how it can be a good thing that the higher-income professions ‘tax evade’ a higher proportion of this income.”

The researchers further sought to understand how such dramatic tax evasion could exist and continue, with two main conclusions. First, the tax evaders tend to work in occupations that are least likely to leave a verifiable “paper trail” for tax collectors. Second, legislation, including a 2010 bill addressing the widespread tax evasion, has been slow to win approval. Morse asserts that it may not be mere coincidence that the majority of Greek Parliament members’ professions correlate with the largest tax evaders’, even excluding lawyers.  “Industry associations are strong,” Morse suggests. “Parliament members face enormous loyalty pressure.”

The data consist of credit applications for consumer credit products at one of the ten large Greek banks from 2003 to 2010. The authors study situations in which the bank determines the credit level such as refinance loans, new credit cards, and a sample of loans in which borrowers requested more money than they received. In these situations, Morse uses the bank decision on the appropriate credit level to understand how much income the bank must perceive individuals to have to back out the bank’s estimate of true income. The authors term such lending “soft credit” since the information about true income is soft information. The researchers infuse this new insight with the observation that Greek banks have learned to adapt to an economy where income is often hidden to remain competitive.

Morse hopes the study’s findings will encourage EU and Greek policymakers to create incentives for more accurate income reporting such as paper trial mandates or occupation licenses for tax evading industries. Already the research is having an impact on the rhetoric in Greece, encouraging the population to think about the culture of tax evasion and how tax evasion does not equally benefit all Greeks. The Greek government recently approved new regulations requiring all businesses to issue receipts for transactions so it may track business taxes due. If a business doesn’t comply, the customer can reportedly walk away –without paying.

See full paper.

Wide-scale tax evasion in Greece accounts for 28 billion Euros in unreported taxable income –just among the self-employed, according to a new study, “Tax Evasion Across Industries: Soft Credit Evidence from Greece,”  by  Adair Morse,  a visiting assistant professor of finance at Berkeley-Haas.

Giants President Talks World-Series Baseball in Undergrad Media Consulting Course

| by Pamela Tom

Competition for the San Francisco Giants isn’t another baseball team but the multitude of entertainment options in San Francisco, Giants President Larry Baer, BA 80, told Haas undergraduate students during a guest lecture Nov. 8, about a week after the team won the World Series.

“Our competition isn’t the A’s; it is anything in the vicinity that can attract leisure time for three or four hours,” Baer said in a visit to NBC news anchor Diane Dwyer's Media Consulting course. With so many options in a wealthy area, Baer said, “we’re competing for the entertainment hour, not dollar.”

Social media is very important and can set off the next Giants merchandise trend, such as Pablo Sandoval “panda” hats, he said. But social media has its downside, as the team realized this year when player Melky Cabrera, or the “Melk Man,” a nickname the team promoted, was suspended for testing positive for testosterone, a banned substance, prompting a storm of social media jabs.

The team went into crisis-management mode after the suspension. Inside the organization, the message was that each person needed to pick it up to make up for the loss, and outside it was that the Giants were disappointed, and didn’t see it coming, according to Baer. “We were fortunate enough to have enough good will to not comingle the sour Melky brand with the Giants brand,” he said.

Baer, a fourth-generation San Franciscan and Cal graduate, also spoke about the Giants’ recent success and the entertainment value of going to a game. He said one reason the Giants work so hard to make AT&T Park such a great entertainment destination is because “you can’t guarantee what will happen on the field,” but you can control the experience and make it as entertaining and fun as possible.  

 “We want to stay humble because if we aren’t and end up at .500 or worse, the perception will change,” Baer said. “Sports are volatile.”

Giants President Larry Baer

More Female Board Directors Add Up to Improved Sustainability Performance

| by Pamela Tom

As a corporate responsibility consultant, Kellie McElhaney publicly criticized Apple’s recent appointment of another man to an already all-male executive team. McElhaney’s new research goes one step further, indicating that the number of women on a corporate board correlates with a firm’s sustainability performance.

“While not studied in this paper, the cases of strong ESG performance leading to improved financial and more women in leadership leading to better financial performance has been well documented,” says Adj. Asst. Prof. McElhaney.  “The gap we want to fill in this study is to investigate a linkage between women and ESG performance to make this scenario a win-win-win.”

McElhaney found that companies with one or more women on their boards are significantly more likely to have improved sustainability practices. “This is not a women’s or men’s issue, it’s a collective and business opportunity,” says McElhaney who is also faculty director, Center for Responsible Business at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

The study, “Women Create A Sustainable Future,” is co-authored by Sanaz Mobasseri, PhD candidate, Berkeley-Haas Management of Organizations Group, and sponsored by KPMG and Women Corporate Directors (WCD). MSCI Inc. provided the dataset of Fortune 1500 companies and their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, which they have been measuring since 1992.

To measure corporate performance, the authors reviewed each organization’s ESG performance.  Environmental criteria include steps to improve energy efficiency of operations, to measure and reduce carbon emissions, the reduction of packaging, and investment in renewable power generation. Examples of social factors include health care access for underserved populations in developing market supply chains, strong employment benefits and performance incentives, products with improved health or nutritional benefits, and products and services to communities with limited or no access to financial products. Finally, governance is defined as avoiding corruption and bribery, clean accounting, and a high level of disclosure and transparency about business practices.

ESG is a widely accepted measure of corporate sustainability among the investment community as indicators of risk management, opportunity recognition, and strong leadership.

“We also found, like researchers before us, that the sweet spot is three. Companies with at least three female board members had a better ESG performance but we’re talking about very few companies who meet this threshold–just three of the 1,500 we studied:  Kimberly-Clark, General Motors, and Walmart,” says McElhaney.

McElhaney interviewed several female directors to learn more about their personal experiences on a board.

“Women and sustainability are two sides of the same coin …. Corporations build better societies if they have balanced boards,” says Halla Tomadottir, executive chair and co-founder of Audur Capital in Iceland, interviewed in the study.

The study’s authors also spoke with former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, who serves on the board of Nestle. “The voices of women are critical in advancing the goals of corporate shared value,” says Veneman in the study.

Others female directors told McElhaney that they evaluate invitations to sit on boards based on the organizations’ ESG factor. Dina Dublon, former executive vice president and chief financial officer of JP Morgan Chase, is a director at PepsiCo, Accenture, and Microsoft. “There is an element of self-selection for me,” says Dublon. “I choose to serve on boards who have openness to ESG issues because I care deeply about these issues.”

McElhaney points out that “causality” remains problematic. “Is a company that’s not managing risk like ESG going to realize that it’s a risk not to have more women in senior leadership–Which happens first –adding more women to a board or improving sustainability initiatives?”

The next phase of McElhaney’s research will be to interview more female, as well as male board members. McElhaney also cites four critical next steps to expand female board membership: conduct more research in this area, continue to build a pipeline of women to serve on corporate boards, foster a business community of sponsors for females that includes both men and women, and train business leaders of both genders to be “change agents.”

See full paper.

As a corporate responsibility consultant, Kellie McElhaney publicly criticized Apple’s recent appointment of another man to an already all-male executive team. McElhaney’s new research goes one step further, indicating that the number of women on a corporate board correlates with a firm’s sustainability performance.

 

Just Do It: Learn about Systems Innovation and Sustainability from Nike Exec

| by Pamela Tom

Sarah Severn, Nike's director of stakeholder mobilization, will talk on systems-level projects to detoxify the apparel and footwear supply chain and share lessons on achieving sustainability targets at a lunchtime event Nov. 27 at the Haas School.

The event will run from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. in F320, the Koret Classroom. It is part of the Peterson Series organized by the Haas School's Center for Responsible Business (CRB). Lunch will be served to attendees who register in advance at eventbrite.com/event/4769767503#.

After sharing insights from her 19 years at Nike, Severn will have a dialogue with CRB Faculty Director Kellie McElhaney, John C. Whitehead Faculty Fellow in Corporate Responsibility, followed by a Q&A session. 

Severn joined Nike in 1993 to establish a consumer insights department in the company's European headquarters. In 1995, she relocated Nike's world headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., to work as the company's global director of the Environmental Action Team. From 1995 to 2000, she led the company’s early efforts to integrate sustainability into the business, from operations to product design and manufacturing.

In 2000, Severn was appointed director of sustainable development. In 2005, she took on the newly created role of director of horizons within the Corporate Responsibility Team, with responsibility for “looking long” and identifying future trends, opportunities, and issues at the intersection of business and sustainability.

In her current role as director of stakeholder mobilization, Severn is now focused on systems-level projects such as Nike's Road to Zero Initiative, which aims to reduce the discharge of hazardous chemicals to zero for all products in its supply change by 2020.

More information on the Peterson Series

More information on the Center for Responsible Business

Intinerary for Innovation: Priceline Chairman Ralph Bahna, MBA 65, Shares Lessons on Leading Change

| by Pamela Tom

This article will appear in the fall issue of Berkeley-Haas magazine, which will land in mailboxes and online this month.

Ralph Bahna, MBA 65, has driven countless innovations in the travel industry.

After graduating from Haas, he was credited with helping to turn Trans World Airlines (TWA) around by inventing business class while still in his 20s. He then led a turnaround as CEO at Cunard Line in the 1980s and in 1993 founded Club Quarters, private, city-center hotels, which he still leads today. Bahna helped in the development of Priceline.com, which he has served as board chairman since 2004.

In August, Bahna shared his “secret sauce” for leading change with Berkeley MBA students, building on his work with Dean Rich Lyons on the school’s innovative leader curriculum. Berkeley-Haas magazine then followed up with him. The following is an excerpt of our interview.

What are the ingredients of your “secret sauce?”
First, define what you’re doing with as few words as possible. If it takes a page to describe a problem, there are probably five or six problems and you have to prioritize. Second is ambition. MBAs want to achieve a lot, but they may not be ambitious in framing the problem and fi nding a solution. I gave the example of Club Quarters: To have the best locations, be full service, charge less, and still make a big profit, you need to be ambitious and determined.

What else?
Next is testing. In the digital age, testing is a lot more possible and more affordable. Then, after a successful test, usually you still have to get a bunch of other people in the organization to implement the plan, which is often where the heavy lifting is. You have to take as much care in selling the project to the
people who will implement it as you do in developing the idea.

Talk about leading big change at one organization.
When I joined Cunard Line, it was still operating transatlantic ocean liners. They were doomed by the jet, but they operated as if they weren’t. Shortly after I arrived fuel prices went up by three or four times. Almost all of our competitors went out of business. We had to learn the discipline of not trying to be the best at everything because the consumer didn’t have the money to pay for it. We were very imaginative about getting PR without spending advertising dollars, and we invented a lot of things. Cunard was the first to put computer centers and spas on ships. We created this famous Queen Elizabeth 2 Concorde program. You could fly one way on the Concorde and sail the other way on QE 2. That was so successful Cunard started flying the Concorde around the world.

How did you get involved in Haas’ Innovative Leader
curriculum?
I’d been working on a few ideas to give back. One area that interested me was making America more competitive, which I thought I could help it do by working with a leading business school. I thought if we could teach students how to think first in a more careful, complete way, we could improve the success of American business. I spent some time at Haas discussing this while the school was analyzing its strategy. As a result, I had some input into the Innovative Leader program.

Team from India Wins Intel Award at Haas; Alumna’s Team Takes Best-of-Category Prize

| by Pamela Tom

Greenway Grameen Infra, a team of student entrepreneurs from India, won the eighth annual Intel Global Challenge at UC Berkeley, a competition that rewards student entrepreneurs who tackle some of the world's most pressing issues with innovative ideas.

Nanoly Bioscience, a team that includes alumna Nanxi Liu, BS 12, took home a $15,000 best-of-category prize at the competition finals Thursday night.

Held at the Haas School, the competition is a joint project of Intel and the business school's Lester Center for Entrepreneurship. The Intel Foundation awarded $100,000 total in cash prizes.

"We deeply appreciate the support of Intel and the Intel Foundation to bring all these incredible young entrepreneurs from around the world to network, learn, and compete here at UC Berkeley," says Andre Marquis, the Lester Center's Executive Director. "It's inspiring to hear their stories and see the vision of this next great generation of global, entrepreneurial leaders."

The winning team of entrepreneurs, which took home $50,000, created efficient, biomass-based cooking solutions. In India and elsewhere around the globe, indoor open fires and traditional mud stoves are still used for cooking by nearly 3 billion people, leading to negative impacts on the environment and economy. The team's Greenway Smart Stove incorporates a unique air-flow generator that saves fuel consumption by up to 65 percent and reduces smoke output by 70 percent. The startup has sold more than 12,000 stoves since its commercial launch in December 2011 and plans to expand its product line.


Intel Challenge winners Ankit Mathur and Neha Juneja, co-founders of Greenway Grameen Infra of India, which makes a more efficient and environmentally friendly stove.

Nanoly Bioscience was one of three best-of-category winning teams that each received $15,000. Nanoly Bioscience developed a protective shield that stabilizes vaccines and eliminates the need for refrigeration, allowing vaccines to be shipped virtually anywhere.


Andre Marquis, executive director of the Lester Center for Entreprenuership; Nanoly Bioscience team members Nanxi Liu, BS 12, and Peter Matheu; and Shelley Esque, president of the Intel Foundation and global director of Intel's Corporate Affairs Group.

Sustainable Agriculture Solutions of Colombia, another best-of-category winner, created sustainable farming solutions, including a fertilizer that increases efficiency by 40 percent over traditional alternatives. Avetics of Singapore, the third best-of-category winner, invented an autonomous mini-plane with a computerized control board that takes high-resolution photographs for aerial maps.

In addition, two prizes of $2,500 were awarded to the winning teams of a social media challenge and an audience favorite contest. Besides cash prizes, winning teams received invaluable mentoring and feedback from Silicon Valley's leading venture capitalists.

"This year, we saw impressive innovations in fields including healthcare, mobile app development and energy conservation," said Shelly Esque, president of the Intel Foundation and global director of Intel's Corporate Affairs Group. "These student entrepreneurs from around the world have developed first-class business plans ranging from improved reliability for cancer diagnoses to the production of inexpensive, more efficient solar cells."

The competition drew 25 finalist teams from 16 countries. These finalist teams were selected from more than 150,000 students from more than 50 countries who competed in 14 affiliate competitions. The competition is designed to motivate young entrepreneurs to develop innovative technologies that solve real-world challenges, build viable business models, and move that technology out of university labs and into the market.

Andre Marquis, executive director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, with alumna Nanxi Liu, BS 12

Alumni’s Crowdfunding Firm, Red Cross Team Up for Hurricane Relief

| by Pamela Tom

Indiegogo, a company co-founded by Haas alumni Danae Ringelmann and Eric Schell, both MBA 08, has partnered with the American Red Cross to enable people around the world to launch their own fundraising campaigns for Hurricane Sandy disaster relief.

Indiegogo, which provides an online platform for individuals and organizations to raise money, is waiving all fees for Red Cross Hurricane Sandy campaigns created by Nov. 30. That means 100 percent of all donations will go directly to the Red Cross.

"Our goal is to harness the passion and energy of motivated citizens and ignite a flurry of crowdfunding campaigns for Sandy Disaster relief," says Ringelmann.  "We want people and organizations to know that beyond donating money, there’s more they can do via crowdfunding, and it’s easy, impactful, and lets them target causes they specifically care about."

In addition, Indiegogo has offered to waive fees for all other verified nonprofits in support of Hurricane Sandy efforts. (Nonprofits can get verified here.)

Campaigns already created on Indiegogo include :

Learn more about Indiegogo hurricane efforts or watch a video of Ringelmann explaining the initiative at indiegogo.com/blog/2012/11/red-cross-partners-with-indiegogo.html.

 

NY Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson Shares Insights in Undergrad Class

| by Pamela Tom

The top priority for Major League Baseball (MLB) in the next 10 years should be growing the game outside of the United States, Sandy Alderson, general manager of the New York Mets and former Haas lecturer, told Haas students Nov.  6.

“I feel baseball hasn’t done enough to grow the game internationally,” Alderson said as a guest speaker in the undergraduate Sports Marketing class taught by Michael Rielly, Haas lecturer and director for student experience for Part-time and Executive MBA Programs.  Alderson taught the undergraduate class in 2009 and 2010 before taking the post at the Mets.

During the two-hour class, he discussed many strategies for growing the game internationally, including MLB incentivizing individual teams to invest overseas and getting baseball back in the Olympics.

But "the best way to expand the international base is to develop internationals players," Alderson said. "The person who did the most to develop basketball in China wasn’t the commissioner; it was Yao Ming.”

Rielly, a 25-year veteran of the sports industry and former agent, brings real-world sports experience into the classroom with a lineup of guest speakers that also has included Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour and San Francisco Giants Director of Sponsorship Sales Bill Lawrence.

Alderson encouraged students to pursue sports as a career, saying that the doors are open for non-athletes because player evaluation is now so data driven. Alderson got into baseball as a lawyer who graduated from Harvard and was working in San Francisco until one of his firm’s partners left to become president of the Oakland Athletics. Alderson followed as the team's general counsel and was later promoted to general manager, a position he held from 1983 until 1997. During his time with the A's, the team made three straight World Series and won one in 1989.

In addition to international expansion, another challenge facing the professional sports business is the ease with which customers can purchase tickets on the second-hand market, Alderson said. Many teams have run into problems because sites like StubHub often undercut the team's price.

But Alderson said this also can be an opportunity because if the team is doing well, second-market tickets will sell for higher than face value and teams can adjust and raise their prices. When it comes down to it, Alderson said sports is like any business: “You just have to put out a good product.”

NY Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson

Northeast Alumni Grapple with Hurricane Aftermath

| by Pamela Tom

Haas received several updates from alumni in the Northeast helping each other and still recovering from Hurricane Sandy after Dean Rich Lyons sent them a note last week to extend the school’s support.

Amber Yusuf, MBA 01, and Inder Grewal, MBA 02, offered shelter to fellow Haas alumni Eric Frandson, MBA 02, BA 94; his wife, Nina, MBA 06; and their children after the Frandsons lost power and a tree fell on their home. The two-night family sleepover included trick-or-treating together while the Frandsons waited for power to be restored.

“Thank you for checking on us! The devastation here in Westchester is astounding—trees down everywhere (one fell on our next door neighbor's house!) and downed power lines blocking many roads days later,” Yusuf and Grewal wrote Haas. “We are in the lucky 30% of our village (Scarsdale) to have power …  Although our surroundings are bleak, people are more neighborly, friendly, patient, and generous than ever before. In what could be very dismal times, I am very proud of the community in which we live.”

Larry Smith, MBA 81, was another Haas alum in Scarsdale who lost power at his home for days. “Please send electricity,” Smith wrote in Friday in response to the dean’s note. “Thanks for checking in,” he added. “My neighborhood was hit hard­—some streets look like a war zone. Electricity has been out since 6 p.m. Monday night, and there’s not a ConEd truck in sight.”

But given the death toll, Smith added, “We’re doing fine.”

Meanwhile, the school's Haas-NYC Google group has been buzzing with harrowing messages as alumni confirm their safety and share updates with one another. 

Here is the dean’s letter to alumni:

Dear Haas Alum,

We have been following Hurricane Sandy from Berkeley and wanted to let you know that our thoughts are with you and your family.

We hope that your homes and businesses were not affected too badly by the floods and winds in the region.

When time permits, we will be grateful to know how you are and if there is any support your Haas Alumni Relations Office can provide. You may reach us at [email protected]

In the meantime, you are in our thoughts, hopes, and prayers.

Sincerely,
Dean Rich Lyons
—————————————
Rich Lyons, Dean
Haas School, UC Berkeley
Twitter: @richlyons
—————————————

Manhattan photo from Bjorn Austraat, MBA 09

Lecturer Mike Rielly Appointed to Part-time MBA Programs Student Experience Position

| by Pamela Tom

Lecturer Mike Rielly, a 25-year sports marketing industry veteran, has accepted a new position at Haas as the director of student experience for part-time and executive MBA programs.

The new position has been created as part of a restructuring in the part-time MBA program office, which involves creating one team dedicated to academic affairs and another team dedicated to student experience. Rielly will lead the student experience team, while Siu Yung Wong is director of academic affairs.

"We couldn't be more pleased to have Mike join our team," says Jon Kaplan, executive director of part-time and executive Berkeley MBA programs. "He already knows the Haas brand and has a strong track record working well with students as a lecturer here."

Rielly has held senior sports marketing positions with IMG, the Mark H. McCormack Foundation, and Creative Artists Agency, representing many of the world's most valued 　sports and entertainment brands in the United States, Japan, and Singapore. He started transitioning into education in 2007, first as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco and then as a lecturer at Haas starting in 2009, while continuing to work in the private sector. He has consistently ranked among the top instructors at Haas.

"I had the chance to meet several evening and weekend MBA and executive MBA students and alums during the selection process. They're incredibly impressive, accomplished and constructively committed to improving the Haas experience and brand," says Rielly. "This position is the ideal combination of student advocacy, program strategy, and outreach, and I couldn't be more excited to join the team."

Real Estate Symposium to Delve Into Post-Election Markets, Nov. 19

| by Pamela Tom

More than 300 real estate industry, legal, and government leaders will gather at the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics 35th annual symposium Nov. 19 to discuss how markets might look after the November election.

John Chiang, Controller of the State of California, will give the keynote speech, and Fisher Center Chairman Kenneth Rosen will deliver his annual real estate forecast. The event will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Westin St. Francisco Hotel.  The event will be followed by a networking night organized by the Fisher Center and the Berkeley Real Estate Club.

Discussion topics also will examine the changing face of real estate finance, finding the sweet spot in the commercial market, and new frontiers in entrepreneurial development strategies. Speakers will include Linda Law, chair emeritus of the International Real Estate Advisory Board; Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac; and Sherman Chan, senior vice president of CBRE Brokerage Services.

The symposium has applied for eight units of continuing education credit from the Office of Real Estate Appraisers and the California Department of Real Estate.

Discounts are available for nonprofits, groups, students, and members of the Berkeley Real Estate Alumni Association. For more details and to register, visit http://www.regonline.com/Symposium1133809.

Alumnus Alejandro Velez Named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Hispanic-Net

| by Pamela Tom

Alejandro Velez, BS 09, co-founder of Back to the Roots, a company that sells gourmet mushroom growing kits, was named social entrepreneur of the year by Hispanic-Net at the organization’s annual dinner on Oct. 13.

Velez co-founded Back to the Roots with classmate Nikhil Arora, also BS 09, after hearing Haas Lecturer Alan Ross speak on the potential to grow gourmet mushrooms on recycled coffee grounds and then trying the technique in the kitchen closet of Velez's fraternity house. The company has reused more than 1 million pounds of coffee grounds for its $19.95 kits, which have been featured by the New York Times, Sunset magazine, and Oprah.

Velez also is the founder and board chairman of The Sage Mentorship Project Inc., a 1,000+ member mentoring program that creates individual, one-on-one pairings between UC Berkeley mentors and low-income Berkeley and Oakland elementary school students.

Velez was born in Medellin, Colombia, and moved to the states with his mother and brother with just $5,000 in his mother’s pocket. He learned English in a small town in Michigan and after overcoming cancer (Hodgkin’s Lymphoma) through four successful rounds of chemotherapy, he thrived in school and athletics, earning a spot on UC Berkeley’s Men’s Tennis Team.

Hispanic Net is an entrepreneurial ecosystem that brings together Hispanic entrepreneurs, executives, innovators, and investors to create market leading companies.

Criminal Punishment and Politics: Elected Judges Take Tougher Stance Prior to Elections

| by Pamela Tom

The last few months leading up to an election can be a critical, political game changer. One right or one wrong move can quickly change a candidate’s standing at the polls. New research suggests that judges who are elected, rather than appointed, respond to this political pressure by handing down more severe criminal sentences – as much as 10 percent longer –in the last three months before an election compared with the beginning of their terms.

“We can’t say if more severe sentencing is better for society or worse, but our findings show us how political pressure can distort the sentencing process and can lead to starkly different sentences for similar criminals sentenced at different times,” says Noam Yuchtman, assistant professor of business and public policy at the Haas School.

Yuchtman and Carlos Berdejó, associate professor of law, Loyola Law School, are co-authors of “Crime, Punishment, and Politics: Analysis of Political Cycles in Criminal Sentencing,” forthcoming in the Review of Economics and Statistics.

The study examined the felony sentences of 265 full-time Superior Court judges between July 1995 and December 2006 in the state of Washington, covering three elections in 1996, 2000, and 2004. The authors focused on the most high-profile crimes such as murder, assault, rape, and robbery, which represent 6.7 percent of 18,447 sentences conferred. Case-specific controls included the defendant’s age, gender, race, and prior criminal history, as well as an indicator of whether the sentence resulted from a plea agreement. The study also accounted for a number of potentially confounding variables such as changes in attorney behavior, case re-assignment, political cycles of other officials, and seasonal variations; for example, if more homicide sentencing hearings than usual happened to occur right before an election.

Yuchtman and Berdejó find that sentence lengths increase at the end of judges’ political cycles, then sharply fall when their next term begins, only to rise again as their next election approaches. Importantly, they do not find an increase in sentencing severity at the end of terms of judges who are not seeking re-election. Judges only increased the severity of their sentences at the end of a political cycle when they were facing re-election.

The findings also indicated that toward the end of their terms, judges tend to become more calculated in making their sentencing decisions, deviating from normal sentencing guidelines 50 percent more often at the end of the electoral cycle compared with the beginning. These deviations account for a large fraction of the harsher sentencing, suggesting that the influence of politics on sentencing crucially depends on the discretion judges have in sentencing.

History reveals that most judges are re-elected and don’t even face competition at the polls. These findings from the state of Washington suggest that just the threat of political competition can affect behavior. “Judges may fear that a lenient sentence for a violent criminal might be turned into a political opportunity for an ambitious prosecutor seeking a harsher sentence,” says Yuchtman.

Yuchtman and Berdejó’s study helps to inform the debate on whether judges should be elected or appointed. The authors say while they cannot predict whether society would benefit from appointed-only judges across all jurisdictions, their results conclusively determine that sentencing patterns would differ.

Yuchtman says, “When you tell people in other countries that some American judges are elected, they are often shocked. Maybe they’re right: we don’t like to think of judges as being influenced by external pressure. On the other hand, our results suggest that elections do make judges feel accountable. This is a simple, but important, tradeoff.”

See full paper.

The last few months leading up to an election can be a critical, political game changer. One right or one wrong move can quickly change a candidate’s standing at the polls. New research by Noam Yuchtman suggests that judges who are elected, rather than appointed, respond to this political pressure by handing down more severe criminal sentences – as much as 10 percent longer –in the last three months before an election compared with the beginning of their terms.

Pamela Paspa Hired to Lead Haas Undergraduate Career Services

| by Pamela Tom

After a national search, the UC Berkeley Career Center has hired Cal alumna Pamela Paspa as the center's career counselor for Haas undergraduates.

Paspa previously worked as a UC Berkeley career counselor focused on the College of Engineering and College of Environmental Design. She transitioned to the Haas position in August, succeeding Paul Savage, who is now director of student-athlete affairs for Cal Intercollegiate Athletics.

Although based at the campus Career Center, Paspa's position is paid for entirely by Haas, using some donor funds. Haas has been funding the position since spring 2006.

"The financial support from the Haas School enables us to provide a higher level of specialized career services to Haas undergraduates, which is critical in today's competitive job market," says Career Center Director Tom Devlin.

Paspa already has begun holding Career Lounges every Wednesday afternoon at Haas in Room S489. The lounges include drop-in counseling from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. followed by panel discussions or information sessions. This week's session will focus on how to build your network.

Paspa graduated from Berkeley in 2007 with an undergraduate degree in sociology with a focus on organization and management. A transfer student and career changer, she began working in the UC Berkeley Career Center as an intern and then joined the staff after earning her graduate degree in counseling from San Jose State University. 

Paspa can be reached at [email protected], 510.642.1718 (until Oct. 22), and 642-8334 (after Oct. 22).

Alum to Speak on His “Other Dream Team” Documentary in Berkeley, Oct. 12

| by Pamela Tom

Marius Markevicius, BS 98, director and producer of "The Other Dream Team," a documentary about a Lithuanian basketball team funded by the Grateful Dead in the 1992 Olympics, will participate in a Q&A in Berkeley on Friday, Oct. 12.

Markevicius, a Lithuanian American, will talk about his film at time-TK at the Shattuck Cinemas in downtown Berkeley after the time-TK showing of the film. The movie also will be playing at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco and the Aquarius Theater in Palo Alto. 

The documentary follows the inspirational run of the 1992 Lithuanian basketball team, which was sponsored by the Grateful Dead at the Barcelona Olympics.  In Barcelona, Lithuania advanced to the medal round, where the team faced Russia – Lithuania’s oppressor since 1940 – for the bronze. Lithuania triumphed in a memorable David-versus-Goliath victory, raising the game of basketball into an expression of political and culture identity. The film also documents the Lithuanians' experiences behind the Iron Curtain.

The documentary, which first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, has drawn excellent reviews. The Los Angeles Times described the film as "a stranger-than-fiction look at how sports and politics have intersected to highly dramatic effect in the history of modern Lithuania" and called the film a "winner" and "sports film to remember." The Wall Street Journal described the film as a "fine hoops documentary."

Markevicius earned an MFA from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television after graduating from the Haas School's Undergraduate Program. Other films that he has worked on include “Like Crazy,” “Douchebag,” and " “The Way Back."

Tickets for the Berkeley showing of "The Dream Team" are available at

tickets.landmarktheatres.com/Ticketing.aspx?ShowDate=10/12/2012&TheatreID=200. Tickets in San Francisco are available at tickets.landmarktheatres.com/Ticketing.aspx?TheatreID=224.

 

Watch a film trailer for "The Other Dream Team"

Team Lithuania, 1992 Olympics

Study Finds Flirting Can Pay Off for Women in Negotiations

| by Pamela Tom

When Madeleine Albright became the first female U.S. Secretary of State, she led high-level negotiations between mostly male foreign government leaders. In 2009, comedian Bill Maher asked Albright if she ever flirted on the job and she replied, “I did, I did.” Flirtatiousness, female friendliness, or the more diplomatic description “feminine charm” is an effective way for women to gain negotiating mileage, according to a new study by Haas School Professor Laura Kray.

“Women are uniquely confronted with a tradeoff in terms of being perceived as strong versus warm. Using feminine charm in negotiation is a technique that combines both,” says Kray, who holds the Warren E. and Carol Spieker Chair in Leadership.

The study, “Feminine Charm: An Experimental Analysis of its Costs and Benefits in Negotiations,”  is published in the October journal of  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and  co-authored by Haas PhD alumna Connson C. Locke of the London School of Economics and Haas PhD candidate Alex B. Van Zant.

Flirtation that generates positive results, says Kray, is not overt sexual advances but authentic, engaging behavior without serious intent. In fact, the study found female flirtation signals attractive qualities such as confidence, which is considered essential to successful negotiators.

To determine whether women who flirt are more effective in negotiating than men who flirt, the researchers asked 100 participants to evaluate to what extent they use social charm in negotiation on a one-to-seven scale. Earlier that week, the participants evaluated their partners’ negotiating effectiveness. Women who said they used more social charm were rated more effective by their partners. However, men who said they used more social charm were not regarded as more effective.

In the second experiment, the researchers asked subjects to imagine they were selling a car worth $1,200 and asked for how much would they sell the car. Next, the subjects read one of two scenarios about a potential buyer named Sue. The first group meets Sue, who shakes hands when she meets the seller, smiles, and says, “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” and then “What’s your best price?” in a serious tone. The second group reads an alternate scenario in which Sue greets the seller by smiling warmly, looking the seller up and down, touching the seller’s arm, and saying, “You’re even more charming than over email,” followed by a playful wink and asking, “What’s your best price?”

The result? Male sellers were willing to give the “playful Sue” more than $100 off the selling price whereas they weren’t as willing to negotiate with the “serious Sue.” Playful Sue’s behavior did not affect female car sellers.

Kray says many of her students who are senior women executives admit they love to flirt and describe themselves as “big flirts.” Kray maintains flirting is not unprofessional if it remains playful and friendly.

“The key is to flirt with your own natural personality in mind. Be authentic. Have fun. That will translate into confidence, which is a strong predictor of negotiation performance.”

See Full Paper: http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/groups/online_marketing/facultyCV/papers/kray_paper2012.pdf

When Madeleine Albright became the first female U.S. Secretary of State, she led high-level negotiations between mostly male foreign government leaders. In 2009, comedian Bill Maher asked Albright if she ever flirted on the job and she replied, “I did, I did.” Flirtatiousness, female friendliness, or the more diplomatic description “feminine charm” is an effective way for women to gain negotiating mileage, according to a new study by Haas School Professor Laura Kray.

Investment Banking Competition Winners Recommend Most Options for Yelp

| by Pamela Tom

A team of three Haas undergraduates and one economics student took first place in the 15th Annual Investment Banking Competition on Thursday, Oct. 4. The competition, hosted by Goldman Sachs and the Haas Undergraduate Program, challenged teams to analyze the financial situation of ratings site Yelp as of early 2012 and make a recommendation regarding its planned IPO, which took place on March 2.

The winning team consisted of Hanmei Wu and Noo Pattamon, both BS 14; Anthony Drew, BS/BA 14 (Business/Stats.); and Genny Chin, BA 14 (Econ). The team recommended that Yelp prepare for an IPO while remaining open to being acquired by a larger company such as Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft.

“It’s essentially the way to have the most options,” says Drew. “I think ours was in one sense the most complicated strategy. We looked at the IPO not necessarily as an end goal, but as a tool.”

The team also succeeded in adapting to a format change announced just two days before the finals, from a 15-minute presentation and 10-minute Q&A to a 5-minute presentation and 20-minute Q&A. According to Dresden John of the Haas Undergraduate Program, Goldman Sachs Managing Director Nick Giavanni said that while all the teams handled the change well, the winners did the best job of addressing the judges’ questions and concerns.

Judges included Yelp and Goldman Sachs representatives and Haas Finance Professor Steve Etter, BS 83, MBA 89, a partner with Greyrock Capital. All finalists are eligible to be selected for Haas external case competitions in the spring.


Investment Banking Competition Winners Anthony Drew, Genny Chin, Noo Petngamying and Hanmei Wu.

Haas PhD Students Invited to Join Interdisciplinary Green Chemistry Program

| by Pamela Tom

Haas School PhD students will soon have the opportunity to study and develop innovative solutions to the multi-faceted challenges of manufacturing and developing business policies around green energy and chemistry, thanks to a $3.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The Haas School of Business recently partnered with UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, the College of Chemistry, and the College of Natural Resources to form a new PhD program devoted to green energy and chemistry research at the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry (BCGC) beginning January 2013.

Christine Rosen, associate professor and Haas liaison to BCGC, explains that green energy and chemistry are closely related. One of the main goals of green chemistry, for example, is to identify hazardous chemicals in wide use and develop safer alternatives for a cleaner environment.

“We are broadening the idea of green energy beyond its conventional focus on energy efficiency and climate change to include green chemistry’s concerns with safety and protection of natural ecosystems," says Rosen.  "This has huge implications for clean-tech innovation, entrepreneurship, marketing etc. But it’s not limited to energy. Many consumer products, such as hazardous flame retardants, contain toxic chemicals and need to be removed or reformulated.”

Rosen will teach a class that focuses on the specific green design challenge posed by society’s need for sustainable energy technologies that not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also reduce human and non-human exposure to toxic chemicals, and minimize water use and damage to natural ecosystems.   

The NSF awarded the Systems Approach to Green Energy (SAGE) Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship grant to the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry last month. The goal: to prepare the next generation of scientists, engineers, toxicologists, policy-makers, and business leaders to shape the country's green-chemistry and clean-energy economy. The grant will help train five to six PhD students annually for five years in the principles of green chemistry and the design of clean energy technologies. By using a systems approach, the program will foster technology innovations in solar energy, biofuel, and energy storage systems.

“We anticipate that SAGE grad students will be fully funded for two years, starting in the spring of their first year and continuing through the fall of their third year. After that, SAGE students will be funded through traditional research and teaching assistant positions. SAGE students will also have access to funding from the National Science Foundation’s Competitive Innovation Fund,” says BCGC Executive Director Marty Mulvihill.

The program will also feature K-12 outreach programs to Bay Area schools, the option of studying at universities in England and Sweden that are developing similar green chemistry and sustainable energy programs, and the opportunity to work with global partners.

Interested students and faculty may attend the SAGE open house and reception on Monday, October 8th from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Tan Hall, Room 775.

To be eligible to apply, you must:

  • Be enrolled in a PhD program in the Haas School of Business, College of Chemistry, College of Natural Resources (including Energy & Resources Group), School of Public Health, Goldman School of Public Policy, or College of Engineering
  • Have at least two years remaining in your graduate program. (Preference will be given to students in their first three years of graduate school)
  • Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident

Click here to apply.

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Assoc. Prof. Christine Rosen