EMBA class unites to make meaningful Haas Fund gift

With 2024 commencement quickly approaching, Ravinder “Ravi” Khaira, EMBA 24, decided it was time to help rally his classmates around the annual class gift to the school.

Khaira, a founding doctor and clinical director of Capital Pediatrics, as well as a pediatrician, reached out to Dennis Worden and Lee Helms, the class co-vice presidents of philanthropy, to explore how they might step up student participation.

Khaira pitched an idea that he thought might work: a gift from his family’s Khaira Family Experiential Learning Fund, led by his wife, Kamal, to match the total of all student donations. That idea quickly caught fire, leading to perhaps the largest-ever donation to the Haas Fund during a commencement gift campaign. The Khaira Foundation not only matched the $51,000 raised by the class—they added an additional $24,000, bringing the total to $126,000. 

three people standing in front of the Berkeley Haas sign
Dr. Ravi and his wife, Kamal Khaira, who runs the Khaira Foundation, with Wendy Guild, vice dean of MBA programs at Haas. Photo: Molly Shepherd

The gift reflects both the generosity of the Khairas and the spirit of the 2024 class, Helms said.

“We enjoyed spending time together, we got energy from each other,” he said. “We sought to leverage that love when assembling this gift. It’s an expression of that love for each other.”

Wendy Guild, vice dean of Berkeley Haas MBA Programs, said the school is grateful for the gift to the Haas Fund, which since 1978 has been used to offset what state funding, tuition, and other philanthropy doesn’t cover.

“We use this critical fund to cover everything from hiring outstanding new faculty and strengthening our programs to awarding scholarships and building out career services,” Guild said. “We are so thankful to the Khairas for their generous support.”

Dedicating the gift

The EMBA 24 gift is even more meaningful to the class this year for its dedication to the memory of Luke Kreinberg, the former associate director and a career coach with the Haas MBA Career Management Group, who passed away in February.

“Luke was just there for us and he was a part of our journey,” Helms, who is director of Innovation Programs at the San Francisco Opera, said. “We all grew close to him, and we were devastated when he died. We decided that it made a lot of sense to dedicate this to his memory as a permanent and official way for our class to remember him.” 

Worden said the class gift is special “not only because of the Khaira’s gift and for honoring Luke Kreinberg, but also because the cohort stepped forward during our campaign.”

For Ravi Khaira, beyond yourself, one of the Haas Defining Leadership Principles, resonated when he was considering executive MBA programs. “As Sikhs, part of our faith is about giving back,” said Dr. Khaira, who practices in the Sacramento area. “If you have enough, then you give to others. And so we do. We have a comfortable life, and we believe it’s important to give.”

As a lifelong learner, he said he found the MBA program both enlightening and fun. A teacher himself, he is an associate professor at California Northstate College of Medicine, where hopes to pass that passion for knowledge on to his students.

“I probably epitomize the lifelong learner,” he said. “I was the second oldest in the EMBA class (to Dr. Peter Fung), and I don’t think in my career that I have ever enjoyed school as much as I did at Haas. …There’s always something to learn and you can never master everything to its n-th degree. The importance is to continue wanting to go out and learn.”

Supporting education, health care

Kamal Khaira, who has run the Khaira Family Foundation for six years, directs foundation support in two key areas the couple cares deeply about: education and health care. The foundation has made gifts to the Christian Brothers High School and Sutter Hospital in Sacramento, where their twin girls were born, and to their alma mater, UC Davis, where Kamal is director of the CalFresh Healthy Living program.

Last year, the Khairas gave $1 million to the College of Biological Sciences at UC Davis to support student initiatives, faculty excellence, and advances in life sciences research. 

Both are UC Davis alumni: Kamal, who has worked extensively in nonprofit and healthcare management, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UC Davis, and Ravi earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the school before attending medical school.

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