Fed Vice Chair and Haas Prof. Janet Yellen to be Honored at Gala, to Speak at Haas

Federal Reserve Bank Vice Chair and Haas Professor Emeritus Janet Yellen will be honored as the 2012 Business Leader of the Year at the annual Haas Gala on Friday, Nov. 9, in San Francisco.

Yellen then will speak at Haas on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 12:30 p.m. Details on how to register for her talk will be available on the Dean's Speaker Series website as the date approaches.

Alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends are invited to attend the black-tie Haas Gala at the West St. Francis Hotel. The reception begins at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. and an after-party and dessert at 9:30 p.m.

In presenting its annual Business Leader of the Award to Yellen, Haas will recognize her intellectual leadership in the field of economics, her dedication to teaching for more than two decades at Haas, and her service to the country at the Federal Reserve.

"Janet Yellen is a leading thinker who has dedicated her career to sharing her knowledge with students while also playing a crucial role in setting economic policy," says Dean Rich Lyons. "We are privileged to have her representing Berkeley-Haas at such a high level."

Yellen was sworn in as the Fed's vice chair in October 2010 after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As vice chair, she casts one of 12 votes on the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy, and has emerged as a key figure in the nation's quest for economic recovery.

Yellen has been a champion of more transparency in Fed deliberations since her time as CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004 to 2010. In January of this year, after she became vice chair, the Fed took the historic step of establishing a formal numerical inflation objective for the first time.

In addition to her work at the Fed, Yellen served as the chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisors from 1997 to 1999 under President Bill Clinton. Before joining the business school faculty at Berkeley in 1980, she worked at the Fed, Harvard, and the London School of Economics. She studied macroeconomics at Brown and then earned her PhD at Yale.

In addition to honoring Yellen at the Gala, Haas will present its Leading Through Innovation Award to Patrick Awuah, MBA 99, to recognize his audacious vision and impressive accomplishments in founding and building Ashesi University in Ghana. Haas also will present its annual Raymond E. Miles Alumni Service Award to Ann Hsu, MS 91, MBA 98, who is CEO of RivalWatch in Shanghai and president of the Haas Alumni Network Shanghai Chapter.

To attend the 11th Annual Haas Gala, RSVP by Oct. 26 at the Gala website.

 

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