From GE to GM, Top Business Leaders to Share Insights at Haas This Fall

Top executives from a diverse group of organizations that includes Banana Republic, General Electric, General Motors, and The Nature Conservancy will visit the Haas campus this semester to share their knowledge with students.

Dean's Speaker Series

After kicking off with Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman last week, the Dean's Speaker Series continues with alumnus Joe Jimenez, MBA 84, CEO of Swiss pharma giant Novartis, on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Additional guests in the Dean's Speaker Series this fall include :

  • Alicia Boler-Davis, senior vice president of global quality and U.S. customer service, General Motors, Oct. 9 (see related article)
  • Mark Tercek, president and CEO, The Nature Conservancy, Oct. 31
  • Kirsten Tobey, MBA 06, co-founder and chief impact officer, Revolution Foods, Nov. 14.

Center for Responsible Business Peterson Series

The Dean's Speaker Series talk with The Nature Conservancy's Mark Tercek will be co-hosted by the Center for Responsible Business' Peterson Series. Tercek will speak about moving from a career at Goldman Sachs to leading The Nature Conservancy and its work marrying the unlikely bedfellows of environmentalism and capitalism.

The theme of the Peterson Series this semester is "Question the Status Quo: New Models Challenging Business as Usual." Other speakers include :

  • Lord Hastings, KPMG International, "Sustainable Globalization: Restoring Trust and Challenging the Status Quo," Sept. 26. Drawing on his experience at KPMG and other organizations such as the World Economic Forum, British Telecom, and UNICEF, Hastings will distill key trends in globalization and implications for society’s stakeholders.
  • Alicia Glen, head of the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, "Financial Innovation for Social Impact," Oct. 1. (Priority will be given to MFE and MBA students.)
  • "The Sharing Economy," co-hosted with the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum. Lisa Gansky, entrepreneur, investor, and author of The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing, will describe the sharing economy landscape today. Adam Werbach and Andy Ruben will talk about their convergent paths from Sierra Club and Walmart to cofounding yerdle, the Bay Area company that helps members to share and receive free items with their social network.

Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership Impact Speaker Series

Farooq Kathwari, CEO of home furnishings company Ethan Allen and a member of the President’s Council on Foreign Relations, will kick of the center's Impact Speaker Series on Sept. 25. Kathwari, also a director and former chair of Refugees International, will speak about the need for global leaders to identify their personal passion and engage with social issues. The talk is co-sponsored by the International Development and Enterprise Club.

Classroom Speakers

In addition to executives visiting Haas as part of the speakers series, several leaders will share their insights as guests in the classroom.

The diverse cast of visitors will include Autodesk CEO Carl Bass in Lecturer Emma Stewart's Intrapreneurship for Sustainability course and Banana Republic President Jack Calhoun in Lecturer Lynn Upshaw's full-time MBA core marketing course, which also will feature talks by marketing leaders at Virgin America and Intel.

Two women leaders in politics also will visit the classroom. Former U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, recently named chairwoman of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a group formed by major retailers such as Gap and Walmart, will speak Oct. 31 in Adjunct Assistant Professor Kellie McElhaney's Women in Business course. Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm will speak in her husband Dan Mulhern's Leadership course on Oct. 7.

Students taking the Haas@Work: Applied Innovation course will hear Arnie Lund of GE Global Research speaking on innovation at GE and the "Industrial Internet."

Meanwhile, following a trial-run last year as a half-semester course, the new course Private Equity: From LBOs to Emerging Markets has now been launched as a full-semester course in the Full-time MBA Program.  The course is co-instructed by alumnus Ted Kuh, a former managing director and industry group head at Citi Global Markets, and Asiff Hirji, a partner at TPG.

Undergraduates will hear from leaders in several different corners of finance in Lecturer John McCauley's course Operating and Financial Reporting Issues in the Financial Services Industry. Among them: Gary Tolman, CEO of Esurance, who will discuss the evolution of the company from an Internet startup to one of the most recognized brands in the industry with annual revenue exceeding $1 billion.

 

Alicia Boler-Davis, GM
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