Haas mourns Andre Marquis, MBA 96, entrepreneur, dedicated teacher, mentor

Andre Marquis, MBA 96, a serial entrepreneur, teacher, and mentor who impacted hundreds of  MBA and executive education students during his 15 years at Berkeley Haas, died unexpectedly in July. He was 62.

Before joining the Berkeley Executive Education faculty, Marquis was the executive director of the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Program, or BHEP (formerly known as the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation). He helped hundreds of students with their startups and ran the annual Intel Global Challenge at Haas.

After his departure from BHEP in 2016, Marquis continued to work as a co-instructor for the UC LAUNCH accelerator alongside current BHEP Executive Director Rhonda Shrader.

“Andre was my Haas MBA classmate, long-time colleague, and a gifted instructor who taught our students through focused examples—and by providing valuable lessons about entrepreneurship that they will carry with them for years,” she said. “I can’t count the number of times that students have shared a conversation or something that they learned from him that they said made all the difference in their startup journeys.”

In a message to the Haas community, Haas Dean and Professor Jenny Chatman offered heartfelt condolences, sharing that she had taught Marquis when he was a Haas student. 

“I witnessed firsthand his extraordinary character and brilliant mind, making his loss particularly devastating to me and to everyone who had the privilege of knowing him,” she said. 

Marquis founded several IT and life sciences companies. At the time of his death, he was CEO of Hypershift Systems, which he founded. He previously founded the Chorus group at Eli Lilly, where he pioneered agile business processes for successful drug development programs, and was CMO and founder of Accept.com, later acquired by Amazon.com as the foundation for Amazon Pay.

His commitment to Haas ran deep and he was generous with his time. He served as president of the Haas Alumni Association and was the recipient of the Raymond E. Miles Alumni Service Award.

Marquis is survived by his partner, Thorina Rose, his three children Catherine, Zeno, and Hugo, his mother, Diana Marquis, and two sisters Linda and Heather. Read his full obituary.