Haas@Work Lecturer Pierre M. Loewe Passes Away

Berkeley-Haas Lecturer Pierre M. Loewe, who spent his career in innovation consulting and teaching, died Dec. 31 in San Francisco from acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He was 67.

Loewe was born in August 1946 in Paris, where his father worked as an engineer and his mother was a pediatrician. He earned his MS in Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and spent most of his career as a management leader. After working as an assistant professor at Centre d'Enseignement Supérieur du Management Public, Loewe started his management career as a project manager for McKinsey and Company in 1970.  He later held positions as director of marketing at Salomon/North America and as senior vice-president at The MAC Group, later acquired by Gemini Consulting. From 1994 to 1995, Loewe taught strategic implementation at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management until he became one of the founders of Strategos. As Strategos co-founder and director, Loewe helped client teams launch new business, develop strategies, and embed innovation into their companies.

Loewe began teaching at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in 2010 and led the inaugural Haas@Work experiential learning class, where he was known for providing a well-organized, academically rigorous curriculum.

“I will miss him dearly. He was so generous with his time, uncompromising on quality of client deliverables, and a wonderful coach,” says Rohit Behl, MBA 14,  one of Loewe’s students.

“Pierre’s fresh perspective, rigorous approach, organization, and attention to detail added considerably to our general thinking about curriculum development for the applied innovation courses,” says Haas Senior Lecturer Sara Beckman.  “More importantly, he was a pleasure to work with as a person—high energy with a dry sense of humor, always pushing us to do better and more.”

Dave Rochlin, executive director of Haas@Work, remembers Loewe as passionate and enthusiastic. “He was a good friend and colleague, and cared deeply and uncompromisingly about doing good work. His frequent CaringBridge posts revealed that he approached his illness and treatment with his usual good humor, grace, and (of course) consultant’s eye … and fought valiantly against what he knew were long odds.”

Loewe is survived by his sister, Anne-Marie Giroudot-Loewe; nieces Isabelle and Valerie; and eight grand-nephews and grand-nieces.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, at St. Francis Lutheran Church, 152 Church St., San Francisco. His family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations in Loewe’s memory may be made to the new Hematologic Malignancy Program at UCSF.