Haas News
Professor Terrance Odean, the Rudd Family Foundation Chair, spoke about the personal finance management course he teaches at Berkeley Haas, which covers major financial decisions including choosing a career, making investments, when to spend or save, and the dangers of overconfidence and short-term bias. Of his students, Odean said, “We’re teaching them how to navigate the rules as they currently are.”
Californians are saddled with high electricity rates, which are likely to continue rising. To lower consumer bills, Andrew Campbell, executive director of the Energy Institute at Haas, recommended shifting the costs of certain programs from utility bills to the state budget. “Until this recent affordability crisis, the Legislature has looked at utility bills as an alternative way to pay for things that they want to happen,” he said. “That’s something that’s not going to work going forward."
Michael Grimes, BS 87 (EECS), Morgan Stanley’s investment banker to the stars of Silicon Valley, is looking to raise $40 million to launch a Berkeley Haas center to teach sales skills. “Sales roles are essential; they are ubiquitous,” said Grimes, who is the founding donor of the undergraduate Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology (M.E.T.) Program. And yet “it’s one of the only corporate professions that generally lacks the combination of university coursework, training and a degree-career pipeline.”
Severin Borenstein, Professor of the Graduate School, discussed President Biden’s recent ban on new offshore drilling in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He explained that the economic impact will be negligible. “This isn’t going to really change how much oil the world uses," he said. "There’s really no evidence that we’re talking about enough oil to significantly move the market.”
Proposed tariffs by president-elect Donald Trump have raised worries that gas prices in California will spike even higher. Severin Borenstein, professor of the Graduate School. said he sees a risk to gasoline price stability. “If it were just tariffs on Canada and Mexico, I think it would lead to a reallocation of shipments into California from other countries,” he said. “But I think it is unlikely it would be just Canada and Mexico. If the tariffs were on all imported oil, then I think it would pretty much translate one for one to gasoline prices.”
The New Year is often a time for trendy productivity hacks, but most are overcomplicated and inefficient. “Any productivity system that involves more work to maintain the system than doing the work itself—get it out,” said Sahar Yousef of the Haas Professional Faculty. Traditional methods tailored to individual needs are a better strategy.
The streetwear brand founded by Berkeley Haas student Ryan Cheung, BS 25, was recognized among Poets & Quants' Most Disruptive Business School Startups of 2025. “Attending the Haas School of Business has opened the door to many cool opportunities and connections that developed both myself and my brand into something bigger,” Cheung said.
Professor Ulrike Malmendier, the Cora Jane Flood Professor of Finance, shares concerns about Elon Musk’s close proximity to president-elect Donald Trump. But she highlighted differences in their political and economic priorities and pointed out the possibility of their relationship collapsing. "I believe many people are already questioning whether having two alphas in one room will work out in the long term," she said.
A decade ago, Professor Severin Borenstein noted that despite California's laudable efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, the problem must be solved in the developing world, or "we don’t solve the problem.” As Borenstein maintained in 2014, the op-ed states, the main goal of California climate policy should be to “develop the technologies that can replace fossil fuels” in the developing world and “achieve low-carbon economic growth.”
Skydeck is an accelerator formed in partnership with Berkeley Haas that offers a powerful environment for startups to grow and launch. Caroline Winnett, MBA 90, executive director of Skydeck, commented on the startup culture change at Berkeley: “Decades ago, would you have thought of Berkeley as a place for startups? No…But along the way, there’s been a big culture change.”
Experimentation is essential for product improvement and competitiveness. An article coauthored by Assistant Professor David Holtz provides a road map for using experimentation to increase a company’s competitive edge. He recommends that companies democratize testing and move beyond data-driven to hypothesis-driven decisions.
Consumers were angered by a decrease in PG&E's rate for surplus electricity generated by home-installed solar panels. Severin Borenstein, professor of the Graduate School, defended the cut as necessary to protect customers without solar panels from effectively subsidizing those that do. “We were on a completely unsustainable path,” he said.
In her predictions for 2025, Interim Dean Jennifer Chatman emphasized the importance of innovation in the fields of AI and sustainability. She highlighted the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Hub, the Center for Healthcare Marketplace Innovation, and upcoming ClimateCap MBA summit to be hosted by Haas. “The most successful organizations are able to define and adapt to rapid change while staying true to their strategic vision.," she said "As we head into 2025, we are ready for whatever challenges come our way."
Berkeley Haas was ranked No. 7 (tied with NYU Stern) in the US News & World Report MBA program ranking, which examines career and earning outcomes for graduates as well as academic metrics for students, plus corporate opinions on program quality.
A lucky lottery winner can choose an immediate lump-sum payout or an annuities plan, in which the prize is spread out in payments across three decades. Professor Terrance Odean, the Rudd Family Foundation Chair, spoke in favor of the latter option: “In addition to being a relatively safe investment, the annuity gives the winner time to adjust to dramatically new financial circumstances.”