Haas List

The new North Academic Building, slated for completion in 2016.
The new North Academic Building, slated for completion in 2016.

New Building

1. Going Up

As the new North Academic Building grows to enhance the Haas campus, members of the Berkeley Haas community, Dean Lyons, and Chancellor Dirks gathered in early February to celebrate its mid-rise. Student Grace Lee, BS 17, spoke about the impact the new building—which has no offices—will have on students. Warren E. “Ned” Spieker Jr., BS 66, was recognized for his gifts and guidance that helped make the building a reality. Spieker, managing partner of Spieker Realty Investments, has supported the school’s entire Transforming the Haas Campus project, serving also as a visionary and leader in real estate development and construction. Slated for completion this fall, the building will add more than 850 classroom seats and have 28 study rooms, a new café, and a 300-person event space that will serve as the hub for speakers and gatherings.

MFE Program

2. High Marks

The Berkeley MFE Program ranked #1 for employment outcomes, according to the 2015 QuantNet Rankings of the best financial engineering programs. Haas ranked #2 overall—a jump from #4 last year for best program. Haas also ranked #2 in the TFE Times’ 2016 Master of Financial Engineering Programs Rankings. For the Class of 2015, 98 percent of students received offers. Average starting salaries were $155,288, with $25,000 average sign-ons and $48,603 average year- end bonuses and other compensation.

Dean’s Speaker Series

3. Chez Panisse in the House

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What are the opportunities for entrepreneurs in the way food is sourced, packaged, and consumed? That’s what a packed house sought to learn during a Sustainable Food Entrepreneurship discussion at Berkeley Haas last fall. Panelists included famed chefs and food activists Alice Waters, the founder of Chez Panisse, and Claus Meyer, co-founder of Noma in Copenhagen. Haas Instructor and Food Business School Dean Will Rosenzweig moderated. The program also explored how business can facilitate local movements in sustainable agriculture and food production to democratize healthy food. Watch the panel: haas.org/food-panel.

Accolades

4. Fan Favorite

Haas Lecturer Suneel Udpa
Lecturer Suneel Udpa

What are the opportunities for entrepreneurs in the way food is sourced, packaged, and consumed? That’s what a packed house sought to learn during a Sustainable Food Entrepreneurship discussion at Berkeley Haas last fall. Panelists included famed chefs and food activists Alice Waters, the founder of Chez Panisse, and Claus Meyer, co-founder of Noma in Copenhagen. Haas Instructor and Food Business School Dean Will Rosenzweig moderated. The program also explored how business can facilitate local movements in sustainable agriculture and food production to democratize healthy food. Watch the panel: haas.org/food-panel.

Entrepreneurship

5. Middle East Focus

In a move aimed at enhancing development in a critical world region, the Center for Entrepreneurship & Development in the Middle East is now part of Berkeley Haas. Led by Founder and Director Dariush Zahedi, a native of Iran who has taught numerous Middle East-related courses at UC Berkeley, the center will conduct research, draft educational materials, host conferences, and offer policy recommendations to boost entrepreneurial activity in the Middle East and North Africa. “We believe this effort can help to change the youth’s attitude from frustration to possibility,” Zahedi says.

Faculty

6. Influential Minds

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Three Haas professors were named among the world’s most-cited economics and business researchers. Henry Chesbrough, Stefano DellaVigna, and Ulrike Malmendier are among 70 scholars in the recent Thomson-Reuters list. According to Google Scholars, the most-cited paper from 2003 to 2013 for Chesbrough was “Open Innovation.” For Malmendier it was “CEO Overconfidence and Corporate Investment.” And for DellaVigna it was “Psychology and Economics.”

Haas Comunity

7. Your Network On Demand

Brian Raney, BS 05; Amy Cheng, MBA 04; and Will Doolittle, MBA 04, at the Menlo Circus Club.
Brian Raney, BS 05; Amy Cheng, MBA 04; and Will Doolittle, MBA 04, at the Menlo Circus Club.

Whether you’re looking for your next opportunity or to enhance your network, Berkeley Haas offers many ways to harness the power of your degree. Our signature events—like the annual networking at the Menlo Circus Club (below)—have sparked many collaborations and reciprocal introductions. Our newest offering is Berkeley Haas Career Connect. The online platform allows MBA students and alumni to search for alumni for one-on-one career consultations in the form of career chats, written résumé critiques, and hour-long mock phone interviews. Alumni advisors control when and how many sessions they want to conduct. Volunteer at careerconnect.haas.berkeley.edu.

Rankings

8. High Five

For the first time ever, the Full-time Berkeley MBA Program ranked in the top 10 in the world of all five major rankings: U.S. News (#7), Financial Times (#7), the Economist (#6), Forbes (#8), and Business Week (#9). Alumni are surveyed for all of the rankings except for U.S. News, though their responses are weighted differently in each. The biggest movement has been the Financial Times ranking, in which Berkeley Haas moved from #31 to #7 globally in the last eight years. Says Dean Rich Lyons: “Our advance is primarily due to our graduates’ ability to command higher salaries post graduation, even relative to other great schools.”

Faculty

9. Williamson Garners New Honor

Prof. Emeritus Oliver Williamson
Prof. Emeritus Oliver Williamson

Nobelist and Berkeley- Haas Prof. Emeritus Oliver Williamson has a new award to add to his many accolades: the Global Economy Prize from the Kiel Institute for World Affairs in Germany. One of Europe’s top think tanks devoted to economics, the Kiel Institute honored Williamson for his lifelong work in economics. Previous winners of this prize, which celebrates creativity and daring in solving many of the world’s biggest problems, include Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev and General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. On top of his Nobel Prize, Williamson has been awarded 13 honorary degrees. He’s also served as a Fulbright professor, a Guggenheim fellow, and a distinguished senior U.S. scientist, among other notable positions.

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