The Tenny Effect

If you’re a Haas alum, then your life has been impacted by Tenny Frost, whether you know her or not. Though most of you do know her. 

As the executive director of development and alumni relations, she’s ushered more than 27,000 graduates into the alumni community since 1994—over half of Haas’ living alumni population. But that number doesn’t include the thousands more she’s engaged with via worldwide regional celebrations, the annual Golden Grads Luncheon, Haas Homecoming, MBA Reunions, chapter and affinity group gatherings, and more. 

Nearly every benefit and service you’ve earned as an alum has Tenny Frost as its origin point. If you’ve ever used a career resource from Haas, or searched the alumni directory, or joined the Haas Alumni LinkedIn group, you have Tenny to thank. The annual Alumni Conference and OneHaas Alumni Podcast? She helped create and shape those programs. Discounts on Berkeley Executive Education courses? Lifelong-learning opportunities on timely topics? Her again. 

The Berkeley Haas Alumni Network thrives because she’s been at the helm for 31 years. Now, as she prepares to retire, we celebrate the legacy she leaves at Berkeley Haas.

The queen of introductions

With her radiant smile and warm curiosity, Tenny is a natural at making people feel welcome and special, ensuring the Haas alumni community is tightly knit. Encounter her once and she’ll remember what year you graduated, where you live and work, what your spouse’s and children’s names are, and what your interests are. This is not an exaggeration; she’s that good. She takes the time to listen and build deep relationships because she’s driven to connect alumni for any number of opportunities. Making connections and developing relationships are her passion.

When she announced her retirement on social media, hundreds thanked her for helping them professionally and personally.

Stefanie Fenton, MBA/MPH 98, thanked Tenny for constantly reinvigorating her connection to Haas. “With each class reunion, that feeling of belonging is rekindled because of you—the programs you put together for us, the parties, the behind-the-scenes organizing, and always being remembered by YOU the minute I step back on campus. Your great memory for each of us is only exceeded by your exceptional heart.”

Steve Peletz, BS 83, MBA 99, started volunteering with his class after earning his MBA and then focused on fundraising for Haas. “Tenny stands out for her ability to listen…and find common ground with a wide range of alumni with many different life experiences, values, and professional backgrounds,” he says. “She engages in a seamless and elegant fashion, something only possible when someone is genuinely interested in those they engage with.”

What resonates with the Haas community is the heart Tenny brings to her role, magnified by her pride in championing members of the Haas community. Her response to all those social media messages of appreciation was not, “You’re welcome,” but return gratitude for the ways each alum has inspired her. 

Cultivating volunteers

Collaboration and reciprocity are the very foundation of the community Tenny’s built over three decades. Prior to her arrival in the early ’90s, the Cal Business Alumni Association was a volunteer-led organization that collected annual membership dues. Then-Dean William Hasler had a different vision. With Tenny’s help, they rebranded the Haas Alumni Network to shift from a transactional model to an inclusive one that offered benefits, services, and events created by the school while encouraging alumni to invest in the Haas Fund. This was an instrumental shift that unlocked a new pathway for the culture of philanthropy and alumni engagement at Haas. 

Dean Hasler says Tenny’s natural people skills allowed the new community to thrive. “After some missionary work, we were successful, and Tenny became THE alumni support organization,” he says. “Her empathy and support were felt by all our constituencies.”

Martha Gerhan, BCEMBA 03, was part of the inaugural Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program and became a volunteer after graduating, collaborating on strategic planning and strengthening alumni ties to Haas. “Tenny was encouraging, creative, and pressed us to think outside the box,” she says. “It’s easy to see why the alumni network grew to be so strong under her leadership as she not only led the group but became a friend to us all.”

Alumni like Gerhan have been inspired to give back in myriad ways: by volunteering for their class or regional chapter, sharing their stories on panels or in classes, hiring Haas, mentoring students, fundraising, and, of course, generously donating. It’s likely not a coincidence that March’s Big Give saw the highest-ever number of Haas donors the same month Tenny publicly announced her retirement. During her career, Tenny has nurtured over a thousand volunteers and tapped into their talents to grow the Haas network. 

Martin McMahon, MBA 01, began fundraising for Haas in 2007, first for his class then as alumni chair of the Haas Development Council. He later served on the board of Berkeley Executive Education and as a trustee for the UC Berkeley Foundation. “Tenny saw potential in me as a volunteer, mentoring and guiding me with a rare combination of vision and pragmatism,” he says. “Her ability to engage alumni, fostering lifelong connections to Berkeley Haas, is unparalleled.” 

Part of Tenny’s success is in nurturing alumni before they even are alumni. She and her team continually connect students with the larger Haas family. She created an annual student/alumni networking tradition at the Menlo Circus Club in Silicon Valley that ran for 21 years and regularly attracted 600+ people before the pandemic halted it. Recently, she collaborated with the MBA Career Management Group to support a series of student-alumni industry micro-mixers, and she partnered with the DEI team, student leaders, and alumni volunteers to create events that support and celebrate Black, Latinx, and Native American students and alumni. 

Origin story

An informational interview with Melissa Nidever, then the director of development for Haas, landed Tenny a job as an assistant in June 1994, less than a year before Haas moved into its now-current home. She was the second person hired for the alumni relations team and was tasked with helping plan the dedication event for the new campus. Within a year, she was hired to serve as the director of Alumni Relations with the mission of developing the global alumni network with the broader goal of boosting regular philanthropy. Over time, her role expanded to include select donor outreach. A highlight for her was securing a $1M endowment gift for the Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership in 2021. Her relationships with and knowledge of Haas alums have been very helpful to the development team.

While at Haas, Tenny presided over events in New York City, Los Angeles, and throughout the Bay Area and planned gatherings for the dean’s international travels. For Haas’ centennial in 1998, she helped organize a worldwide tour that included three-day symposia in London and Hong Kong as well as celebrations in NYC, LA, and Seattle. For Haas’ 125th anniversary, she worked diligently with other campus partners to establish a permanent courtyard plaque recognizing Cora Jane Flood’s gift that catalyzed the creation of our school in 1898.

Those gatherings and the many others she facilitated strengthened existing alumni chapters and spawned new chapters and alumni regional representatives on every continent except Antarctica. During her career, the number of locations that the Haas Alumni Network is represented in has more than doubled, to 86. One of her last acts this spring is orchestrating the creation of a new alumni chapter in Austin, Texas.

Listening tour de force

The key to Tenny’s success is simple: she listens to what alumni need. “All of the programming and benefits we offered were always in lockstep with the Alumni Council and volunteers, based on their input and real-life needs,” she says. “I had the right people in my wheelhouse guiding us to create the right services at the right time with our vision to build a world-class business school alumni network.” 

One of the first traditions she created, the annual Alumni Conference (started in 2004), continues to be shaped by alumni input. She combined it with MBA Reunions for a spring weekend that regularly draws over 1,000 alumni and friends. The MBA Alumni Audit Program started with alumni seeking to continue learning relevant business topics and an alumna noting that her evening classes had empty seats in the back. The program has been running for over 20 years; spots typically fill within an hour of registration launch. 

After the pandemic-impacted MBA Class of 2021 expressed dismay at missing out on in-person connections while completing most of their degree online, Tenny spearheaded a three-year effort and worked with class volunteers to create 130 events in 18 locations worldwide, including networking nights, happy hours, cooking classes, and a class cohort field day. She also partnered with Berkeley Executive Education to deliver access to select course offerings. The result? A pandemic class that was overjoyed—many calling it the highlight of their Haas experience.

Much of the alumni feedback Tenny receives has focused on professional development. Before Tenny, career services did not exist for alumni, only for students. In collaboration with colleagues, she started a weekly job postings email newsletter (still going strong, 26 years later) and, as technology evolved and staff resources increased, enhanced offerings to include industry- and affinity-specific LinkedIn groups, in-person career counseling, networking events, customized professional resources for every degree, lifelong-learning resources, and job postings bolstered by a robust #HireHaas campaign. 

Making contact

Tenny’s other secret for success? Regular communication. She evolved alumni outreach from quarterly mailed newsletters to the more frequent digital connections we rely on today—email, social media, Slack, and WhatsApp—meeting alumni wherever they were. In fact, in 2005, Haas was the first business school to create an alumni group on LinkedIn. 

When natural disasters and traumatic events upended lives, Tenny contacted those affected, offering support and compassion. When the pandemic halted in-person connection, she and her team worked with Sean Li, MBA 20, to expand his student-focused podcast to alumni, allowing for a virtual connection. Nearly 150 alumni have since been interviewed for the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, reflecting an array of lived experiences and identities. 

“I loved partnering with alums when they had a great idea and were willing to help us champion and deliver it,” Tenny says. 

A lasting legacy

Though this article celebrates Tenny, she’d never claim to have accomplished all she has alone. She’s always had a dynamic, talented, and committed team working with her at DAR and collaborations across Haas have been key to unlocking alumni engagement, she says. Working with the Career Management Group and Berkeley Executive Education led to new professional opportunities for alumni, while partnerships with faculty created lifelong-learning programs. Her work with Haas’ DEI team led to meaningful programming, like the annual Diversity Symposium and socials for our Black and Chicanx/Latinx communities. As Élida Bautista, Haas’ chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, notes, “It has been such a joy to see the result of a growing and connected community of Haasies.”

Asked to list her proudest work accomplishments, the first thing Tenny mentions is collaborating with former dean, now Chancellor, Rich Lyons and others at Haas on the creation of the Defining Leadership Principles (DLPs) in 2010. She engaged alumni and other stakeholders to help find the right words to articulate our culture, then produced the school’s first culture card after Greg Patterson, MBA 00, brought her a designed concept. She continues promoting the DLPs in her role as a Culture Champion for the school, and they will remain a source of inspiration for her. 

“The Defining Leadership Principles will be guiding me in retirement,” she says. “My culture card will always be in my wallet!” 

Interim Dean Jennifer Chatman, who was instrumental in codifying the DLPs, tapped Tenny to shape this year’s 15th anniversary celebration. “I am confident that there is no greater champion of our Defining Leadership Principles and no greater ambassador of Haas’ value and importance in the world than Tenny,” she says. “The depth to which she cares about members of the Haas community cannot be overstated. She made the alumni network a family, and she’ll remain immensely beloved by our community.”