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Haas News

MAGAZINE SPRING 2026

Table of Contents

Paying Tribute

A toast to our esteemed community

By

Dean Jennifer Chatman

Photo by

Noah Berger

Person with long hair wearing a black and white jacket.

Spring is a time of celebration here on campus: commencement, MBA reunions, our annual Alumni Conference. This year, we’re pleased to add a celebration of our 2026 alumni award winners to the list. 

In this issue, we introduce you to some of them, including our Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Ned Spieker, BS 66, a real estate legend who’s given his time and treasure to UC Berkeley and Haas for more than 40 years. There’s also our Leading Through Innovation Award winner, Jason Bellet, BS 14, who teamed up with two UC Berkeley Engineering alumni to reimagine cardiopulmonary care. And we profile Seiichiro Yamamoto, MBA 92, who won the Raymond E. Miles Service Award for his volunteer work. I hope you find their stories inspiring. Look for more awardees in our summer issue.

We also mark 20 years of the Center for Social Sector Leadership, which prepares impact-driven leaders dedicated to improving the world—helping establish Haas as the premier business school for this training.

I’m about halfway through my global Human Edge of Innovation tour, and it’s been energizing meeting so many of you! If I haven’t yet visited a city near you, I hope you’ll attend when we come by! Go Bears!

signature

Jennifer Chatman, PhD 88 
Bank of America Dean

Posted in:

School News

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Teed Off

A UC Berkeley Haas study of more than 25,000 PGA Tour rounds finds that professionals perform measurably worse beside colleagues with opposing political views—a gap that nearly triples when national polarization runs high.

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Talk Is Deep

A UC Berkeley Haas study forthcoming in Nature Communications finds that disagreement is less contentious and leads to better understanding when discussed by voice or video rather than in writing—even though most people instinctively prefer to hash out conflict over text.