Haas School Prof. Robert Helsley will be dean of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business effective July 1. Helsley joined Haas in 2008 and served as chair in Real Estate Development, Haas Real Estate group, and co-chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics.
Helsley studies urban economies and agglomeration. He currently serves as co-editor, Journal of Urban Economics. While at Haas, he published research on topics such as “sprawl and blight” and a game-theoretic analysis of skyscrapers. His paper, “Entrepreneurs and Cities: Complexity, Thickness and Balance,” published in the Nov. 2011 issue of Regional Science and Urban Economics, looked at entrepreneurial clustering and how the characteristics of a local economy facilitate entrepreneurial activity.
"I am excited to be opening a new chapter as Dean of the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia,” says Helsley. “I look forward to returning to the Sauder School, renewing my relationships and building on the remarkable growth the school has experienced in the past several years. It will be a great pleasure to lead Sauder as it continues to build its international reputation for research and teaching excellence.”
“At the same time, I am sad to be leaving Berkeley,” he adds. “I am grateful to have had an opportunity to be a member of the Haas faculty, and I am going to miss the school and my colleagues very much."
Helsley began his teaching career at Sauder and was the school’s Associate Dean, Faculty and Research from 2002-2008. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University.