Professor Jennifer Chatman named dean of Berkeley Haas

Professor Jennifer Chatman, a trailblazing organizational culture expert at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, has been named the school’s 16th dean.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Richard Lyons and UC Berkeley’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin announced the news this morning. Chatman, who has served as interim dean since last July, will assume the new role July 1, 2025.

Chatman, BA 81 (psychology), PhD 88, said she is thrilled to be named dean of the school that has played such an essential role in her career.

“As a proud ‘Double Bear’ with deep Berkeley roots, it is an incredible honor to be leading Haas,” Chatman said. “Our distinctive culture and commitment to innovation and excellence continue to energize me every day. I look forward to working closely with our amazing faculty—and our entire community—to lift Berkeley Haas to new heights.” 

Lyons, a former Haas dean, said Chatman is the right leader, with the right skills, knowledge, and experience for these rapidly changing times. 

“From Jenny’s own research into workplace culture, we know that the most successful organizations are those that prioritize adaptation to change while staying true to their core values,” Lyons said. “As we face new challenges, I am certain that Jenny’s sophisticated leadership skills and long-standing love for and connection to Haas will help turn those challenges into opportunities and will ensure that our business school continues to provide an educational experience that is both excellent and unique.”

An organizational ‘culture queen’

Chatman, the Paul J. Cortese Distinguished Professor of Management, is the third woman to lead Haas in the school’s 126-year history. She began her career as an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She joined Haas in 1993, and has since taught courses on executive leadership and organizational behavior.

Throughout her career at Haas, she has held many leadership positions, including acting dean, associate dean of academic affairs, and associate dean of learning strategies.

In these roles, she has ensured the school’s strong financial footing and helped significantly increase the size and diversity of the faculty. She also worked to enhance the student experience in the school’s six degree programs, helping to launch the Flex cohort in the  No. 1 ranked Evening & Weekend MBA program, the dual MBA/MCS degree in business and climate solutions with UC Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources, and the Spieker four-year Undergraduate Business Program. She also supported the launch of the school’s newest alumni chapter in Austin, Texas.

“Jenny is a strong and culturally astute leader who, as interim dean, has strengthened our alumni network and led growth initiatives to amplify the school’s reputation,” said Elena Gomez, BS 91, President & CFO of Toast, and chair of Berkeley Haas’s Advisory Board. “Haas is in good hands with Jenny as our committed school champion and inspiring leader for the next chapter of our journey.”

At Haas, Chatman worked closely with Lyons to codify the school’s Defining Leadership Principles (DLPs): Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself, which in 2010 put the school’s distinctive culture into words. Chatman’s reputation as a cultural expert throughout her career led organizational psychologist and bestselling author Adam Grant to call her the “culture queen” during an interview on his podcast.

Watch this video of Chatman, an avid cyclist, celebrating 15 years of the Defining Leadership Principles:

Her passion for organizational culture led her to co-found and co-direct the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at Haas and to co-host the podcast “The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer,” with Professor Sameer Srivastava.

Working closely with Berkeley Executive Education, she also created programs that shape leaders by translating her research insights into practical knowledge. Her exec ed programs include the new Berkeley Transformative Chief Human Resources Officer Leadership Program (with Laszlo Bock and Srivastava); the Berkeley CEO Program; and the Leading Strategy Execution Through Culture Program.

Deep Berkeley roots

Chatman graduated from Berkeley High School and followed in the footsteps of her late father, Seymour Chatman, a first-generation college student and Berkeley professor who was influential in the fields of film, literature, and rhetoric. She had an early penchant for research that started in junior high, when she recalled typing up surveys and convincing her parents—and anyone else who came to their house—to answer. 

“I just loved surveys. I know—super weird,” she said during an interview with Grant. “I would ask all kinds of questions about how happy they were at work and what their work was like. And I just thought that was fascinating.”  

That passion endured: As an organizational behavior researcher in the early 1990s, Chatman co-created the field’s leading quantitative research tool, the Organizational Culture Profile, with colleagues Charles O’Reilly, MBA 71, PhD 75, and Dave Caldwell. The survey tool allowed organizational culture to be quantified and has defined the agenda for the scientific study of culture for decades. 

As a researcher, Chatman has focused on the relationship between organizational culture and firm performance and on leading high-performance teams. 

Her work has shown, for example, that firms with cultures that are strong yet adaptable have the greatest financial success. It also explored the damage that narcissistic leaders inflict on organizations: They overclaim personal success, embroil their organizations in significantly more lawsuits that they don’t win, and create organizational cultures that are lower in integrity and collaboration. 

Chatman’s forthcoming book, Making Organizational Culture Great: Moving Beyond Popular Belief, with Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Glenn Carroll, will be published this fall by Columbia Business Press.

‘Path breaking career’

Chatman’s research has garnered numerous accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Management for her “path breaking career.” The award announcement described her as “an icon in the field of organizational behavior” and “one of those rare scholars who are triple threats”—as a scholar, as an instructor, and as a mentor.

Her teaching has also received high praise over the years, reflected in her membership in the “Club 6” for high teaching evaluations, for winning the Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, and for being named among the “World’s Best B-School Professors” in 2012 by Poets & Quants. 

At the time Marc Badain, MBA 01, president of the MLB team the Athletics and former CFO of the Oakland Raiders, offered praise for his former professor.

“Certain professors leave an indelible mark on their students long after they’ve moved on from their studies,” he wrote. “Jennifer Chatman has that impact on all her students. She goes beyond any statistical measurement and improves them as students, leaders, and people.” 

Read more:

• Professor Jennifer Chatman named interim dean of Berkeley Haas 
• Culture runs deep: The Berkeley Haas Defining Leadership Principles turn 15
• Prof. Jennifer Chatman honored for culture research that ‘changed the field’
• Prof. Jenny Chatman gives three benchmarks of an effective organizational culture
• Leading Culture Through Crisis Video | Berkeley Exec Ed
• Himalayan climber research nets outstanding paper award for Prof. Jennifer Chatman | Haas News | Berkeley Haas
• How narcissistic leaders infect their organizations’ cultures