Berkeley Haas welcomes 10 new professors to its tenure-track faculty this fall. Their expertise ranges from mergers and acquisitions to real estate finance to marketing to corporate growth and innovation. Other new faces include two new visiting professors and 10 new lecturers.
We spoke with our new ladder faculty members to learn what they’ll be working on, what they’ll be teaching, and why they chose to join Haas.
Saikat Chaudhuri
Title and Academic Group: Faculty Director, Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology (M.E.T.) Program; Grimes M.E.T. Chancellor’s Chair; Teaching Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Management of Organizations, and Mechanical Engineering (Joint Appointment, Haas School of Business and College of Engineering)
PhD institution and degree area: Harvard Business School; Technology and Operations Management
Describe your research focus: My research focuses on corporate growth and innovation strategies, particularly high-tech mergers and acquisitions, high-value strategic partnerships and outsourcing, and technological innovation in dynamic environments.
Class(es) you’ll teach: Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Introductory Topics (Undergraduate Program); Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Capstone Course (Undergraduate Program); Chief Digital Officer Program, (Berkeley Executive Education, Co-Faculty Director)
Most excited to work on: As the inaugural faculty director of the M.E.T. Program, I’m excited to build out this dual-degree program in engineering and business to help create leaders who will integrate the two areas and solve the world’s most pressing challenges in a scalable and sustainable way. I’m also keen to expand my work on external sourcing of innovation to provide insight for established and emerging firms in navigating disruptions.
Why Berkeley Haas: I moved here because I cannot imagine a better place right now to blend technology with business, and thereby impact companies, the economy, and society. Berkeley’s cutting-edge thought leadership, extensive alumni base, and thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region make it the ideal platform for my work. Not to mention the distinctive and appealing culture Berkeley Haas has created with its Defining Leadership Principles that are embraced by everyone around.
Title and Academic Group: Assistant Professor, Marketing
PhD institution and degree area: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Decision Processes
Describe your research focus: I study the psychology of consumer judgment and decision making. I am particularly interested in understanding how consumers make decisions under uncertainty and how they use advice—for example, when trying to forecast the course of the current pandemic.
Class(es) you’ll teach: Decision Making (MBA Program)
Most excited to work on: I am most excited to investigate how to best communicate the inherent uncertainty of the world to people in a way that can help them improve their own predictions and decisions.
Why Berkeley Haas: Behavioral researchers at Berkeley Haas are at the forefront of improving research practices across psychology and the social sciences and have shaped our field in important ways. I am excited to become part of this community.
Title and Academic Group: Associate Professor, Economic Analysis & Policy
PhD institution and degree area: NYU Stern School of Business; Strategy and Economics
Describe your research focus: My research examines how complex incentives and imperfect information endemic to health care markets affect how technologies are adopted, priced, and ultimately deliver value for society. Recent work relates to business and public policy debates regarding price transparency, relationships between physicians and industry, regulation of new products, and antitrust concerns about market power in the health care sector.
Class(es) you’ll teach: Life Sciences Business and Entrepreneurship (Undergraduate Program); Data Analytics (MBA Program)
Most excited to work on: One of my hats will be as faculty co-director of the new Robinson Life Sciences Business & Entrepreneurship Program, a joint undergraduate program between Haas and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. I can’t wait for us to grow this new program, which leverages the diverse strengths of Berkeley and the Bay Area to develop life sciences business leaders of the future.
Why Berkeley Haas: I believe that Berkeley Haas is the heart of what’s next, leading entrepreneurship and innovation at the intersection of life sciences and technology. I hope to work with others in the community, using business to build a more inclusive, sustainable, and healthy society.
Title and Academic Group: Assistant Professor, Management of Organizations (MORS) and Entrepreneurship & Innovation
PhD institution and degree area: MIT Sloan School of Management; Information Technology
Describe your research focus: I study the design of online marketplaces and platforms using large-scale online field experiments and novel digital trace data. My research agenda focuses on online trust and reputation system design, the business and societal impacts of personalized recommendations, and the design and analysis of field experiments in online marketplaces.
Class(es) you’ll teach: Online Marketplace and Platform Design (MBA Program)
Most excited to work on: I’m most excited to deepen and expand ongoing research collaborations with firms such as Airbnb, Spotify, and Etsy. Because much of my research involves collaborating with large internet firms to conduct field experiments, I’m constantly having conversations with product teams and learning about fascinating new problems that tech firms face. At the moment, I’m particularly excited about an ongoing project with Spotify, in which we are trying to understand how personalized recommendations shape both the individual-level and population-level diversity of content consumption, and what business implications that might have for a firm like Spotify.
Why Berkeley Haas: There are so many reasons that I’m excited to join Haas! First, there are tons of faculty members that I’m excited to collaborate with and learn from, not only in the MORS and Entrepreneurship and Innovation groups, but also in other academic groups across the school. I’m also looking forward to getting to know the brilliant students at Haas. Finally, Haas’ proximity to San Francisco and Silicon Valley will be very useful, both in terms of establishing research collaborations and in terms of keeping up-to-date with what is happening on the innovation frontier in tech.
Title and Academic Group: Assistant Professor, Finance
PhD institution and degree area: Harvard University; Economics
Describe your research focus: My research spans finance, macroeconomics, and behavioral economics. In recent work, I study how over-optimistic beliefs can lead to a buildup of crash risk in financial markets, and how present bias affects households’ response to fiscal and monetary policy.
Class(es) you’ll teach: Introduction to Finance (MBA Program)
Most excited to work on: I’m excited to continue my research on financial crises. Can crises be predicted? Are there errors in judgement that consistently amplify systemic risk? How should policymakers respond to early warning signs, and how should they respond after panics have already broken out? There is still so much that we need to learn!
Why Berkeley Haas: My research is interdisciplinary, and that’s something that fits perfectly into the Berkeley Haas culture. I’m really excited to be able to draw on the knowledge of so many incredible colleagues across both Haas and the broader UC Berkeley community.
Title and Academic Group: Associate Professor, Real Estate, Finance, EIG
PhD institution and degree area: Harvard University; Economics
Describe your research focus: My overall, broad research agenda strives to provide empirical and quantitative guidance on important policy questions related to housing, household finance, and innovation. My approach is multi-faceted, bringing to bear novel datasets, quasi-experimental, reduced-form estimates, and finally, structural, theory-based modeling.
Class(es) you’ll teach: New Venture Finance (MBA Program)
Most excited to work on: I’m currently pursuing a broad range of issues in affordable housing policy.
Why Berkeley Haas: Berkeley Haas has world-class faculty working on exciting and innovative research. Moreover, given that my research interests span real estate, finance, and innovation issues, I could not ask for a better fit.
Olivia NatanTitle and Academic Group: Assistant Professor, Marketing
PhD institution and degree area: University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Marketing
Describe your research focus: I study the implications of information frictions on firms and consumers. My recent work has focused on excess product variety in platform markets and organizational frictions in airline pricing.
Class(es) you’ll teach: Marketing Analytics (MBA Program)
Most excited to work on: I’m excited to continue working on research that builds on firm-researcher collaboration. These projects let us look “under the hood” at how the cutting edge of marketing research and theory does (and sometimes doesn’t) work in the real world.
Why Berkeley Haas: Great colleagues! I am excited to join the wonderful group of marketing scholars and to be part of the broader Haas research community.
Aruna Ranganathan
Title and Academic Group: Associate Professor, Management of Organizations (MORS)
PhD institution and degree area: MIT Sloan School of Management; Management
Describe your research focus: My research is focused on the many facets of work: the satisfaction it can bring, how it affects the economic decisions we make, how it shapes demographic inequality and how it intersects with technological change.
Class(es) you’ll teach: Managing People in the Global Context (MBA Program)
Most excited to work on: Gender inequality in the music industry
Why Berkeley Haas:
Berkeley’s social mission and history of supporting disenfranchised and marginalized populations aligns very well with my focus on furthering the cause of low-income, but skilled workers all around the world.
Title and Academic Group: Assistant Professor, Operations and IT Management (OITM) Group
PhD institution and degree area: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania;
Operations, Information, and Decisions
Describe your research focus: My main focus is behavioral and data-driven operations management for the future of work and services. I’m currently focusing on designing incentives for on-demand/gig workers, and developing algorithms to help humans improve their decision-making and learn to improve performance on the job.
Class(es) you’ll teach: Introduction to Business Analytics (Undergraduate Program)
Most excited to work on: Designing new human-centric operational strategies for flexible and digital organizations, improving human-AI interfaces, making a positive social impact, and helping marginalized populations in the workforce through my research.
Why Berkeley Haas: From the groundbreaking research initiatives to developing close connections to industry leaders, Haas is truly the heart of what’s next, especially for my interest in the future of work. I look forward to connecting and collaborating with experts at Haas, Berkeley, and the greater Bay Area. I also spent the summer of my freshman year at Haas through the BASE Summer Program and fell in love ever since!
Title and Academic Group: Assistant Professor, Business and Public Policy (BPP) Group
PhD institution and degree area: Harvard University; Political Economy and Government
Describe your research focus: My research primarily explores the role of state capacity in development with a focus on taxation. I’m also interested in the co-evolution of culture and institutions. I run a social science research lab in Kananga, Democratic Republic of Congo, where most of my recent work is based. I’m often looking for students to work with as research assistants/managers in Kananga and would encourage anyone who might be interested to get in touch.
Class(es) you’ll teach: Ethics (MBA Program)
Most excited to work on: I’m excited to work on several projects that explore social norms and social networks within the Haitian state; the legal antecedents to fiscal capacity in a weak state setting; and how progressive taxation shapes citizen compliance and state revenue in Congo.
Why Berkeley Haas: First and foremost, the amazing colleagues and research community in the political economy of development. The BPP group is at the frontier of empirical political economy research and I am eager to soak up the group’s wisdom and hopefully convince some colleagues to work in Congo with me. I also love the outdoors and plan to get lost in the Northern California wilderness early and often. I’m a runner and always looking for new running companions.
In addition to the 10 new ladder faculty members, Haas welcomes visiting professors Harris Sondak and Matthew Backus, along with new lecturers Jill Vialet, John Goldstein, Anne Simpson, Keval Desai, Mathieu Aguesse, Chris Jones, David Chen, Steve Johnson, Joe South, and Ashley Weinstein-Carnes.