- The Berkeley MBA Advantage

Industry Leaders at Haas

Each year, business leaders, thought leaders, and innovators are brought to campus to share their real-world experiences and insights. These industry leaders are frequently keynote speakers for annual conferences organized by students. The Haas School also hosts a number of speaker series such as the Dean's Speaker Series, Peterson Series on Entrepreneurship, and The Berkeley Entrepreneur's Forum. Guest speakers are also frequently invited to address students in individual classes, and experienced practitioners from industry serve as adjunct professors and lecturers.

Dean's Speaker Series

Last year, the Dean's Speaker Series featured industry and financial leaders such as:

Janet Yellen, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco and California lieutenant gubernatorial candidate
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures
Stephen Pratt, CEO and managing director of Infosys Consulting
Chet Wood, CEO of Deloitte Tax
Arun Sarin, former CEO of Vodafone

View these lectures and more in the Haas video room.

Expert Faculty Panels

Drawing from the wealth of faculty experts across the UC Berkeley campus, the Haas School often hosts panels and debates, such as:

Last year, the Haas School presented a series of expert faculty panels on the recent financial turmoil, addressing topics such as:

View these debates and more in the Haas video room.

Keynote Speakers

Many successful executives have visited campus to share their insight and expertise as keynote speakers for annual conferences.

Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter
Laura Alber, President of Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
Chris Anderson, Editor of Wired Magazine
Jack Calhoun, President of Banana Republic
Steve Blatter, Senior Vice President of Sirius Satellite Radio
Cammie Dunaway, Executive VP Sales & Marketing of Nintendo of America, Inc.
Reed Hastings, Founder and CEO of Netflix
George Lucas, Founder and Chairman of Lucasfilms
Jennifer Maxwell, Co-founder of PowerBar
Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel
John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts
Nils Tcheyan, Director for Strategy and Operations (Africa), World Bank
Alice Waters, Chef, Author, Proprietor of Chez Panisse
Sandy Alderson, former CEO of the San Diego Padres
David Steel, Senior Vice President of Samsung North America
Leonard D. Schaeffer, Founder and former CEO of Wellpoint
Paul H. Keckley, Executive Director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions
Rohit Bhagat, Global Chief Operating Officer of Barclays Global Investors
Shane Kim, Corporate VP of Strategy and Business Development for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Division

Featured Class Speakers

Last year, the list of class visitors included:

Mitchell Baker, founder and chairman of Mozilla, in the course Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
Marc Singer, a partner with McKinsey & Co., in the course Marketing Strategy
John Riccitiello, CEO, Electronic Arts
Paul Campbell, Founder of Hewlett Packard Gaming Business
Peter Williams, Chief Technology Officer of IBM's Big Green Initiative
Steve Goers, VP of Open Innovation for Kraft Foods
Don Shalvey, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Aspire Public Schools
John Danner, CEO and founder of Rocketship Education

Professional Faculty with Proven Experience

The Haas School's professional faculty — adjunct professors and lecturers — draw from years of experience at the top ranks of various industries.

Wall Street veteran Peter Goodson, former partner of private equity firm Clayton & Dubilier, Inc., teaches the Mergers and Acquisitions course.
In his Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Telecommunications and Media course, Dr. Reza Moazzami draws from his more than fifteen years of experience as an engineer, entrepreneur/CEO, investor, patent holder, and educator in the IT and communications industries.
Before coming to Haas, Sara Beckman worked at Booz, Allen & Hamilton and managed several technology initiatives and programs at Hewlett Packard. She pioneered the course Managing the New Product Development Process, which prompted BusinessWeek to name Haas as one of the top design schools in the world in 2007.

Haas Faculty in Government Roles

Since 1898, Berkeley's business school faculty members have played a strong role in state and federal government affairs.

In 2011, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Haas Professor Carl Shapiro as a member of his Council of Economic Advisors. Shapiro previously served as chief economist in the antitrust division of the US Department of Justice.
In 2009, President Obama nominated Haas Professor Emerita Janet Yellen as vice-chair of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors.
Professor Laura Tyson was named to President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Previously, Tyson served as the chair of the National Economic Council under President Clinton.
Michael Katz, who was deputy assistant attorney general for economic analysis in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and former chief economist at the Federal Communications Commission.
James Wilcox served as the chief economist at the Office of the Comptroller of Currency.
David Levine was senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers.
And professor and former Dean Tom Campbell is a former US Congressman and director of finance for the State of California.

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Michael Dansbury
MBA 11

Internship:
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Milpitas, California

"The various speaker series are a great way to learn how different companies work and what roles departments play. The speakers—many of them Haas alumni—from firms such as Google and Facebook give us real-life input that rounds out what we learn in class. Plus, it’s really great to see how Haas grads turn out for the school."

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