Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, UC Berkeley | Professor & Former Dean | William & Janet Cronk Chair in Innovative Leadership
Economic Analysis & Policy | Finance
About
Rich Lyons currently serves in UC Berkeley’s Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research (VCRO) as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is also a Professor of Economics and Finance at the Haas School of Business, where he served as dean from 2008 to 2018. In his VCRO role, Lyons oversees development of the campus-wide ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship, including patenting and technology licensing. In 2023 he was appointed by the President of the 10-campus University of California system to chair the new President’s Council for Entrepreneurship, which will focus on the biggest opportunities for ecosystem development system-wide.
As dean of the Haas School, Lyons led a sweeping culture initiative that drove the school’s historic strengths more deeply into admissions and other critical processes with a set of four Defining Leadership Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. He oversaw the development of Connie & Kevin Chou Hall—a new academic building funded entirely by alumni and friends—as well as attracting eight of the 10 largest gifts in school history. Lyons forged stronger ties with other UC Berkeley colleges and departments, a path he called structural interdisciplinarity, with a focus on dual degree programs combining business with STEM fields, including the new Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology program with Berkeley Engineering. In 2018, he was awarded with the Berkeley Citation, given to individuals whose contributions to UC Berkeley go beyond the call of duty and whose achievements exceed the standards of excellence in their fields. Lyons also received the Distinguished Teaching Award, Berkeley’s highest teaching honor, in 1998.
Lyons’ research and teaching are mostly in international finance, though his more recent work explores how business leadership drives innovation and the importance of culture in shaping organizations, including vis-a-vis equity and belonging. From 2006 to 2008, he took a leave from Berkeley to serve as Goldman Sachs’ Chief Learning Officer, focusing on leadership development for managing directors. Prior to joining the faculty at UC Berkeley in 1993, he was an assistant professor at Columbia Business School. He received his BS in finance from Berkeley and PhD in economics from MIT.
Expertise and Research Interests
- Leadership and Culture
- Cryptocurrencies
- Microstructure Finance
- Exchange Rate Economics
- International Finance
Videos
- Richard K. Lyons and Jennifer Chatman. The Berkeley Haas School of Business: Codifying, Embedding, and Sustaining Culture. BerkeleyHaas Case Series.
- Richard Lyons and Ganesh Viswanath-Natraj. What Keeps Stablecoins Stable? Journal of International Money & Finance. March 2023
- Richard K. Lyons with M. Evans. Order Flow and Exchange Rate Dynamics. Journal of Political Economy.
2002 - Richard K. Lyons. The Microstructure Approach to Exchange Rates. MIT Press.
2001 - Richard K. Lyons with T. Ito and M. Melvin. Is There Private Information in the FX Market? The Tokyo Experiment. Journal of Finance.
1998
At Haas since 1993
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2020 – present, Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer
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2023 – present, Chair, UC President’s Council for Entrepreneurship
- 2018 – present, William & Janet Cronk Chair in Innovative Leadership, Haas School of Business
- 2008 – 2018, Dean and Professor of Business, Haas School of Business
- 2009 – 2016, Kruttschnitt Family Chair in Financial Institutions
- 2006 – 2008, S. K. and Angela Chan Chair in Global Management
- 2006 – 2008, Chief Learning Officer, Goldman Sachs
- 2005 – 2008, Executive Associate Dean, Haas School of Business
- 2004 – 2005, Acting Dean, Haas School of Business
- 2004, Sylvan Coleman Professor of Finance
- 2004, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
- 1993 – 2004, Professor (Assistant/Associate/Full), Haas School of Business
- 1987 – 1993, Professor (Assistant/Associate), Graduate School of Business, Columbia University
- 1987, Summer Intern, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington D.C.
- 1985, Research Assistant, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris
- 1983 – 1984, Research Analyst, Financial Industries Division, SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute)
Visiting Postions
- University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France
- Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- London School of Economics, London, UK
- Foundation for Advanced Information and Research (FAIR), Tokyo, Japan
- University of Aix-Marseille, Marseille, France
- Board: Matthews Asia Funds
- Board: Syntax Funds
- Board: Ashesi University Foundation, Ghana
- Research Associate: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
- Member: Council on Foreign Relations
- Advisor: IMF, World Bank, Federal Reserve Bank, European Commission
- Advisory Board, Economic Policy Review (NY Fed.)
- English
- French
Sterling Schoen Award for Diversity Leadership from the Consortium
2018
Berkeley Citation
Highest campus honor for individuals whose contributions to UC Berkeley go beyond the call of duty
2018
National Science Foundation grantee
1994-1997, 1997-2000, 2000-2003
National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship
1984-1987
Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, MFE Program
2003
Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, MBA Program
1994, 2000
Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Evening MBA Program
1996, 1999
Distinguished Teaching Award
UC Berkeley’s Highest Teaching Award
1998
Highest Honors, UC Berkeley
1982
Phi Beta Kappa
Member
- UC Berkeley is top university in number of companies founded by undergraduate alumni, Berkeley News, 9/12/2023
- A Silicon Valley Veteran on the Future of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Inc., 9/25/2022
- How Berkeley is leaning in to the biotech boom, San Francisco Business Times, 5/27/2022
- You Can Buy a Piece of a Nobel Prize-Winning Discovery, The New York Times, 10/27/2021
- How Academia Can Be A Leader In Entrepreneurship: Interview With UC Berkeley’s Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer Dr. Rich Lyons, Forbes, 11/23/2021
- UC Berkeley ranks as top public university for startup founders, 2nd overall, The Daily Californian, 11/21/2021
- Taking changemaking beyond the classroom, UC Berkeley News, 08/27/2021
- Elon Musk Decries ‘M.B.A.-ization’ of America, The Wall Street Journal, 12/09/2020
- Corporate Responsibility and The Two Minds of Milton Friedman, ProMarket, 11/16/2020
- Nobel Laureate, Berkeley Economist Oliver Williamson Dies at 87, Bloomberg, 05/23/2020
- The Berkeley Changemaker™, California, 06/18/2020
- A Month in Review – April 2020, Securities, 04/30/2020
- 5 Berkeley SkyDeck startups that might change the way we live, UC Berkeley News, 02/10/2020
- American business schools are reinventing the MBA, The Economist, 11/02/2019
- “Richard Lyons, UC Berkeley’s first CIEO: “I plan to set up a series of benchmarks”, MBA & Educación Ejecutiva (Spanish), 09/30/2019
- Chancellor’s Letter: The Year of Implementation, California, 09/11/2019
- UC Berkeley appoints its first director of innovation and entrepreneurship, AmericaEconomia, 07/18/2019
- International Finance, Undergraduate & Executive MBA
- Currency Markets, MBA programs
- Financial Market Microstructure, Undergraduate Program