Each year, dozens of 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. In addition, Haas faculty members often play a strong role in state and federal government affairs.

Dean's Speaker Series

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

Marek Belka, Head of the National Bank of Poland
David Cush, President & CEO, Virgin America
Peter Levene, Chairman, Lloyd's of London
John Chambers, Chairman & CEO, Cisco
Ed Catmull, President & Co-founder, Pixar

View these lectures and more in the Haas video room.

Expert Faculty Panels

Last year, the Haas School also 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

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 2009, 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.
Professor Carl Shapiro recently joined the US Department of Justice as the chief economist in the department's antitrust division.
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 was a US Congressman for five terms, a California State Senator for one term, and recently served as director of finance for the State of California.

Sara L. Beckman

Senior Lecturer

"All of my classes are highly interactive. I attempt to create a classroom environment in which students feel comfortable asking 'stupid' questions, challenging one another and me directly, and sharing their own perspectives and stories."

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