Endowments

Fellowship Lets Students Pursue Entrepreneurial Dreams

PowerBar Co-founder Jennifer Maxwell presents a Brian Maxwell Fellows certificate to Nicholas Pearson, MBA 08, at graduation.

Jennifer Maxwell, BS 88 (Nutrition), started the Brian Maxwell Fellows Program in 2005 with a $3 million gift to the Haas School in memory of her husband, Brian, who died of cardiac arrest in 2004 at age 51. Her aim is to honor the drive that led Brian, BA 75, to succeed as co-founder of PowerBar and as a world-class marathon runner.

“The vision is to have hundreds of fellowship recipients out there so the Brian Maxwell name will live on,” Maxwell says. “I see the fellows pursuing their passions and dreams with the goal of creating opportunities, innovating, and bettering the world.”

Nicholas Pearson, MBA 08, one fellowship recipient, adds, “The fellowship has strengthened my resolve to pursue the kind of work I feel is most important, and to give back to the Haas community.” Pearson now works as a consultant with Path Vietnam, a nonprofit that’s commercializing water treatment products for the rural poor in Vietnam.

Bank of America Creates Largest Chair Endowment at Haas

The Bank of America Foundation pledged an additional $1 million to the dean’s chair during the silent phase of the campaign, making it the highest funded chair at the Haas School.

The new pledge brings the endowment for the Bank of America dean’s chair to $3 million. The chair has enabled the top leadership at the Haas School to support such exciting new projects as the Asia Business Center.

The Bank of America Foundation created the dean’s chair in 1998, when it pledged $2 million to Haas to create the first endowed deanship on the Berkeley campus. The gift provides the dean with a permanent stream of funding for non-salary faculty support as well as a discretionary fund for priority projects that enhance a Haas education.

Lester Center Receives $1 Million

Williams-Sonoma Chairman and CEO W. Howard Lester gives then-Dean Tom Campbell a check for $1 million for the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

The Haas School recently received $1 million from Williams-Sonoma Chairman and CEO W. Howard Lester for the school’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Lester’s gift will enable the center to continue promoting and cultivating entrepreneurship and management innovation at UC Berkeley.

In 1991, Lester made a significant gift to the Haas School’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which subsequently was named after him. The center hosts monthly Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forums, sponsors business competitions, and created the Berkeley Business Incubator (now the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Lab) to support the founding of numerous ventures by Haas students and alumni.