Your Gifts in Action

Our undergraduates have been competing in business plan competitions across the country. Haas teams have come in first, second, or third in over half of all the competitions we've entered! Contributions from the annual fund have paid for the registration and travel fees for our students to enter more and more of these competitions.

Two new professors, recruited from our competitors, required large data sets to which they had access at their previous

schools. We have a system for investing in such data sets on an ongoing basis, but meeting these specific needs immediately was considered essential to attracting these new colleagues. That's where the annual fund made the difference.

Haas jumped from no. 12 to no. 3, nationally, in the Business Week rankings of undergraduate business education. The survey found that an overwhelming reason was the improvement in career services offered to the undergraduates. The investment to make these changes came from the annual fund. Now that it has proven successful, we'll make it a permanent part of the budget.

Haas business students and faculty banded together with students and faculty from the College of Natural Resources,

the College of Chemistry, and the College of Engineering, to create the Berkeley Institute of the Environment. It's a wonderful example of our ability to reach across the tremendous breadth of Berkeley's expertise, to study sustainable models of business, especially in the sectors producing and consuming fossil fuels and alternative energy sources.

Steve Peletz  MBA 99,
Vice Chair, Haas Development Council

"I enjoy raising money for Haas and contributing myself because I value the Haas community. The school provides me contact with a wonderful community of friends and business leaders.

"I also enjoy staying connected to a great institution with tremendous upward momentum. I believe that Haas and Berkeley are on the cusp of realizing an even higher level of potential – in discovering innovative solutions to global economic, social, and environmental problems. By getting involved, realizing this potential is something we can all take pride in."
—Steve Peletz