Haas NewsWire - July 23, 2007

Annual Fund Raises $2.8 Million, Exceeding Fundraising Goal

Setting new records for contributions and participation, the 2006-2007 Haas School Annual Fund surpassed its $2.6 million goal as approximately 3,900 alumni, friends, and corporate partners invested more than $2.8 million to the school's innovative programs.

This marks the fifth consecutive year in which the Annual Fund has exceeded its fundraising goal. The record-breaking fundraising represents an increase of over 10%, or $272,814, over the 2005-2006 Annual Fund. In addition, the number of contributors grew by 550 over last year.

"Our success this year, on so many levels, has been thanks to the hard work and commitment of our volunteers," said Melissa Johnson, director of the Annual Fund. "As a result of their leadership, we have had a strong year."

This year's annual campaign accelerated near its end as 150 alumni leaders brought in over $600,000 in the final three weeks of the fundraising effort.

Several individuals initiated class gifts committees and challenges to help the Annual Fund reach its goal. Longtime Haas Board members Mike Myer, MBA 70, and wife Carol, MBA 71, made the largest contribution when they donated $100,000 and challenged Berkeley MBAs from 1970 to 1979 to give back to their alma mater.

Despite 23 other classes' valiant fund raising efforts, the MBA 99 class gift committee came out on top with a total of $101,069 in gifts and 43% participation. The school's newest alumni, the Full-time MBA class of 2007, got into the spirit of giving during the final weeks leading up to graduation as part of their graduating class gift Lifelong Connections Campaign. As part of that campaign, 99.6% of the class has committed portions of their future paychecks and committed to $201,064 in multi-year pledges.

Contributions to the Annual Fund are unrestricted, flexible resources the Haas School uses to support student services, faculty recruitment and retention, curriculum and program enhancement, and alumni and community outreach. To give to the Annual Fund, visit http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/alumni/giving/haf/haf.html.

Paul Holland, MBA 90, Appointed President of Western Association of Venture Capitalists

Haas alumnus Paul Holland, MBA 90, was appointed president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC) earlier this month. Holland has been with WAVC for six years, having served as a vice president and co-program chair before his appointment.

Founded in 1969, WAVC is the world's first nonprofit venture capital foundation. The Menlo Park, Calif., foundation currently counts over 130 venture firms and about 800 venture capitalists in its membership. WAVC's primary focus is its distinguished speaker series, which has featured Mitt Romney, Eliot Spitzer, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. WAVC also sponsors annual charity sporting events and is active within the local non-profit community.

Mr. Holland credits the Haas School with opening his eyes to venture capital.

"During my last semester at Haas, I took an entrepreneurship course that completely changed the path of my professional career and consequently my life," says Holland. "If it weren't for the Haas School of Business, I wouldn't be in the situation I'm in today."

In addition to his post of president at WAVC, Mr. Holland holds the title of managing partner at Foundation Capital, where he works primarily with early-stage start-ups. His career has included stints at Kana Communications, Pure Software, and SRI International. Holland also sits on numerous boards.

"Paul is a great choice -- he is a natural leader and consensus builder," says Jerome Engel, the executive director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. "The venture capital industry is in transition, and Paul is the right person at the right time."

Undergraduates from Around the World Attend Haas School's Business Boot Camp

Undergraduate students from around the globe took a break from studying metaphysics, Moliere, and mechanical engineering to gain a competitive edge through the Business for Arts, Sciences, and Engineering (BASE) program, the Haas School's summer business "boot camp" for non-business majors.

BASE is a six-week intensive program offered from July 2 to August 11 by the Undergraduate Program. The program includes introductory courses in organizational behavior, marketing, financial accounting, and finance, and is designed to be as rigorous as a business school course load.

This year, BASE drew over 110 applicants and quickly filled to capacity with 52 students from schools including Brown, Cornell, Duke, and Oxford University. The majority of participants, about 69%, have completed their junior or senior years, but the class also includes recent graduates, sophomores, and freshman. For the first time, this year's class included students from Princeton, MIT, and Northwestern University.

At this point in the curriculum, students are learning to conduct business research, analyze product and financial markets, and examine human resource management issues. The program also includes field trips to Bay Area companies such as Google, coaching on negotiations and public speaking, career workshops, and weekly lunches with Haas School administrators and faculty members.

Now in its tenth year, BASE is one of only a few collegiate programs that allow non-business majors to take courses from the university's business curriculum while earning academic credit. Former BASE students have moved on to earn MBAs; others have accepted marketing, product development and consulting jobs with Google, McKinsey & Co., IBM, and others.

Applications for the BASE 2008 class will be accepted starting November 1. For more information, visit http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad/BASE/.

The Haas School Welcomes 352 New Undergraduates

The Haas School welcomed 352 new undergraduate business majors with a day-long orientation on July 6. The orientation marks an early start to the program, and students will get a chance to bond with their peers over the summer semester.

The on-campus orientation began with community-building exercises led by the UC Berkeley's Center for Student Leadership. That afternoon, students were introduced to clubs and Haas School departments in a carnival-like setting with games, activities, and prizes. The day concluded with smaller advisory groups gathering for in-depth discussions.

"The goal this year was to instill the message of the Haas community and to personalize the Haas experience for all undergraduates," says Erika Walker, the executive director of the Undergraduate Program.

This year, 1,803 students applied to the upper-division Haas Undergraduate Program, 489 from UC Berkeley and 1,314 from other schools. This year's class is 60% male and 40% female, and the majority are California residents. About 26% of the class is made up of transfer students.

"We are excited about this year's admits," says Walker. "They will be a great addition to the Haas community over the next two years and thereafter as alumni."

Finding Red Flags for Companies Who Cook Their Books

Growth companies suffering deteriorating operating performance are most likely to cook their books, according to a comprehensive analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement releases by Accounting Professor Patricia Dechow.

Other common characteristics of firms that manipulate financial results include unusually high growth in cash sales but declines in cash profit margins and earnings growth; declines in order backlog and employee headcount; and abnormally high increases in financing and related off-balance-sheet activities.

Those findings stemmed from the most comprehensive analysis ever of SEC Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases, which the agency issues to document enforcement actions against companies, auditors, and officers for alleged accounting misconduct. Dechow, who joined the Haas School faculty in July, conducted the research with Weili Ge of the University of Washington Business School, Chad Larson of the University of Michigan's Stephen Ross School of Business, and Richard Sloan of Barclay's Global Investors.

In their recent working paper titled "Predicting Material Accounting Manipulations," Dechow and her coauthors examined more than 2,000 SEC releases from 1982 to 2005, which resulted in a final sample of 680 firms alleged to have manipulated financial statements.

"A consistent theme among manipulating firms is that they have shown strong performance prior to the manipulations," Dechow notes in her paper. "Manipulations appear to be motivated by managements' desire to disguise a moderating financial performance."

Dechow found that about 15% of the manipulations occur in the largest 10% of public firms. That is likely caused by the SEC's drive to identify the most material and visible manipulations involving large losses to numerous investors.

Dechow found that tech, retail, and service firms were the worst offenders. These industries were significantly over-represented in the database of manipulating firms relative to their share of the overall market. More than 20% of manipulating firms were in the computer industry, but the computer industry comprised only 11.9% of public companies. Retail firms made up 13% of manipulating firms, compared with 9.7% of public companies in retail. And service firms such as telecommunications and healthcare made up 12.4% of manipulating firms, compared with 10.4% of public companies in the services sector.

The most manipulations occurred in 1999 and 2000, perhaps because slowing growth during this time gave managers incentive to manipulate earnings.

To read more about Dechow's research, visit http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/news/faculty/Dechow.html.

MOT Fellows Focus on Improving Healthcare in the Developing World

This summer four interdisciplinary teams of UC Berkeley students are traveling to developing nations on field assignments to apply their technology innovations as part of the Bridging the Divide Fellowship Program.

The 2007 fellowship projects focus on improving healthcare practices and living conditions. Students traveled to Peru to develop a financially viable model for deploying micro-hydro and solar technologies in remote areas. A second team is currently working to identify best practices for introducing infant circumcision into local healthcare systems in Swaziland.

Another group will soon depart to Kenya to determine the feasibility of using of a disposable micro-needle device to administer vaccinations. At the end of the summer, students will visit India to assess the viability of using white light-emitting diodes to bring electric lighting to the nearly 500 million people in the country.

Bridging the Divide is a four-year-old program run by UC Berkeley's Management of Technology Program (MOT), a joint graduate program of the Haas School, the College of Engineering, and the School of Information. The program's purpose is two-fold: elicit best practices in technology-related sustainable development and provide students with an opportunity to explore, in-depth, business and technology issues facing developing nations.

Students submitted project proposals in fall 2006 for the opportunity to test their technologies in developing countries. After completing the summer field assignments, students will return to the classroom this fall to compile results.

For more information about Bridging the Divide, visit http://bridge.berkeley.edu/.

New Spiller Book Probes Public Policymaking in Argentina

How did Argentina decline from a country with per capita income comparable to Canada at the turn of the nineteenth century into an economic disaster with half of its population living in poverty just a century later?

Pablo T. Spiller, the Jeffrey A. Jacobs Distinguished Professor in Business and Technology, answers that question in his new book, The Institutional Foundations of Public Policy in Argentina. With co-author Mariano Tommasi of the Universidad de San Andres, Spiller uses game theory, transaction cost economics, and positive political theory to develop a general model of public policymaking. He then applies that model to a detailed case study of Argentina, a country plagued by poor and erratic social and economic performance.

Born on opposite banks of Argentina's River Plate, Spiller and Tommasi chose to study the country because of their personal connection to it. But Argentina also makes an interesting case study because its constitutional structure is very similar to the American separations of power system. In their book, Spiller and Tommasi seek to explain why these institutions work differently in Argentina than in the US.

Spiller undertook a detailed analysis of the behavior of Argentine institutions: Congress, the bureaucracy, the courts, and its federal structure. He found that a combination of institutional and historical factors contributed to generalized short-sighted policy-making behavior across Argentina's institutions.

Electoral rules in Argentina transfer power from its congress and national parties to provincial political patrons, limiting the incentives of individual legislators to pursue independent legislative careers. In addition, the near-unilateral power of the executive to unravel fiscal arrangements, combined with the power of provincial leaders helped move crucial political and policy bargaining away from the national legislature. And because the executive had excessive leeway to undo previous agreements, legislators have had little incentive to work toward those agreements in the first place. Similar short-sightedness was found in the behavior of the bureaucracy, in the courts, and in federal fiscal policymaking.

"The book shows that political practices in Argentina do not facilitate policy consensus, policy coordination, the development of consistent policies over time, or the accumulation of policy-making knowledge and experience," Spiller and Tommasi write.

The Institutional Foundations of Public Policy in Argentina was published by Cambridge University Press. For more information, visit http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521854740.

Staff News

Marco Lindsey is Dean's Executive Office Assistant

Marco Lindsey has been named Executive Office Assistant to Dean Tom Campbell. In this position he works closely with the dean and interacts with associate deans, as well as Dean Campbell's advisory staff.

Earlier this year, Lindsey worked in the Dean's Suite for a short time in a different capacity and prior to that was involved in project management and inventory control for optical equipment and lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss Meditec in Dublin. Lindsey holds an associate degree in business from Merritt College. The Bay Area native enjoys weightlifting, ping-pong, and martial arts, and has been practicing tae kwon do for about five years.

Email: marco@haas.berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 643-2027
Office: S522

Debbie Ng Joins Nonprofit and Public Management Program

As the first program developer for Haas' Nonprofit and Public Management Program, Debbie Ng handles marketing and communications about the NPM program and works to establish partnerships with community organizations, students, and alumni for the Board Fellows and Social Sector Solutions consulting projects. She will also be instrumental in producing the program's tenth Annual Alumni-Student Leadership Dinner next spring.

Ng holds a bachelor's degree in women's studies, with an emphasis on race, class and gender from UC Santa Cruz. She has ten years of leadership experience in the nonprofit sector, with expertise in education and community development. Ng is also very active in the Bay Area Asian arts community. She recently produced an award-winning film called Kieu, a modern-day telling of the 19th century Vietnamese epic poem The Tale of Kieu.

Email: dng@haas.berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 643-1869
Office: F445

Yuko Noguchi Is New Faculty Human Resources Assistant

Academic Affairs and Instruction has welcomed Yuko Noguchi as its new faculty human resources assistant. Noguchi is the first contact for new faculty hires, serving as a liaison between candidates, recent hires, current faculty, and Haas School administration. She is also responsible for processing applications, arranging interviews and job talks, and assisting with the school's accreditation maintenance.

Before coming to Haas, Noguchi spent 13 years at UC Extension in similar roles for both the English Language and International Diploma programs. In her native Japan, she studied Japanese literature in school before deciding to come to the US to learn English at UC Extension. Noguchi loves to travel and cook, and has combined both passions by taking cooking classes in Thailand, Vietnam, and other countries.

Email: noguchi@haas.berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 642-6191
Office: S522K

Rosina Rocco Oversees Graduate Student Employees

Rosina Rocco joined the Academic Affairs and Instruction department as its new graduate student personnel administrator. Rocco is responsible for ensuring that all classes that require readers or graduate student instructors receive them each semester. She also administers the hiring process and makes sure the graduate student instructors are paid throughout their tenure.

Rocco recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in English, then went to work for a reverse mortgage company in San Francisco's financial district. After a year, she decided to return to Cal and is considering pursuing a master's degree with a focus in religious, Renaissance, or Victorian literature. Besides being an avid reader, Rocco enjoys exploring Bay Area parks and outdoor spaces.

Email: rrocco@haas.berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 642-0004
Office: S522

Michael Nguyen Joins Academic Affairs and Instruction as Instructional Analyst

Michael Nguyen is Academic Affairs and Instruction's new instructional analyst, replacing outgoing analyst Adrianne Francisco. Nguyen is in charge of overseeing the class scheduling process. He works with department chairs, program managers, and his teammates in academic affairs to form and plan curricula, as well as develop a schedule for classes.

Prior coming to Haas, Nguyen worked as an administrator for The Princeton Review in southern California for a year. There he was involved in hiring, course design, and customer service, and occasionally taught classes. Nguyen holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from UC Berkeley. In his free time, the Orange County native enjoys cycling and competing in triathlons.

Email: mnguyen@haas.berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 643-9694
Office: S522K

Haas in the News

The Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program was mentioned in a July 18 BusinessWeek article titled "Three, Two, One---Network!" about speed networking. For the full article: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jul2007/bs20070717_728646.htm?chan=bschools_bschool+index+page

John Morgan, the Gary & Sherron Kalbach Chair in Business Administration, was quoted in a June 18 Slate article titled "Bogus Trend Story of the Day" about the growth potential of online retailing. For the full article: http://www.slate.com/id/2168647/nav/tap3/

Morgan was quoted in a June 10 Boston Globe article titled "eBay-nomics" about hidden charges not considered in the overall cost that can lead to a profitable practice. For the full article: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/06/10/ebay_nomics/?p1=MEWell_Pos5

Morgan was quoted in June 17 in The New York Times article titled "Online Sales Lose Steam" about the decline of online retailing growth. For the full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/technology/17ecom.html?ex=1184990400&en=ed27b683278bf6d7&ei=5070

Assistant Professor Thomas Davidoff was quoted in a July 11 ABC News story titled "New cash idea for home owners." For the full article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/CSM/story?id=3368314

Sebastian Teunissen, the executive director of the Clausen Center for International Business and Policy, was quoted in a July 13 CNN Money.com article titled "Take your business global" about choosing an entrepreneur-friendly environment to invest in for expanding small businesses. For the full article: http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/12/magazines/fsb/going_global.fsb/index.htm

Peter Johnson, director of admissions, was quoted in a July 16 The Daily Californian article titled "Haas uses blog to woo prospective students" about using blogs to inform prospective students. For the full article: http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=25429

Morgan was quoted in a June 19 USA Today article titled "Economists puzzled by irrational eBay buyers" about the attraction to low cost, high shipping auctions for online bidders. For the full article: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2007-07-17-economists-study-ebay-buyers_N.htm

Andrew Issacs, the executive director of the Management of Technology Program, was quoted in a June 1 in Business 2.0 article titled "Product Design, Nature's Way" about PAX Scientific.

Terrance Odean, the Willis H. Booth Chair in Banking and Finance I, was mentioned in June 16 in The Border Mail article titled "More moves = less coin" about his research in behavioral finance. For the full article: http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/bm/business/863473.html

Happening at Haas

BAY AREA HAAS ALUMNI - Summer Happy Hour
July 26
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Monte Cristo Cafe
Four Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level
San Francisco
Haas' Biotech Alumni Club along with Kellogg's HIM / Biotech Alumni Club and Wharton's Alumni Healthcare Club invite Haas School alumni to join us as we co-host our summer alumni event. Enjoy happy hour while catching up with fellow Haas Biotech Alumni and meeting members of the Wharton and Kellogg Alumni Clubs from across the Bay Area. To attend, RSVP to Reza Afkhami, rafkhami@mba.berkeley.edu.

SOUTH BAY ALUMNI - Welcome Party
July 28
12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Rengstorff Park
201 South Rengstorff Ave.
Mountain View
Join Haas alumni, new graduates, current students, and newly admitted students at this unique event. To attend, RSVP to David Hansen, david@hansen.net.

EAST BAY ALUMNI - Tour of The Oakland Raiders Headquarters
August 8
6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Oakland Raiders Headquarters
1220 Harbor Bay Parkway
Alameda
East Bay alumni are cordially invited to join the East Bay Chapter of the Haas Alumni Network for an exclusive reception and tour of the Oakland Raiders headquarters. This event is limited to 100 people. To attend, RSVP to http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=127374. For questions, please e-mail Marina Gracias, BS 80, MBA 99, at mgracias@yahoo.com.

BAY AREA NPM ALUMNI - Craigslist Nonprofit Bootcamp
August 18
8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
MLK Student Union
UC Berkeley
The Nonprofit Bootcamp is packed with interesting workshops, one-on-one career coaching, and networking opportunities with nonprofit entrepreneurs. For more information, visit: http://craigslistfoundation.org/index.php?page=2007_SF_Bay_Area_Nonprofit_Boot_Camp.

EAST BAY ALUMNI - Welcome Party for New Grads & Recently Admitted Students
August 18
11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Lake Temescal Regional Park
Streamside picnic area (look for the blue and yellow balloons)
Oakland
The East Bay Haas Alumni Chapter invites new grads and recently admitted students to join us at Lake Temescal Regional Park for a picnic. For a map to Lake Temescal Regional Park, please visit: http://www.foglightdata.com/img/temescal.gif. To register, visit: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=137344. Parking is $5 per car.

The Haas NewsWire is the bi-monthly electronic news publication for the Haas community published every Monday by the Marketing and Communications Office at the Haas School. Send your news, feedback, and suggestions to haasnews@haas.berkeley.edu.

Archived issues of Haas NewsWire are available online at http://haas.berkeley.edu/groups/newspubs/haasnews/
archives/hnarchiv.html.