A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
I am honored to bring you another annual report full of good news and inspiring contributions. This year marks Haas’ 125th anniversary, and as I look ahead to my second tenure as dean, I thought it would be nice to look back at all we have achieved together in the last five years.
On the fiscal front, we have raised over $210 million since I started in 2019! That includes the single largest gift ever for Haas, $30 million from Warren “Ned” Spieker, BS 66, and his wife, Carol, BA 66 (political science), which allows us to expand our undergraduate program to four years. I am also pleased to report that we are fiscally sound.
On the academic front, we have had 18 new faculty hires since 2019, which means more opportunities to distinguish Haas on the world stage and to ensure that we develop tomorrow’s responsible business leaders. Each of our five ranked programs appears among the top five of our U.S. competitors in at least one of the major popular rankings. Highlights include our EWMBA program ranking #1 in U.S. News this spring. The Full-time MBA was among the top four U.S. business programs that were ranked in the Financial Times; it ranked #7 worldwide. Our Master of Financial Engineering program is #1 in TFE Times, and our EMBA ranked #1 in The Economist in its final ranking for executive programs. And our undergraduate program continues to rank #2 in U.S. News. Our new Flex cohort is allowing us to thoughtfully expand the EWMBA program while serving a greater range of students without having to travel to campus for classes.
Maintaining focus on innovation, inclusion, and sustainability is more important than ever as they are the backbone of our principled business education.
Work is continuing on our Entrepreneurship Hub, which is slated to open next year. In May, we celebrated 15 years of our Cleantech to Market program, which helps entrepreneurs and researchers commercialize innovative climate tech solutions. And during my tenure, we have expanded our thought leadership with four new endowed faculty chairs in entrepreneurship.
As part of our DEI Strategic Plan we are increasing representation, building skills in leading diverse teams, and cultivating a climate of belonging. We have diversified our Haas Board, students, senior leadership team, and faculty and now have a fully staffed diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging team. To invite more diverse applicants, we are connecting with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to promote our Accelerated Access deferred MBA program and HBCU Fellowship, a first-of-its-kind endowment that will provide tuition support to MBA students who have attended an HBCU; launching the Thrive Fellows program with curriculum aimed at growing the Hispanic and Latinx applicant pool; and strengthening our educational partnership with the National Black MBA Association.
To add to our already strong resources on sustainability, which includes an Office of Sustainability and Climate Change and core MBA courses infused with sustainability topics, we now have the Berkeley Haas Sustainable Business Research Prize. The prize is open to faculty worldwide, which will award $20,000 to the best study on applying ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) principles to real-world business. We have also made great strides in creating an MBA in climate solutions, a joint degree with the Rausser College of Natural Resources, and are awaiting final approval.
As you can see, the momentum at Haas is strong, thanks to your support. Together, we build great things.
With gratitude,
ANN E. HARRISON
Bank of America Dean