The Center for Social Sector Leadership Speaker Series brings thought leaders and practitioners from across our social impact community with Haas students, alumni, and the larger community in a year-long speaker series that explores emergent and critical social impact topics and promising practices in the field. Events are free, open to the public, and cover timely and relevant topics while exploring emerging and promising social impact practices.
Upcoming Events

Shashi Buluswar - Decarbonizing and Decolonizing Industrialization | 11.16.23 | 12:15-1:15pm
Join us for lunch and hear from Dr. Shashi Buluswar, an expert working to scale tech solutions focused on climate change in low and middle income countries.
Dr. Shashi Buluswar is a scientist and a serial social entrepreneur working on a range of areas including global health, energy access, water and food security. He is the Founder and President of the Institute for Transformative Technologies (ITT), incubated at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as a special initiative of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy under the Obama administration. With a mission to build technology solutions for sustainable global development, ITT launched India’s largest infrastructures for off-grid solar power and natural sanitation, which collectively serve hundreds of thousands of the country’s poorest citizens. In response to COVID-19, Shashi also led ITT’s launch of Oxygen Hub, which has become Africa’s largest medical oxygen franchise with operations in Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
In 2021-22, Shashi took a leave from ITT to build serve as the founding CEO of Global Health Labs, a new nonprofit created by Bill Gates to develop technology breakthroughs in global health, in partnership with the Gates Foundation. He has joined CSSL this year as a Social Impact Fellow while he continues to develop initiatives with ITT.

Social Sector Solutions: Team Member Info Session | 10.05.23 12:30-1:30pm
Do you want to gain strategic consulting experience that you can highlight in interviews, while also solving a real problem for a compelling social impact organization? In Social Sector Solutions, teams of MBAs and interdisciplinary graduate school students—taught by Haas faculty and coached by experienced McKinsey & Company consultants—provide customized consultations to social impact organizations on their strategy or organizational-development questions. Read more on the program page here.
Register for the info session to learn more! Bidding for the course begins in November.
Recent Events

Social Impact Consulting Panel | 09.27.23 4:00-6:00pm
- Moderator: Laura Tilghman – FSG (Haas)
- Speaker: Molly Bode – McKinsey (MBA/MPH Haas/Berkeley)
- Speaker: Sanat Daga – Dalberg (Kellogg)
- Speaker: Liz Koenig – Bridgespan (Haas)
- Speaker: Joseph Zhang – Camber Collective (Haas)
Join us in-person on Wednesday, September 27, from 4-6pm to hear from these impactful panelists! Light refreshments will be provided.
Social Sector Solutions: Team Lead Info Session | 09.21.23 12:30-1:30pm
Do you have consulting experience? Grow your leadership skills by becoming a team lead:
- Act as an Engagement Manager leading a team of interdisciplinary consultants
- Gain an impactful leadership story to share in interviews
- Lead a team in solving a real challenge for a significant social impact organization
- Receive mentorship directly from an experienced McKinsey coach
- Receive mentorship from Haas’ Paul Jansen (Founder of McKinsey Social Impact Practice) and Joe Dougherty (partner at Dalberg)
Register for the team lead info session to learn more!

Careers in Social Impact - Disruptive Climate Tech with Tom Chi | 2.23.23 12:30-1:30pm
From his work as Head of Experience at Google X, to founding partner of At One Ventures, Tom Chi is dedicated to deepening the tools of human and team potential, and transforming established industries to reduce the planetary footprint.
Join us for lunch as he shares his work catalyzing a world in which humanity is a net positive to nature. Learn about job opportunities with companies that are pioneering new, regenerative industries.
Additionally, we invite you to sign up for office hours with Tom Chi right after the lunch event! Chat one on one to get your questions answered and learn more.

Blue Economy Panel | 11.16.22 6:00-7:30pm
With the existential threat of climate change increasing unabated, investors look for technologies that can turn back the climate clock in scalable and profitable ways. Join our expert panel to discuss the viability of ocean carbon removal as a climate panacea and sustainable business model. Refreshments provided. Click here to view recording.

Impact Pizza |11.8.22 12:30-1:30pm
Join us for our third in a series of informal lunches in the courtyard where we will listen to your goals and connect with others interested in social impact. Lunch provided.

Impact Pizza |10.25.22 12:30-1:30pm
Join us for our second in a series of informal lunches in the courtyard where we will listen to your goals and connect with others interested in social impact. Lunch provided.

2022-2023 S3 General Info Session | 10.18.22 12:30-1:30pm
Join this session to learn about Social Sector Solutions (S3), an Applied Innovation course where you can gain hands-on consulting experience working with a nonprofit, public organization, or social enterprise. Take your impact to the next level and help your client increase their impact through our professional management consulting partnership between Berkeley Haas and McKinsey & Company. Lunch provided.

Social Impact Consulting Panel | 10.12.22 6:00PM-7:30PM

Your Impact Belongs Here | 9.15.22 12:00PM -1:00PM
Your Impact Belongs Here, the first in a series of lunches with CSSL on the courtyard. We will provide light snacks while we listen to your goals and you connect with new friends who also want a world where business is a positive force for good.

Voices for Change Speaker Series | 11.4.21 12:30PM -1:30PM
Ft. Anthony Chavez, Eric Cortez, & Cristy Johnston Limon
Our speaker series offers opportunities for dialog, learning and networking as students and practitioners alike connect. This year’s speaker series is “Voices for Change,” as we highlight varying levels of leadership across industry and generation. We’re excited to host this intergenerational panel featuring Anthony Chavez—Education advocate and grandson of the renowned social impact leader, Cesar Chavez—and Eric Cortes—youth voices advocate and UC Berkeley student, with CSSL’s Executive Director, and arts education leader Cristy Johnston Limon.

Social Impact Consulting Panel (10.19.21)
Discuss Career Pathways, Trends, Equity Work
Interested in Social Impact consulting? Watch this 1 hour, 11 minute panel moderated by Bridgespan Partner and Haas MBA Meera Chary, and a panel of social impact consultants from Camber Collective, Dalberg Advisors and Public Equity Group discuss everything from their own personal career journeys to how they’re advancing racial equity through their respective approaches and perspectives.

IS THE CHASE FOR ADVERTISING DOLLARS KILLING THE INTERNET?
ft. Matt Rivitz | April 18, 6-7PM PST Wells Fargo Room (C420)
In recent years, the competition for online ad dollars has hit a fever pitch. Consumers have grown increasingly wary of tech platforms and targeted advertising, and Congress is considering numerous bills to regulate the industry. Who is responsible for the growing discontent? Is it the platforms? Is it the advertisers? Should government regulation have a role or do free speech laws necessitate a free market solution? Matt Rivitz, founder of Sleeping Giants—an international campaign for media and social media responsibility—will explore this issue, along with panelists from the industry

Path Bending Careers Speaker Series ft. Carmen Rojas
Thoughts on Culture of Philanthropy

Path Bending Careers Speaker Series ft. Joe Speicher
Future of Work and Cross-Sector Solutions

Path Bending Careers Speaker Series ft. Shashi Buluswar
Career and Technology Overview for the Base of a Pyramid
We live-tweet our events! Follow us at @ImpactMBA