Conference Overview
The 9th Annual Berkeley Haas Culture Connect Conference will be held on the Berkeley Haas Campus January 12-13, 2027.
Bringing together almost 200 industry leaders and academic experts, we’ll explore emerging research on new learnings and the potential impact on a company’s culture, ability to innovate, and its path to growth, plus hear from corporate leaders and preeminent academic scholars.
On January 13, presentations and fireside chats with corporate executives and leading academic scholars will explore critical issues in today’s corporate environment. The day provides opportunities for collaborative discussions amongst attendees, and promises deep engagement, learning, and growth through the exchange of new ideas.
January 12, our academic day, spotlights nascent academic research, bringing together students and academics to present their abstracts for feedback and discussion. Highlighting the day are four keynote addresses from faculty across disciplines, including computer science, economics, social psychology, and sociology, featuring the ways culture is impacted by a variety of factors.
Corporate Day (January 13)
The corporate conference brings together industry and academic perspectives in three key areas:
- Fostering Trust and Leadership in an Era of Disruption: Will the workforce change without trust and how do leaders create a culture of trust?
- Integrating AI While Embracing the Human Element: Balancing strong strategic direction against the velocity with which AI is being implemented
- Catalyzing Change Toward the Future of Work: Creating genuine organizational transformation
As in previous conferences, there will be featured talks and fireside chats with top leaders across industries, as well as presentations from renowned academic experts. Our academic keynote speakers represent a range of schools and disciplines.
Corporate Conference Speakers
| Abhishek Nagaraj Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, UC Berkeley Haas |
| Adam Holton Chief People Officer, GE HealthCare |
| Aneesh Raman Chief Economic Opportunity Officer, LinkedIn |
| Fran Katsoudas Executive Vice President and Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer, Cisco |
| Jackie Lane Assistant Professor Technology and Information Management, Harvard Business School |
| Khalil Smith Vice President, Inclusion, Diversity, and Engagement, Akamai Technologies |
| Liz Fosslien Best-Selling Author and Marketing Leader, Atlassian |
| Matt Beane Associate Professor Technology Management, UC Santa Barbara |
| Michael Welsh Head of People Programs & Strategy, OpenAI |
| Soumitra Shukla Economist, Burning Glass Institute |
Academic Day (January 12)
The academic day explores the latest in organization culture research through presentations from scholars around the world who examine culture through their distinct lens (sociology, social psychology, economics, computer science). The day includes keynote talks for additional insight on evolving trends and tools.
Academic Conference Speakers
| Andy Schwartz Associate Professor of Computer Science & Psychology, Vanderbilt |
| Benjamin Enke Visiting Instructor, Department of Economics, MIT |
| Daphna Oyserman Dean’s Professor of Psychology, USC Dornsife |
| Marion Fourcade Professor of Sociology, UC Berkeley |
Abstract Information
Thank you for your interest in submitting an extended abstract (up to one page in length) for your work to be presented at the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation’s ninth annual Berkeley Culture Connect Conference! More information on how to submit abstracts will be released soon.
The Berkeley Culture Connect Conference Abstract presentations will take place on Tuesday, January 12, 2027 at the Haas School of Business.
Deadline to submit: October 20, 2026 at 11:59 PM PST
Note: we will only accept unpublished work to be presented at the conference
Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions.
Edgar Schein Best Student Paper Award
The Edgar Schein Best Student Paper Award encourages the next generation of scholars to explore work that builds connections across disciplines, is theoretically rich, and empirically rigorous. We typically receive between 80-100 abstracts for conference presentation, and identify the student-written papers for award eligibility. The abstracts are rigorously reviewed by our academic board who then nominate papers for the award.
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