Senior Lecturer (continuing)
Director, New Management of Technology Programs

Entrepreneurship & Innovation | Innovation & Design | Sustainability

Leading expert on climate change and business innovation

About

Andrew Isaacs is senior lecturer with continuing status at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Isaacs is a scientist who began his career in NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the Johnson Space Center in Houston following undergraduate and graduate degrees in Geochemistry from the University of Michigan. He was recruited from NASA to Silicon Valley to join a startup where his focus shifted to solving engineering problems in manufacturing and related high-tech industries. From there he advanced to management and executive roles in public and private technology firms in Silicon Valley, as well as starting his own consulting company.

Since joining UC Berkeley in 1999, Isaacs has taught technology innovation and climate change strategy courses for over 5,000 MBAs and engineering students. He has also delivered executive courses for over 100 companies, with clients including Bank of America, BP, Électricité de France, Google, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Johnson and Johnson, Maersk, Mitsubishi, Oracle, Sony, Toyota, and the US State Department.

Isaacs has served as Faculty Director at UC Berkeley Executive Education since 2005, designing and delivering corporate programs in sectors including technology, financial services, energy, transportation, and sustainability.

Isaacs is a leading author of business case studies for MBA and executive education classes. He produces new business case studies on a quarterly basis for the UC Berkeley Haas Case Series, most recently focusing on the business challenges and opportunities presented by the climate crisis. Two of his case studies, on Greenwashing and Carbon Offsets, were selected by the Financial Times as highly commended recipients of the publication’s 2023 Teaching Cases Award. The award designates the cases as being among the best for those seeking a practical toolkit to fight the world’s most pressing issues. The Teaching Cases Award is part of the wider Responsible Business Education awards, which recognize the business cases having the most impact in responsible business education.

In 2022, Isaacs was awarded the Haas School of Business Sustainability Teaching Award. Isaacs is also a long-time member of Club 6, which recognizes the top-performing teaching faculty at Haas.

Expertise and Research Interests

  • Climate change and business strategy
  • Climate science and the implications for business
  • Sustainability metrics for business
  • Technology business innovation