Dear Colleagues,

“March Madness” has taken on a whole other meaning this month with our crazy weather and atmospheric rivers hitting California. I hope everyone hasn’t been too impacted by the storms. Here are my highlights from this month:

• Thought leadership: Our stellar faculty and staff have been generously sharing their expertise to educate the public during the recent turmoil in banking and tech. From Bloomberg to Mother Jones to KQED, Haas experts were in demand from national and local news outlets for their insights on the Silicon Valley Bank fallout and tech layoffs. Thank you to faculty members Ross Levine, Nancy Wallace, Ulrike Malmendier, Panos Patatoukas, Anastassia Fedyk, James Wilcox, Ken Rosen, Olaf Groth, and Saikut Chaudhuri; and staff members Deepak Gupta, Roland Luk, and many more for sharing their expertise and positioning Haas as a true thought leader in banking, finance, and tech. In addition, our FTMBA Admissions and CMG teams have worked closely with prospective and current students to help them navigate recent turbulence in the tech and banking industries. Our FTMBA admissions team waived the application fee and extended the application deadline for people impacted by tech layoffs and CMG has offered additional “Ask Me Anything” sessions and networking mixers featuring Haas alumni who are on the front lines of tech and banking/venture capital industry shifts and disruptions.Separately, Dean Harrison has also been in demand from news media for her thoughts on developing future business leaders, why business school rankings should recognize how schools improve social mobility, and topics unique to women in leadership roles. And last week, she met with The Economist’s bureau chief while visiting alumni in New York. Check out her recent interviews with McKinsey Quarterly, Financial Times and Bloomberg! Thank you to our MarCom team for working hard to get these amazing Haas voices out in the media and help boost our reputational strength (keep up the good work!).
• So long and hello!: Our MFE team said farewell to our 2023 grads on Friday, March 10, and then welcomed our newest cohort to campus the following Monday. What an impressive turnaround! It was heartening to see Andersen Auditorium packed with family, spouses, and friends to celebrate our graduates’ achievement, and it was especially great to see former MFE Executive Director Linda Kreitzman return home for the ceremony! Bravo to our MFE and Events teams for organizing a wonderful commencement. ICYMI, check out our newsroom story or Instagram for photos and videos. Now our MFE team is fully focused on acclimating our newest students to campus. The Class of 2024 includes 89 full- and part-time students who hail from 19 countries; a third of the class is women.
• Berkeley Haas Alumni Conference: Have you ever wanted to see what our Alumni Conference is all about? Well, here’s your chance! Join us April 29 for our annual event and sit in on TEDx-style presentations facilitated by our faculty, staff, and alumni. The weekend will include sessions such as “How to Create Brave and Safer Spaces in an Anxious World,” co-led by our Chief DEIJB Officer Élida Bautista and “Sustainable Supply Chains: Where Purpose Meets Progress” led by Asst. Professor Sytske Wijnsma. DAR is offering complimentary tickets to staff and faculty. Simply register as a staff member and the discount will automatically be applied. Thank you to our DAR, DEIJB, CMG, and BEE teams for creating a dynamic conference lineup!

Before I sign off, I’d like to give a shout-out to our HR team for hosting their first open house of the year! What a great way to cultivate connection among staff and to introduce our newest HR staff to Haas. Stay tuned for information about our next open house.

Kudos to our [email protected] team for organizing our gratitude grams event, selfie scavenger hunt, and staff happy hour at Study Lounge! About 30 staff attended our happy hour and 368 gratitude grams were written. Congrats to our selfie scavenger hunt winners Diana Martinez, Mel Dixon, and Lo Aucoin.

Hats off to all who worked to help our full-time MBA program rise to its highest-ever spot in the 2023 Financial Times Global MBA Ranking! In case you missed it last month, Haas rose to #4 among U.S. schools and #7 internationally, joining Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford as this year’s top four U.S. programs.

And finally, thank you to our EGAL team for hosting its AmpEquity Speaker Series featuring Deepa Purushothaman in honor of Women’s History Month. If you missed this event, there are many ways to celebrate this month! Check out EGAL’s recommendations of books and podcasts and digital signage project, created in collaboration with our DEIJB team and Committee on Digital Signage.

Until next month,

Courtney