Richard K. Lyons, PhD, Dean, Haas School of Business, University of California – Berkeley
Wed 10/1, 12pm – 1pm EST
Forum: Challenging the Business Model of Education
Rich Lyons began as Dean of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in 2008. Prior to joining the faculty at Berkeley in 1993, Rich was an Assistant Professor at Columbia Business School. He received his BS from Berkeley (finance) and PhD from MIT (economics). His research and teaching are mostly in international finance, though his more recent work explores how business leadership drives innovation, an area of strategic importance to Berkeley-Haas. In 1998 Rich received Berkeley’s highest teaching honor and from 2006-08 he was on leave at Goldman Sachs as their Chief Learning Officer, focusing on leadership development for managing directors.
Principal changes at Berkeley-Haas under Dean Lyons include culture, collaboration space and leadership. Long known for areas like technology, entrepreneurship, strategy and social impact, Berkeley-Haas drove its strengths more deeply into admissions and other critical processes with a set of four defining culture principles: Question the status quo, Confidence without attitude, Students always and Beyond yourself. Collaboration space is another area of heavy investment at the school, including a new courtyard, a new “active library” adjoining the courtyard, a new innovation lab, and a new education building for breakout, flexible-use, event, and gathering spaces. In a world where education is increasingly digital, some parts of education will always be best delivered face-to-face in cutting-edge spaces. On leadership, Berkeley-Haas has pulled together its advantage being in the SF/Silicon Valley area, its distinctive culture and its preeminent faculty into a curriculum designed to deliver a signature brand of more innovative and entrepreneurial leadership.
