Wharton Economist, Berkeley Alum Ann Harrison Named New Haas Dean
Ann Harrison, a renowned economist and member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, has been named the next dean of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Harrison earned her undergraduate degree from Berkeley and served as a professor in Berkeley’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics from 2001 to 2011.
“Professor Harrison is an accomplished administrator as well as a world-class economist who has dedicated her career to creating forward-looking policies in development economics, international trade, and global labor markets,” Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said in a statement announcing the appointment. “It is a great honor to welcome her back to Berkeley to become the dean of Haas, and I have no doubt that she will be a wonderful leader the institution.”
Harrison, who will begin her term on January 1, 2019, said she is thrilled to return to Berkeley and looks forward to meeting Haas students and alumni and working with its distinguished faculty and staff, according to the release from the school.
Harrison worked as director of development policy at the World Bank before joining the Wharton faculty in 2012, co-managing a team of 300 researchers and staff. In her time with the World Bank, she reformed its research fund allocation process and supervised its most important publications, including the annual World Development Report. Setting a milestone in transparency for the institution, she convinced the World Bank’s president to release all historical records on project loans.
Ann Harrison named new Haas dean
“Ann has a remarkable track record of pioneering research on trade and development, including influential studies of globalization’s effects on jobs and inequality,” Berkeley Economics Professor Maurice Obstfeld said in a statement. Obstfeld serves as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and was a colleague of Harrison’s when she worked in Berkeley’s Agricultural and Resource Economics Department.
Princeton Professor Emeritus Sir Angus Deaton, who has known Harrison since her days as a graduate student at Princeton, praised her appointment. “Based on Ann’s experience at the World Bank, she will be an effective and much-loved manager,” said Deaton, who also holds the 2015 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare.
In addition to a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton, Harrison also holds a diplôme d’études universitaires générales from the University of Paris and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy. Author and editor of three books—including Globalization and Poverty and The Factory-Free Economy—Harrison is one of the most highly cited scholars globally on foreign investment and multinational firms.
Harrison replaces outgoing Dean Rich Lyons, who stepped down in June 2018 after serving as Haas dean for the past 11 years. He plans to return to teaching at Haas after completing a sabbatical. Haas Professor Laura Tyson, who has served as interim dean since Lyons’ departure, will remain in the role until January, 2019.
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Metro News & Notes: Stanford Wants You in the Midwest, MBA Essays and More
Good morning and happy Friday!
Here are a few stories you may have missed from the week that was …
Stanford Will Pay MBAs $160,000 to Work in the U.S. Midwest | CNBC
Earlier this week, the Stanford Graduates School of Business announced three winners of its first-ever Stanford USA MBA Fellowship, which will reportedly pay each student upwards of $160,000 for two years of tuition. CNBC writer Catherine Clifford explains:
“To be eligible for the scholarship, you have to have a connection to the Midwest. You can be a current resident of a Midwestern state, which Stanford defines as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota or Wisconsin. Alternatively, you could have lived for three consecutive years in one of those states, have graduated high school in one of those states or have ‘experiences that demonstrate a strong commitment to, and interest in, the development of the region.'”
There is a stipulation with the lucrative scholarship, however. Those students must agree to work in the Midwest within two years of graduation. Clifford notes that by the times grads have been out of Stanford GSB for four years, at least two of those years will have to have been working in the Midwest.
“The winners of the first Stanford USA MBA Fellowship are Adam Verhasselt, Amanda Donohue-Hansen and Taylor Seabaugh,” Clifford writes. “Verhasselt was raised on a dairy farm owned by his family in Wisconsin and is the first in his family to graduate from college. Donohue-Hansen is from California but graduated from University of Minnesota and lived and work there for 10 years. Seabaugh grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and returned after graduating from college to work at 3M and volunteer at local public schools.”
Read more about the Stanford USA MBA Fellowship here.
High School Students Dream Big – with Help of MBA Mentors | The Globe & Mail
Three Toronto metro high school students recently earned some valuable hands-on help from second-year Schulich School of Business MBA candidate Cortney Mills. The partnership came to fruition from the semester-long case competition Summit Leaders, founded last year by MBA students from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, writes the Globe & Mail. The goal of the nonprofit summit is to help underprivileged high schoolers from the community, giving them in-person lessons about business and entrepreneurship.
“’A lot of students don’t realize this [business] is an avenue they can take and they are often the brightest people,’ says David St. Bernard, a Co-Founder of Summit Leaders who graduated this spring with combined degrees in business and law at U of T.”
“’Sometimes they need that little push,’ he says of the younger students in the program. ‘Our idea is to give them the avenue to open up their ideas and create more connections within the community.’ Students do not have to choose a business career, he adds, ‘but at least we give them the opportunity to choose.’”
Find out more about the Summit Leaders nonprofit program here.
Your MBA Application Essay Mastered | Financial Times
Admissions teams know that essays are where students have to individually shine. Work experience, grades and GMAT score tell a lot about a student, of course, but the essay is a chance for them to stick out beyond traditional parameters.
In a recent piece with the Financial Times, Yuan Ding, Dean of the China Europe International Business School, says, “[The essay] is where we learn about applicants’ career aspiration, understanding of China, and writing skills.”
Rob Weiler, UCLA Anderson School of Management MBA Program Associate Dean, also notes how students need to be pretty concise with their words. “If an applicant attempts to add too much supplemental information, chances are they are trying too hard,” he says in the piece. Applicants to the UCLA Anderson MBA program all have a 500-world limit on their essays.
In contrast, institutions like the IESE Business School in Spain do not limit applicants to any standards on essays, offering immensely flexible entry capabilities. Dean Franz Heukamp says, “The ones that grab our attention do so not because they say something we have never heard before, are wild or outrageous. What makes a cover letter special is when it is very clear that the candidate knows what he or she wants to achieve professionally.”
Read more about what school’s may or may not expect from your application essay here.
