Message-ID: <20030985.1075851594944.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 17:00:22 -0700 (PDT) From: tyson@haas.berkeley.edu To: mba02@haas.berkeley.edu, mba03@haas.berkeley.edu, mfe02@haas.berkeley.edu, allphds@haas.berkeley.edu, eveningmba@haas.berkeley.edu Subject: Decision to Step Down as Dean on December 31, 2001 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: Laura Tyson X-To: mba02@haas.berkeley.edu, mba03@haas.berkeley.edu, mfe02@haas.berkeley.edu, allphds@haas.berkeley.edu, eveningmba@haas.berkeley.edu X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \Dasovich, Jeff (Non-Privileged)\Dasovich, Jeff\Deleted Items X-Origin: DASOVICH-J X-FileName: Dasovich, Jeff (Non-Privileged).pst August 10, 2001 Dear Students of the Haas School, I am writing to let you know that I will be stepping down as Dean of the Haas School as of December 31, 2001 after serving three and one-half years. I had originally intended to remain Dean through June 30, 2001. But rather unexpectedly, I have been offered the possibility of fulfilling a long-held dream of spending a few years in London (where my husband spent much of his childhood) and doing so in a way that I believe will enhance my skills as a professor and university administrator. During the last year or so, I explored the feasibility and desirability of forging some kind of strategic alliance between the Haas School and the London Business School. During my discussions and visits to London, I became acquainted with members of the External Governing Body, the Dean's Office and the faculty at LBS. When the LBS Dean announced in January that he would be departing in June, the School began an intensive international search to replace him, and my name was added to the list. During the last few weeks, I have been offered this position. After considerable soul-searching and family discussion, I have decided to take leave from my faculty appointment at Berkeley to accept this offer. London is an ideal vantage point from which to study the globalization of business, and like the Haas School, the London Business School is one of the best in the world. During the next five months, I will remain fully committed to all of the exciting initiatives now under way at the Haas School, including the new Masters in Financial Engineering program, a concurrent MBA-MFE degree option, a new Executive MBA program that has just received University approval and will be announced in September, the expansion of the evening MBA program to include a "Saturday" cohort, and the development of the Initiative in Socially Responsible Business Leadership. In addition to these programmatic initiatives, Associate Dean Ben Hermalin and I have formed a school-wide faculty search committee to recruit for the ten additional faculty slots for which we have received approval this academic year. Meetings of this committee will begin early in the fall in order to maximize the time available for identifying and pursuing promising candidates. I have negotiated a special agreement with the University that grants unprecedented autonomy in faculty retention and recruitment to the Haas School. Nonetheless, because of strong competition, the School continues to face its greatest challenges in these areas. Finally, there is the task of updating the core curriculum in the MBA and Evening MBA programs. Last year the faculty agreed to give me the discretion to make a final decision on changes to the core after reviewing both last year's MBAA student survey on the core curriculum and proposals from interested faculty members. I plan to make a final recommendation for core reform in October for implementation in the 2002-2003 academic year. Core reform will help the School deliver the very latest and the very best in management education. Throughout the rest of the year, I will also continue to work with the School's talented and committed professional staff to provide outstanding School services to faculty, alumni, donors, recruiters, university administrators and of course students. The quality of these services is critical to the reputation and ranking of the Haas School. I have worked hard to attract and retain an outstanding staff and am proud of their many accomplishments and of the cooperative management culture they have helped to create. I am also proud of the talented students of the Haas School. They are bright, energetic, ambitious, entrepreneurial and caring. They work together to foster a cooperative "team spirit," that is a rarity among top-notch business schools. And they have created and maintained some of the most important activities at the School like the Leading Edge, Women in Leadership and Asian Business conferences, the Berkeley Business Plan Competition, the National Social Venture Business Plan Competition, and many student-initiated courses and special lectures. To the extent that I have had some successes during my tenure as Dean, I own them to a talented and dedicated staff, a responsive central campus administration, a first-rate faculty, loyal alumni, and outstanding students. Thanks for making my experience in the job so meaningful. And thanks for your commitment to the School's wellbeing. I hope that you will look back upon your years at Haas as among the happiest and most productive years of your life. I know I will. Best of luck and make sure to stay in touch with the Haas School as loyal alumni. Laura D. Tyson Dean