Berkeley Haas Faculty Page |
Ann E. Harrison is the 15th dean of the Haas School of Business, and the second woman to lead the top-ranked business school. A renowned economist, Harrison is one of the most highly cited scholars on foreign investment and multinational firms. She has dedicated her career to creating inclusive and sustainable policies in development economics, international trade, global labor markets, and now higher education. In 2023, she was named Dean of the Year by Poets & Quants.
At Haas since January 2019, Dean Harrison has prioritized meeting the needs of a diverse, rapidly changing world that is facing the existential threat of climate change. Under her leadership, Haas increased fundraising commitments by 50 percent. Over the last four years, total fundraising exceeded all previous records for the business school. She has also significantly expanded faculty size through both generous gifts from alumni and revenue expansion. This has allowed her to create a more diverse group of superb faculty and increase female faculty representation by 50 percent. Under Dean Harrison’s leadership, Haas also secured the largest single gift in the school’s history—$30 million from alumnus Warren “Ned” Spieker, BS 66—to transform the number-two ranked undergraduate program into a four-year program.
Dean Harrison also launched the first Flex MBA cohort at any top 10 business school, which lets students take courses remotely with the option to come to campus for electives. Virtual classrooms make the Evening and Weekend MBA—now ranked number one nationally by U.S. News & World Report—available to students who prefer flexible schedules, including students based abroad and working parents. Partnerships with the rest of UC Berkeley have allowed Dean Harrison to offer exciting programs with the School of Law, the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Berkeley Engineering, the Graduate School of Journalism, and the Rausser College of Natural Resources (RCNR). A concurrent degree program for a joint MBA and a Master of Climate Solutions (MCS) with RCNR launched in December 2023.
