Haas Names Interim Dean

University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has named Laura D’Andrea Tyson the school’s interim dean starting in July.

Tyson is a Haas professor and an economist whose research lately has focused on automation and the role of technological change in work. Tyson knows her way around Haas, having joined the Berkeley economics department in 1977 and the Haas school in 1990.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine anyone more obviously qualified to hold down the fort while Haas searches for a permanent dean. That’s because Tyson has been Haas’s dean before, from 1998 to 2001.

Clearly, she must have done an OK job the first time around if the school is willing to put her back at the helm. Indeed, UC Berkeley chancellor Carol Christ said that Tyson “initiated many important programs that laid the foundation for the school’s financial and reputational strengths today.”

So, Christ concluded, “Haas couldn’t be in better hands.”

After being dean at Haas, Tyson moved to London Business School, where she was dean from 2002 to 2006. She is now a professor at Haas as well as the faculty director of Haas’s Institute for Business and Social Impact.

Tyson succeeds Richard K. Lyons, who is wrapping up an 11-year deanship. Lyons’s recent accomplishments include overseeing the opening of a new building and the launch of Berkeley’s Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology dual-degree program.

Lyons now returns to the Haas faculty and has expressed interest in exploring the role of technology in education and in finance.

Tyons cited the “enormous contributions that Dean Lyons has made during his deanship.” She said she was “honored by the opportunity to serve our community during the transition to the new dean.”

So when will Haas have that new dean?

Answering that question turns out to be a little complicated. In April, Poets & Quants revealed that Haas had narrowed its search to three candidates.

With Lyons leaving at the end of June, however, the school has so far failed to finalize its selection. Poets & Quants speculates that one possible complicating factor is the high number of open deanships this year, including at top schools like Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Even with the drawn-out search process, the school says it “hopes to have a new dean named and in place this fall.”

For applicants, the fact that the school is in a transition phase can add a little uncertainty to the admissions process.

Still, the basic task remains the same: identifying whether the school is a good fit for you and creating an application that effectively communicates your personal brand. At EXPARTUS, we can help with both of these things – ask us for a free assessment!