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