Tag Archives: Haas School of Business
No “leading theory” yet on Haas shooting
The UC Berkeley police investigation into the fatal shooting last month of Christopher Travis has not yet reached any conclusions, according to Lt. Alex Yao, the department’s spokesman. The investigation is continuing and Yao said he did not know when it would be concluded.
Berkeleyside and other media reported yesterday on an email sent by Haas Business School Dean Richard Lyons which said that suicide by police officer was the “leading theory” for Travis’ actions on November 15. … Continue reading »
UC Berkeley shooting ruled to be “suicide by police”
The fatal shooting of UC Berkeley student Christopher Travis was likely to have been “suicide by police”, according to Richard Lyons, dean of the Haas School of Business, where the shooting took place on November 15.
In an email to students, faculty and staff today, Lyons wrote that the UC Police Department had nearly concluded its investigation of the incident. “While we will likely never know Chris’s intent, [the police department's] leading theory, based on his history of recent … Continue reading »
Man shot at Cal’s Haas School identified, died in hospital
Update, 5:34 pm: More details continue to emerge in the case. According to information released by UC Berkeley at 5:23 pm, UCPD Captain Margo Bennett said that four officers, not three as previously reported, entered the school’s computer lab where the suspect Christopher Travis had gone on Tuesday. Nine people were in the room at the time, in addition to Travis, she said. The Alameda County coroner’s office conducted an autopsy this morning on Travis and a report will … Continue reading »
Shaken Cal Chancellor recalls Kent State, Virginia Tech
[See update at foot of story.]
“Now we’re there along with Kent State and Virginia Tech,” said a visibly upset Chancellor Robert Birgeneau at the end of a press conference today about the shooting at the Haas School of Business. No students, faculty or staff were injured in the incident — the only injury was to the unidentified suspect.
The chancellor received news of the incident at his home, following a lunchtime meeting there. He had thought the main focus of the day would be the Occupy Cal protests. “We’re very pleased with the way the students have conducted themselves today,” Birgeneau told the press conference. “I have confidence in our students that they’ll stay focused on the important issues, which are disinvestment in higher education by our state and higher tuitions.”
But the first shooting on the Cal campus for over 20 years changed the tenor of the day.
According to UC Police Chief Mitch Celaya, there is no evidence that the suspect had any connection to the protests. Throughout his description of the events leading to the shooting, he cautioned that his department was at a “very preliminary stage” of the investigation. The press conference was held at 4:00pm, less than two hours after the incident. … Continue reading »
Part-time MBA program a boon for professionals
By Belinda Lyons-Newman
For 15 years, Nicole Sanchez worked in the non-profit sector leading youth leadership and educational equity organizations around the country, including working on achievement gap issues as executive director of Berkeley Alliance.
As Sanchez took on increasing responsibility in her career, she decided she needed more organizational development expertise to make a deeper impact on the communities whose lives she was working to improve. With a full-time job and two school-age children, Sanchez did not see herself quitting her job to return full-time to school. … Continue reading »
Private bus in accident outside Cal after brake failure
At about 9.15 p.m. on Thursday night, an empty Bauer’s bus which had been left by its driver parked on Piedmont Avenue across the street from UC Berkeley, rolled across the street’s two lanes and down an embankment coming to a stop in front of a Haas School of Business building. The bus did not collide with either cars or pedestrians and nobody was injured.
According to UC Berkeley police, the driver had left the bus to talk with the driver … Continue reading »
The Mushroom Guys: A Business out of UC Berkeley
There’s so much buzz around the fledgling food business launched last year by two former UC Berkeley students, you’d think they were pumping out premium honey.
BTTR Ventures, run by Haas School of Business graduates Nikhil Arora and Alejandro (Alex) Velez, has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and on the BBC.
Launched on Earth Day last year, the company has won a steady stream of awards for its innovative, socially conscious, green business.
The pair, both 23, were named among America’s most promising social entrepreneurs by Business Week this year and in the top 25 young entrepreneurs by the same publication last year.
So, what are they doing? Well, they’re in the mushroom business: using recycled coffee grounds (from Peet’s Coffee & Tea), they produce spore starter kits so people can grow their own oyster mushrooms at home. It’s part of a zero-waste system that diverts 7,000 pounds of coffee grounds a week into a delicious and nutritious food source. Their production process also results in nutrient-dense soil amendment suitable for fruit and vegetable gardens.
The duo spent four years in business school together but they barely knew each other then. The seed for the company was planted by a visiting lecturer in a business ethics class who mentioned that women in Columbia and parts of East Africa were growing mushrooms from coffee grounds to fight malnutrition. This got the guys thinking about America’s coffee addiction and the farming, food, and financial potential of a consumer waste product destined for the landfill.
That idea spawned some serious mycology research and, in short order, led to the lads producing around 500 pounds of oyster mushrooms a week for Northern California Whole Foods stores and local farmers’ markets. BTTR then “mushroomed” into a D.I.Y. enterprise; their Gourmet Garden Grow-it-at-Home Mushroom Kits retail for $19:95 online and are sold in Whole Foods Markets across the country. Their topsoil product can be found in Northern California Whole Foods stores and local nurseries.
The mushroom guys, as Arora and Velez are locally known, passed up lucrative job offers (in investment banking for the Colombian-born Velez, and consulting for Arora, whose family hails from India) to launch their urban farming start-up on a shoe-string budget in a fraternity kitchen.
I met with Arora this week at the company’s warehouse in Emeryville before he flew to Washington, D.C., where the pair accepted their latest honor, a young entrepreneurs award from The Hitachi Foundation (with a $50,000 check attached), before speaking at a Tedx event on Saturday in the nation’s capital. … Continue reading »
Watch out: Innovators swarm Berkeley
If you are interested in innovation and have $1,500 to spare, the place to be the next few days will be at a conference at the Haas School of Business.
The Economist magazine is hosting the gathering, titled Innovation: Fresh Thinking for the Ideas Economy. With its impressive collection of leading thinkers, authors, journalists, academics, designers and businessmen, the conference aims to “expand or overturn established thinking about what innovation is, where it comes from, and how to … Continue reading »
