UC Berkeley Takes ‘Interim’ Tag Off Haas Dean Jennifer Chatman’s Title

Jennifer Chatman, an organizational culture scholar and a double Berkeley alum, has been appointed the 16th dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley. Her appointment was announced Monday morning (June 16) by UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Ben Hermalin and Chancellor Rich Lyons.

Chatman, who has served as interim dean for about 11 months, will formally begin her new role on July 1. She becomes the third woman to lead Haas in the school’s 126-year history.

“As a proud ‘double Bear’ with deep Berkeley roots, it is an incredible honor to be leading Haas,” Chatman says in a statement. “Our distinctive culture and commitment to innovation and excellence continue to energize me every day. I look forward to working closely with our amazing faculty — and our entire community — to lift Berkeley Haas to new heights.”

‘THE RIGHT LEADER’ FOR A CHANGING ERA

Chatman earned her BA in psychology from Berkeley in 1981 and her Ph.D. from the Haas School in 1988. She is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on workplace culture and leadership. Lyons, himself a former dean of Haas, called Chatman the ideal leader to guide the school through a rapidly evolving educational landscape.

“From Jenny’s own research into workplace culture, we know that the most successful organizations are those that prioritize adaptation to change while staying true to their core values,” Lyons says.

“As we face new challenges, I am certain that Jenny’s sophisticated leadership skills and long-standing love for and connection to Haas will help turn those challenges into opportunities and will ensure that our business school continues to provide an educational experience that is both excellent and unique.”

BUILDING A CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP

Known affectionately as the school’s “culture queen,” Chatman is the Paul J. Cortese Distinguished Professor of Management at Haas. She joined the faculty in 1993 after beginning her academic career at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Over her three decades at Haas, Chatman has held numerous leadership roles — besides acting dean, she has been associate dean of academic affairs and associate dean of learning strategies — while shaping both the school’s culture and its academic offerings. She co-led the development of Haas’s now-famous Defining Leadership Principles, or DLPs: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself, which have become a core part of the school’s identity.

“Jenny is a strong and culturally astute leader who, as interim dean, has strengthened our alumni network and led growth initiatives to amplify the school’s reputation,” says Elena Gomez, BS 91, CFO of Toast and chair of the Haas advisory board. “Haas is in good hands with Jenny as our committed school champion and inspiring leader for the next chapter of our journey.”

CHAMPIONING INNOVATION, RESEARCH & INCLUSION

Chatman’s leadership has supported major academic innovations, including the launch of the Flex cohort in Haas’s No. 1-ranked Evening & Weekend MBA program, the dual MBA/Master of Climate Solutions degree with Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources, and the Spieker four-year Undergraduate Business Program. She also helped expand alumni engagement with the launch of a new chapter in Austin, Texas.

Her early interest in workplace research began in middle school, when she designed surveys about job satisfaction and convinced family friends to fill them out. That curiosity eventually led to the creation of the Organizational Culture Profile, a research tool she developed with colleagues Charles O’Reilly and Dave Caldwell that has shaped the field for decades.

Chatman’s research has shown that companies with strong, adaptable cultures outperform their peers, and she has exposed the organizational risks posed by narcissistic leadership. She’s co-director of the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation and co-hosts The Culture Kit podcast. Her new book, Making Organizational Culture Great, co-authored with Stanford’s Glenn Carroll, will be published this fall.

Chatman’s teaching has earned top marks from students and peers alike, including the Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching and recognition as one of Poets&Quants’ “World’s Best B-School Professors.”

BERKELEY HAAS DEAN JENNIFER CHATMAN’S PREDICTION FOR 2025

In a New Year’s message shared with Poets&Quants earlier this year, Chatman reflected on the challenges and opportunities that define the current era—and the critical role business schools must play in preparing adaptable, values-driven leaders:

“WE ARE LIVING THROUGH a historic period of upheaval, and I believe 2025 will be a defining year. AI is advancing at breakneck speed, global power dynamics are being rewritten, energy systems are being reinvented, and workplace norms are being fundamentally reshaped. I don’t think anyone can predict exactly where we’ll be in a year—never mind five years—but I do know that new leaders will require a broad and flexible set of skills and the curiosity and intellectual agility for continuous learning.

“At Berkeley Haas this year, we will lean into our North Star, the four Defining Leadership Principles (DLPs). Question the Status Quo and Confidence Without Attitude motivate our spirit of innovation as we continually seek better paths forward—after all, Haas is the place for innovation leaders; we are Students Always as we learn new ways to work, lead, and collaborate; and Beyond Yourself guides us as we tackle critical challenges like climate change in all our programs but particularly in our new MBA/Master’s in Climate Solutions, joint with Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources. As we mark the 15th anniversary of codifying our DLPs, we believe they are as relevant as ever and continue to evolve.

“Haas is also the place where innovation meets impact, and in January, we’ll welcome students from across UC Berkeley to our new Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Hub. I predict that some of the most disruptive and useful new ideas will be hatched within the walls (and on the patio) of this welcoming and inclusive new space. UC Berkeley is the #1 university in the world for alumni founders, venture-backed startups, female founders, and female-founded companies (according to Pitchbook). And we know that some of the most successful companies arise when founders from different disciplines partner to tackle big challenges. The ‘eHub’ is unique in that it’s designed as an entry point, an incubator, and a launching pad, and will make entrepreneurship more accessible for all Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students.

“In February, we’ll be hosting more than 500 students from 41 partner schools worldwide for the annual ClimateCap MBA summit. Tickets sold out in eight minutes—an indication of the urgency people feel about addressing climate issues. I have no doubt that ideas that emerge during those two days will help drive business to accelerate the transition to net zero. At Berkeley Haas, we’ll continue to grow our commitment to educating leaders who will address our climate crisis; research from our faculty found that a majority of firms anticipate hiring for sustainability-focused roles in the next year. Based on this research, we expect to see increasing demand for advanced sustainability skills, especially in consulting and across specific functions such as reporting, finance, and policy.

“Addressing the rapid adoption of AI across business, I expect a continued surge in student interest and opportunities. Our faculty are teaching students and startups how to separate commercial potential from hype and where to draw ethical lines. Many of our faculty—such as Professor Zsolt Katona—were early adopters of AI tools and have been using them in their teaching and research for years. Professor Jonathan Kolstad’s new Center for Healthcare Marketplace Innovation, a joint center with the College of Computing Science, Data and Society, will be shaping decisions on AI use in that critical industry. In Finance, Adair Morse is looking at fair AI use in credit markets and Anastassia Fedyk is researching and teaching on firm-level implications for hiring and innovation; in our Management of Organizations group, Abhishek Nagaraj is studying how the industry is evolving and which companies are poised to dominate. The list goes on of faculty on the cutting edge; not to humble brag (or just straight-up brag…), but our faculty—every single one—are rock stars in their fields! In 2025, we are adding more courses that address all areas of AI from strategy to ethics.

“My decades of research on organizational culture have shown that the most successful organizations are able to define and adapt to rapid change while staying true to their strategic vision. As we head into 2025, we are ready for whatever challenges come our way. Happy New Year!”

DON’T MISS HAAS GETS AN INTERIM DEAN FROM ITS FACULTY RANKS and POETS&QUANTS’ ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S PREDICTIONS FROM BUSINESS SCHOOL THOUGHT LEADERS