Levi's executive Peter Haas has been named the California Alumni Association's Alumnus of the Year for 1996.

Haas is the 54th Berkeley graduate to win the association's highest award. He follows in his father's footsteps, becoming Alumnus of the Year a little more than a quarter century after his father, Walter Haas Sr., was awarded the honor in 1970.

At the association's annual Charter Banquet April 18 at the Marriott Hotel in San Francisco he is slated as guest of honor.

During the past three years Haas has chaired Chancellor Tien's campaign cabinet for the $1.1 billion Campaign for the New Century. He helped plan the campaign and raise a record-breaking $480 million, getting the university's largest ever fund-raising effort off to an extraordinary start.

Haas chairs Levi's Executive Committee and is a trustee of the San Francisco Foundation and a director of Northern California Grantmakers, the Levi Strauss Foundation, Jewish Community Federation, and Smithsonian National Board. He serves as vice president of both the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.

He is the former director of AT&T, Crocker National Bank, the Rosenberg Foundation and the San Francisco Bay Area Council. He is a former trustee of the United Way of the Bay Area, United Way, Stanford University and the UC Berkeley Foundation.