Berkeleyan
Lyons named interim dean at business school
Distinguished teacher will serve Haas while Tom Campbell serves the state
01 December 2004
 Richard K. Lyons |
Lyons holds the Sylvan Coleman Chair in Finance at the Haas School and is an alumnus of its undergraduate program. As associate dean, he directed the hiring of new faculty, negotiated faculty promotions, and oversaw the school’s research activities. He joined the Haas School faculty in 1993.
“The opportunity to serve as acting dean is a great honor,” said Lyons upon his appointment. “As an undergraduate product of Berkeley and its business school, I share the kind of deep appreciation for the place that I see in so many other members of the Haas community. The momentum that Dean Campbell has created, along so many lines, makes the opportunity even better. I look forward to working with everybody to maintain those lines of momentum and, if we do our jobs right, create new ones as well.”
As acting dean, Lyons will oversee the school’s efforts to expand the size of the faculty; expand the school’s production of leading-edge research in critical areas; promote continuing improvement and innovation in the curriculum; increase and enhance the school’s services for students; build the endowment; and complete planning for a new, second building.
A tough but popular teacher
A specialist in international finance and foreign exchange, Lyons is known as both a tough grader and one of the most popular teachers on campus. He has been awarded the Haas School’s Teacher-of-the-Year Award (Cheit Award) six times by his students, and in 1998 received the highest teaching honor on campus, the Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award.
Lyons is a talented musician who holds several musical copyrights. He has been known to accompany students’ Challenge for Charity fundraising efforts on his guitar and is a regular participant in the campaign’s annual talent show.
Before joining Haas, Lyons, who graduated with highest honors from the undergraduate business program at Berkeley in 1982, was a faculty member at Columbia University’s business school from 1987 to 1993, first as assistant and then as associate professor. Prior to Columbia, he worked as an intern at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board, a research assistant for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, and a research analyst for SRI International in Menlo Park. He has been granted several National Science Foundation awards.
Today, he is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and associate editor of the Haas School’s California Management Review and of the Journal of Financial Markets. He has consulted with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the European Commission. He is on the advisory board of the Economic Policy Review (NY Federal Reserve Bank), serves as a director/trustee for Barclays Global Investors Shares, and is chairman of the board of Matthews Asian Funds.