UC Berkeley Press Release

Tom Clausen to receive UC Berkeley's Haas School Award

By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 25 October 2004

BERKELEY–A.W. "Tom" Clausen, who led Bank of America to become the United States' largest commercial bank and ran The World Bank, will receive the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business's Lifetime Achievement Award on Friday, Oct. 29.

"Tom Clausen is a singular figure in the history of the banking industry," said Haas School Dean Tom Campbell. "He has long played a role on the world stage of international business and economic development. He has a world view in all he does, but has never lost sight of the individual, especially the needy."

After graduating from Carthage College in 1944, Clausen served four years in the U.S. Army Air Corps before returning to the states and earning a law degree from the University of Minnesota.

While waiting for his bar exam results, Clausen took a job as a part-time vault clerk at Bank of America in Los Angeles, and instead of practicing law, he opted to enter the bank's executive training program.

In 1970, Clausen was elected president and chief executive officer of BankAmerica Corporation and Bank of America. He guided the bank through dramatic growth from 1970 through 1981, before becoming president of The World Bank in Washington, D.C.

In 1986, he returned to BankAmerica as chairman and chief executive officer, retiring in 1990.

Clausen is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School and a recipient of the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota, the Carthage Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the California Industrialist of the Year Award. He also holds the prestigious UC San Francisco Medal.

Clausen has been a committed Haas School supporter since the late 1980s and, together with his late wife Peggy, funded the school's Clausen Center for International Business and Policy in 1995. The Clausen Center provides research, outreach and extra-curricular learning initiatives in international business to the Haas School community.

The Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Clausen at a private event.