Richard Kent Lyons (born 1961) is an American economist and academic, currently serving as the 12th chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley since July 2024. He served as the 14th dean of the Haas School of Business from 2008 to 2018 and as Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer at UC Berkeley from 2020 to 2024.[1][2]
Rich Lyons | |
|---|---|
 Lyons in 2008 | |
| 12th Chancellor of University of California, Berkeley | |
| Assumed office July 1, 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Carol T. Christ |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Richard Kent Lyons February 10, 1961 Palo Alto, California, U.S. |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley (BS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
| Academic background | |
| Thesis | Three essays on exchange rate determination (1988) |
| Doctoral advisor | Rudiger Dornbusch |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Economics |
Early life and education
editLyons was born on February 10, 1961, in Palo Alto, California.[3]
Lyons received a Bachelor of Science with a major in business and with highest honors from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1982.[4] He received a Doctor of Philosophy in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988 under the supervision of Rudiger Dornbusch.[5]
Career
editAfter leaving MIT, Lyons was an assistant professor of business for six years at the Columbia Business School before returning to the Haas School as a professor of economics and finance in 1993. At Berkeley, Lyons also served as Acting Dean of the Haas School from 2004 to 2005 before leaving for a two years for Goldman Sachs in New York City as their Chief Learning Officer. In 2008, Lyons returned to Haas to replace Tom Campbell as the dean of the Haas School of Business.[6] Lyons returned to teaching after serving 11 years as dean as the William and Janet Cronk Chair in Innovative Leadership in 2018.[7]
His teaching expertise is in international finance.[1] Lyons is fluent in French and is also an accomplished musician, owning several musical copyrights. He and his wife, Jennifer, have two children.
Lyons’s early research focuses on currency markets, a focus reflected in his book “The Microstructure Approach to Exchange Rates” (MIT Press).[8]
In 1998 he received UC Berkeley’s highest teaching honor, the Distinguished Teaching Award, and has won the Haas School’s Teacher of the Year (Cheit) award six times.[9]
Other professional activities
editLyons's past consulting relationships include the Federal Reserve Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and Citibank. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an Associate Editor of the California Management Review, and, prior to joining Goldman Sachs, served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Matthews Asia Funds, and a member of the Board of Directors of iShares (Barclays Global Investors).[10]
References
edit- ^ a b "Lyons's Haas School of Business Faculty Biography". Archived from the original on 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
- ^ Pohl, Jason. "Rich Lyons, longtime campus business, innovation leader, will be UC Berkeley's next chancellor". Berkeley News. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ Blaug, Mark; Vane, Howard R. (2003), Who's who in economics (4, illustrated ed.), Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 516, ISBN 1-84064-992-5
- ^ Daily Cal article: Dean of Haas School of Business to Step Down[dead link]
- ^ Lyons, Richard Kent (1988). Three essays on exchange rate determination (PhD thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/14706. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
- ^ Raine, George (July 19, 2008). "Richard Lyons succeeds Campbell as Haas dean". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ MacInnis, Emily (August 22, 2018). "Rich Lyons, Los Altos native, steps down from Haas School of Business". Los Altos Town Crier.
- ^ The Microstructure Approach to Exchange Rates at MIT Press ([1] Archived 2006-09-14 at the Wayback Machine)
- ^ Haas Faculty Teaching Award Winners
- ^ Lyons's Official Haas Biography, from his personal website