Meet the Faculty

Since 2013, Jennifer Caleshu has been lecturing at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. She is well-versed in all things Haas as Jennifer received her M.B.A. from this prestigious school.

She teaches:

• Fundamentals of Design Thinking
• Haas@Work
• Fundamentals of Design Thinking
• Building Trust-Based Relationships
• High-Impact Leadership
• Leading Innovative Change
• Leadership Communications
• Active Communicating

Jennifer also serves as Director of Marketing, Facilitator and Executive Coach at the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, where she facilitates leadership, communications and coaching programs with diverse clients in technology, heavy equipment and education. As an executive coach, her clients have included individual contributors, managers and directors seeking to empower themselves and their teams through one-on-one coaching for leaders.

Jennifer also coaches individuals on creating and delivering effective presentations, including supporting verbal and non-verbal communication skills, overcoming stage fright, designing impactful PowerPoint presentations, preparing for Q&As and more. Read more about Jennifer.

Andrew Isaacs is a successful scientist, business executive, entrepreneur and educator. He is passionate about mentoring the next generation of technology business leaders and has a strong track record of helping young entrepreneurs launch their careers. Andrew has worked at the crossroads of advanced technology and business innovation for 25 years.

Andrew has been teaching at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business for almost 20 years for classes such as Opportunity Recognition: Technology and Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley; Marketing for High-Tech Entrepreneurs; the Business of Nanotechnology; and Energy, Sustainability and Business Innovation.

In addition to being a lecturer, Andrew is also Haas School of Business' Director of New Management of Technology Programs, Director of Mayfield Fellows Program and Executive Director at the Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation. In addition, he is also President of California Technology International Inc. Read more about Andrew.

Gregory La Blanc received his J.D. from George Mason University and his LLM from UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. He has been teaching at Haas School of Business since 2005, teaching such classes as New Venture Finance, Strategic Leadership, Behavioral Finance, Corporate Financial Management, Financial Strategy and more. Greg has been awarded the UC Berkeley Presidential Teaching Fellow, a Haas EWMBA Core Graduate Instructor of the Year and a John Olin Fellow from Boalt Hall School of Law.

His current interests include data and analytics strategy, business model innovation, alternative investment strategies, evolutionary decision theory, behavioral law and economics, behavioral corporate finance, complex adaptive systems and information in organizations. Read more about Gregory.

Darcelle Lahr serves as lecturer in both the Goldman School of Public Policy and the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, and as professor of Business Practice in the Lorry I. Lokey School of Business and Public Policy at Mills College. Dr. Lahr teaches leadership and ethics, social impact consulting, social entrepreneurship, business and society, strategic management, and innovation and entrepreneurship for sustainability.

In 2018, Dr. Lahr led the re-envisioning and relaunch of the Mills College Center for Transformative Action, creating a hub for social justice research, activity and community action for students, faculty, staff and alumni. Most recently, Dr. Lahr serves as co-chair of the Mills Black Faculty/Staff Association, co-lead of the Black Action Forum and chair of the Racial Incident Response Subcommittee of the Intersectional Antiracist Team. Dr. Lahr is also president and CEO of Integral Consulting Group, a Black woman–owned management consulting practice; the founder and executive director of L.C. and Lillie Cox Haven of Hope, a nonprofit supporting socially minded entrepreneurs and small-business owners in delivering valuable services to vulnerable communities; and the founder and executive director of the Women's Social Entrepreneurship Center, supporting socially minded women entrepreneurs of color.

Vince Law is a faculty member at Berkeley Haas, focusing on M.B.A. courses in innovation and design, with specific expertise in product development and product management. He is also an Adjunct Professor at California College of the Art's Design Strategy M.B.A. program, with a teaching focus on innovation. Read more about Vince.

Aaron McDaniel is a serial entrepreneur, corporate manager, real estate investor, adviser, author, teacher and professional speaker. He is currently a partner and Chief Marketing Officer of IP Shark, an online brand-protection service that helps brands eliminate counterfeits, stop unauthorized sellers and better control their e-commerce channels.

He also teaches entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and is managing director and founding partner at Velocity Capital Group, a real-estate private equity fund investing in multi-family properties across the U.S. Previously, Aaron was the co-founder and CEO of Access Invest, the nation's largest mobile aggregator of private investments and co-founded Tycoon, the first real-estate crowdfunding platform to be acquired and Pong360 (acquired in 2012).

Learn more about Aaron.

Jon Metzler is a lecturer at Berkeley Haas, where he teaches on competitive advantage in technology markets and on international business at the undergraduate and M.B.A. levels. He is also associated faculty for the UC Berkeley for Center for Japanese Studies. He has received grant funding from the UC Berkeley Center for Japanese Studies and from the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity. Metzler is also faculty mentor at Berkeley Skydeck, an accelerator for Berkeley-affiliated startups.

Holly Schroth is a senior lecturer at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Management of Organizations Program, where she specializes in the areas of negotiation and organizational behavior. She has been a senior lecturer at Haas since 1992, teaching courses such as Leading People, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, Organizational Behavior, Introduction to Organizational Behavior and Strategic Business Interactions.

Her research interests center on emotions and language in negotiations and procedural justice. Holly has authored numerous publications exploring these subjects. She has also won several awards for teaching excellence during her decades of work, including a Distinguished Teaching Fellow.

Read more about Holly.

Matthew Stepka is Managing Partner of Machina Ventures, an investment firm focused on early stage, artificial intelligence and data science–enabled companies. He also advises companies on a variety of strategic issues, including fostering innovation, leveraging artificial intelligence/ data science technologies, and driving social impact. Stepka is a public speaker on how emerging technologies are reshaping our society and economy, and the important role of mission-driven enterprises. He is a Visiting Scholar/Executive in Residence at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Donatella Taurasi, Ph.D., has expertise in data science, data and analytics strategy, finance, psychology and economics, and asset pricing. She has been a lecturer at UC Berkeley Haas since 2012.

Senior lecturer Peter Wilton has been a lecturer and professor at Haas School of Business since 1992. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University and his B.A. (1st Class Honors) from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). In addition to his teaching, Peter is also the CEO of ORBIS Associates, a research product evaluator at the National Science Foundation and a reviewer at numerous publications. His current research and interests include:

• Marketing and corporate strategy
• Innovation strategy
• Organizational transformation
• Customer-loyalty strategy
• Global strategy and international management
• Customer-experience strategy
• New-product management
• Sales force productivity
• Competitive strategy for high-technology organizations
• Competitive strategy for financial service institutions

Read more about Peter.

Since August 2016, Arman has been a lecturer at Berkeley Haas on entrepreneurship and innovation. He is also the CFO at Prodigy Software. Previous positions include Head of Finance at Farmstead, Head of Value Creation at Quona Capital and Director of Business Development at RocketSpace, among other leadership positions. Read more about Arman.