Newswise — BERKELEY – November 3, 2011 – UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business will recognize two path-bending leaders among its alumni -- Robert G. O’Donnell, BS 65, MBA 66, and Robert Lutz, BS 61, MBA 62 -- on Friday, Nov. 4, at an alumni gala in San Francisco. O’Donnell will be named the Haas School’s Business Leader of the Year; Lutz will receive the school’s 2011 Leading Through Innovation Award.
About Robert O’Donnell:O’Donnell will be recognized for his commitment to creating opportunity through public education and his successful leadership role in the mutual fund industry as the Haas School’s Business Leader of the Year.
O’Donnell recently retired from his position as a senior vice president and director of Capital Research and Management Company, where he served as principal executive officer of the $50 billion American Balanced Fund. He has been teaching the Investment Strategies and Styles course at Berkeley-Haas for ten years and has been a strong supporter of Young Entrepreneurs at Haas (YEAH), a self-supporting program aimed at helping economically disadvantaged youth go to college. From 2003 to 2007 he served as chairman and vice chairman of the UC Berkeley Foundation Board of Trustees, which oversees the university's endowment and advises the chancellor and campus. He is the president of the O’Donnell Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that supports educational opportunity.
In addition to other philanthropic activities and board memberships, O'Donnell serves as director of the nonprofit Summit Public Schools, which started two charter high schools in Redwood City, in 2003 and 2009, and opened two more in San Jose this fall.
About Robert Lutz:One of the most creative minds in the auto industry, Lutz is receiving the Haas School’s 2011 Leading Through Innovation Award for his successful track record of bringing innovation to his industry in key executive roles with four different major automakers.
As vice chairman of product development for GM, Lutz came up with the idea of the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that won several industry awards, including the 2009 Green Car Vision Award, 2011 Motor Trend Car of the Year, 2011 Green Car of the Year, 2011 North American Car of the Year, and 2011 World Green Car.
Lutz’s accomplishments also include overseeing development of America's best-selling car in the early- and mid-1990s (Ford Taurus) and the most powerful and most expensive American car (Dodge Viper). The Haas School named Lutz its Business Leader of the Year in 1983, when he was executive VP for Ford International Automotive. His recently published book, Car Guys vs. Bean Counters, tells the tale of how the Volt was born and recounts his experiences as vice chairman of General Motors.
About Berkeley-HaasAs the second-oldest business school in the United States, the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley is one of the world's leading producers of new ideas and knowledge in all areas of business — which includes the distinction of having two of its faculty members receive the Nobel Prize in Economics. The school offers outstanding management education to about 2,200 undergraduate and graduate students each year who come from around the world to study in one of its six degree-granting programs. The school’s mission is to develop innovative business leaders -- individuals who redefine how we do business by putting new ideas into action in all areas of their organizations, and who do so responsibly. Representing more than 36,000 alumni, the Haas Alumni Network has a worldwide presence in virtually every industry. To learn more, please visit haas.berkeley.edu.
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