| Rich Lyons | |||||||||
| Birth Name: | Richard Kent Lyons | ||||||||
| Order: | 12th | ||||||||
| Chancellor of University of California, Berkeley | |||||||||
| Term Start: | July 1, 2024 | ||||||||
| Predecessor: | Carol T. Christ | ||||||||
| Birth Date: | 10 February 1961 | ||||||||
| Birth Place: | Palo Alto, California, U.S. | ||||||||
| Nationality: | American | ||||||||
| Education: | University of California, Berkeley (BS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) | ||||||||
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Richard Kent Lyons (born February 10, 1961; commonly as Rich Lyons[1] [2]) 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.[3] [4]
Lyons was born on February 10, 1961, in Palo Alto, California.
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.[5] He received a Doctor of Philosophy in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988 under the supervision of Rudiger Dornbusch.[6]
After his doctoral graduation from MIT, Lyons served as an assistant professor of business for six years at the Columbia Business School.
Lyons moved to the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business as a professor of economics and finance in 1993. In 1998, he received UC Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award. He also won the Haas School's Teacher of the Year (Cheit) award for six times.[7]
At Berkeley, Lyons also served as Acting Dean of the Haas School from 2004 to 2005. He left for a two years for Goldman Sachs in New York City to serve as the Chief Learning Officer.
In 2008, Lyons left Goldman Sachs to serve as the dean of the Haas School of Business, succeeding Tom Campbell.[8] In 2018, Lyons returned to teaching after serving 11 years as dean as the William and Janet Cronk Chair in Innovative Leadership.[9]
His teaching expertise is in international finance. Lyons’s early research focuses on currency markets, a focus reflected in his book “The Microstructure Approach to Exchange Rates” (MIT Press).[10]
Lyons'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).[11]
Lyons is fluent in French and is also an accomplished musician, owning several musical copyrights.
He and his wife, Jennifer, have two children.