Executive Briefings Graduate School of Management

The Graduate School of Management Dean's Distinguished Speaker is Harold Schmitz, chief science officer of Mars Inc. who speaks about his company's enterprise.

Anne Simpson is the senior portfolio manager, investments, and director of corporate governance at CalPERS, the largest public pension system in the United States with approximately $224 billion under management. The corporate governance program includes CalPERS Focus List of shareholder engagement with companies, global proxy voting, legal and regulatory reform agenda and CalPERS actively managed corporate governance investment strategy. Simpson talks about her work to integrate environmental, social, and governance across the total fund.

Rick Ridgeway, vice president of Environment Initiatives, speaks at Gallagher Hall about Patagonia; the company's Common Threads initiative; and building the best product without causing harm.

UC Davis Graduate School of Management Dean Steven C. Currall leads a candid conversation with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and StudentsFirst Founder/CEO Michelle Rhee about their experiences leading organizational change in city government and the public schools. Nearly 300 attended this Dean's Distinguished Speaker event, Feb. 24, in Sacramento.

Varian speaks about "Predicting the Present with Search Engine Data." Varian started at Google in 2002 and has been involved in many aspects of the company, including auction design, econometric analysis, finance, corporate strategy and public policy.

Steven C. Currall, dean of the UC Davis School of Management, moderates a panel of thought leaders on the commercialization of clean technology at the Governors' Global Climate Summit 3 at UC Davis.