View source for Bob Haas

{{about||the Canadian football player|Bob Haas (Canadian football)|the American football player|Bob Haas (American football)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2016}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Robert D. Haas
| image              =
| caption            =
| birth_date         = {{birth year and age|1942}}
| birth_place        = San Francisco, California, US
| birth_name         =
| death_date         =
| death_place        =
| alma mater         = [[University of California, Berkeley]]<br>[[Harvard Business School]]
| education          =
| occupation         = {{ubl|Businessman|Philanthropist}}
| known_for          = {{ubl|President and CEO,|[[Levi Strauss & Co.]]}}
| spouse             = Colleen Gershon
| parents            = {{ubl|[[Evelyn Danzig Haas]]|[[Walter A. Haas Jr.]]}}
| children           = 1
| family             = [[Walter J. Haas]] (brother)<br>[[Peter E. Haas Jr.]] (cousin)<br>[[Jerome Alan Danzig]] (uncle)<br> [[Sarah Palfrey]] (aunt)
| website            =
}}
'''Robert D. Haas''' (born 1942<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/F-L/Haas-Robert-1942.html |title = Robert Haas |accessdate = August 21, 2011 |author = Kirk H. Beetz |date =  |work = Reference for Business }}</ref>) is the chairman emeritus of [[Levi Strauss & Co.]], son of [[Walter A. Haas Jr.]], and the great-great-grandnephew of the company's founder, [[Levi Strauss]].
== Biography ==
Haas was born and raised in San Francisco,{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} the son of [[Evelyn Danzig Haas]] and [[Walter A. Haas Jr.]].<ref name=SFGateObituary>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Philanthropist-arts-patron-Evelyn-Haas-dies-3201555.php |website=San Francisco Gate |title=Philanthropist, arts patron Evelyn Haas dies |first=Michael |last=Cabanatuan |date=February 4, 2010}}</ref> Haas has two siblings:  Elizabeth Jane "Betsy" Haas Eisenhardt (married to [[Roy Eisenhardt]]); and [[Walter J. Haas]], co-chairman of the [[Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund]] and former chairman and CEO of the [[Oakland Athletics]].<ref name=SFGateObituary/>
Haas received a Bachelor of Arts from the [[University of California, Berkeley]] in 1964, where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from [[Harvard Graduate School of Business]] in 1968, where he was named a Baker Scholar.
Haas served in the [[Peace Corps]] in the Ivory Coast from 1964 to 1966. He was a [[White House Fellow]] from 1968 to 1969. After business school, Haas worked as an associate at [[McKinsey & Company]] from 1969 to 1972.
Haas joined [[Levi Strauss & Co.]] in 1973 and worked in a variety of roles.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=1990-09-01|title=Values Make the Company: An Interview with Robert Haas|work=Harvard Business Review|url=https://hbr.org/1990/09/values-make-the-company-an-interview-with-robert-haas|access-date=2021-02-25|issn=0017-8012}}</ref> He was elected to the board of directors in 1979 and as president and chief executive officer in 1984, until he stood down in 1999. He became chairman of the board in 1989 and retired from the board in 2014.
Sales and profitability grew during the period of Haas's leadership, thanks largely to the expansion of Levi's branded apparel internationally and the creation and rapid growth of the [[Dockers (brand)|Dockers]] brand of casual apparel. Under his leadership, Levi Strauss & Company carried on the company's engagement in corporate social responsibility: it became the first company to define and enforce workplace and [[safety standards]] for employees.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=|date=2015-06-28|title=Board of Directors|url=https://www.haasjr.org/about/board/robert-haas|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-25|website=Haas, Jr.|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201232829/http://www.haasjr.org:80/about/board/robert-haas |archive-date=February 1, 2016 }}</ref>
From his appointment as CEO in 1984, Haas was instrumental in redefining the company's business strategy: He created a flatter organization – including the reduction of the workforce by one third. He also invested heavily in new product development, marketing, and technology.<ref name=":0" />
In 1985, Haas returned the company to private ownership. At the time it was announced, the Levi's [[Leveraged buyout|LBO]] was the largest in U.S. business history.
During his tenure, Haas built upon the ethical traditions of Levi's. During the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] of the 1930s, Robert's grandfather, [[Walter A. Haas Sr.]], and great uncle, [[Daniel E. Koshland Sr.]], refused to lay off idled employees, risking bankruptcy. Instead they created work projects such as laying wooden floors in the company's factory in San Francisco. [[Walter A. Haas Jr.|Walter Haas Jr.]] and his brother Peter insisted on running integrated factories in the American South, giving equal treatment to all races during the era of [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=|title=Interactive Timeline|url=https://www.haasjr.org/about/timeline|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-25|website=Haas Jr.|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160530183420/http://www.haasjr.org:80/about/timeline |archive-date=May 30, 2016 }}</ref> During his tenure as leader at Levi Strauss,  Haas tried to create a corporate culture in which tens of thousands of employees around the world were treated fairly and well. In addition, the company led the way in addressing a range of social and business issues. In 1982, the company became the first prominent business to become involved in addressing the problems of HIV/AIDS, at the time a largely unknown disease. Under his leadership the company pioneered corporate standards for dealing with HIV-positive employees and created employee AIDS awareness programs.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-04-15|title=Here's Why Levi Strauss and Co. May Just Be the Best Place in America to Work if You're HIV-Positive|url=http://www.hivplusmag.com/features/2015/04/15/here%E2%80%99s-why-levi-strauss-and-co-may-just-be-best-place-america-work-if-you%E2%80%99re-hiv|access-date=2021-03-11|website=www.hivplusmag.com|language=en}}</ref> Since the early 1980s the Levi Strauss Foundation has donated over {{US$|60{{nbsp}}million|link=yes}} to AIDS-oriented non-profits. In 1991 Haas was the first person to be awarded the [[Edward Brandt Jr.|Edward N. Brandt Jr.]] Award from the National Leadership Coalition on [[HIV/AIDS|AIDS]] for his significant efforts in the fight against [[HIV]] and AIDS in the workplace.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=State of the Center|url=https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/bioethics/documents/newsletter/SCBENewsletterAut2010.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-01|website=Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151204075906/http://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/bioethics/documents/newsletter/SCBENewsletterAut2010.pdf |archive-date=December 4, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=1992-12-06|title=City Doctor Helped Pioneer Nation's AIDS Response|url=https://oklahoman.com/article/2414573/city-doctor-helped-pioneer-nations-aids-response/|access-date=2021-04-22|website=Oklahoman.com|language=en-US}}</ref>
In 1992, Levi Strauss became the first [[Fortune 500]] company to extend health-care benefits to the unmarried partners of its employees, starting the acceptance of this practice by other leading companies.<ref name=":1" /> In that same year the company published the first-ever corporate standards governing the treatment of employees in contractor factories around the world. Since then, these guidelines have been largely adopted by the apparel and footwear industries.
==Philanthropy==
Active in support of his alma mater, he endowed the Haas Scholars Program<ref name=":2" /> at Berkeley, which funds financial aid eligible, academically talented undergraduates to engage in a sustained research, field-study or creative project in the summer before and during their senior year at Berkeley. Each year, twenty Haas Scholars are selected from all disciplines and departments across the university on the basis of the merit and originality of their project proposals.  He was a member of Berkeley's Board of Visitors, national giving chair for the Campaign for Berkeley, a board member of the Haas School, and, in 2007, the recipient of the Chancellor's Award.  In 2008, Berkeley established the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion in his honor.  He is a trustee of the [[Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund]], a San Francisco-based private family foundation established in 1953 with the goal to form a righteous and supportive society that offers basic rights and opportunities to all people.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-06-18|title=Levi Strauss & Co.'s Bob Haas Honored by SF Pride|url=https://www.levistrauss.com/2019/06/18/levi-strauss-co-s-bob-haas-honored-by-sf-pride/|access-date=2021-04-22|website=Levi Strauss & Co|language=en-US}}</ref> Haas joined the fund's board of directors in 1992 and is chair of the audit committee.<ref name=":3" /> He is a former member of the [[Trilateral Commission]], trustee of the [[Ford Foundation]], member of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]], and honorary trustee of the [[Brookings Institution]], the California Business Roundtable and the [[Bay Area Council]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Robert D. Haas|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/robert-d-haas|access-date=2021-04-26|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|language=en}}</ref> In addition, Haas is the former chairman of Stanford's Humanities and Sciences Council as well as the former president of the Levi Strauss Foundation. He is also a donor and supporter of Immigrants Rising.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bob Haas|url=https://immigrantsrising.org/story/bob-haas/|access-date=2021-04-26|website=IMMIGRANTS RISING|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Accolades==
In 1998, President [[Bill Clinton]] honored Haas with the first annual [[Ron Brown]] Leadership Award in recognition of the company's [[anti-racism]] initiative called "Project Change".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=|title=Board of Directors|url=https://www.haasjr.org/about/board/robert-haas|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-11|website=HAAS JR.|date=June 28, 2015 |language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201232829/http://www.haasjr.org:80/about/board/robert-haas |archive-date=February 1, 2016 }}</ref><ref name=":4" />
In 2009, Haas was selected as the ''Alumnus of the Year'' of the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Haas Scholars|url=https://hsp.berkeley.edu/|access-date=2021-03-27|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Personal life==
In 1974, he married attorney Colleen Gershon; they have a daughter, Elise.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|first=|last=|authorlink=|title=About Robert and Colleen Haas|publisher=[[University of California Berkeley]] Haas Scholars Fellowship Program|date=|url=https://hsp.berkeley.edu/about-robert-and-colleen-haas|quote=The following year, he married Colleen Gershon, a graduate of Stanford School of Law and a criminal defense attorney with the civil rights firm of Garry, Dreyfus, McTernan, & Brotsky|accessdate=July 29, 2019|archive-date=June 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627144605/http://hsp.berkeley.edu/about-robert-and-colleen-haas|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Haas School of Business]] at [[University of California, Berkeley]]
* [[League of Women Voters]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
*{{cite web|url=http://www.levistrauss.com/about/bios/ |title=Levi Strauss biography |accessdate=June 21, 2005 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060113113152/http://www.levistrauss.com/about/bios/ |archivedate=January 13, 2006 |df=mdy }}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.haas.berkeley.edu/responsiblebusiness/people_founding_board_bob_haas.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060913075953/https://www.haas.berkeley.edu/responsiblebusiness/people_founding_board_bob_haas.htm |title=Center for Responsible Business: People at The Center |archivedate=September 13, 2006 |accessdate=June 20, 2019 |url-status=dead }}
* [//americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/dialogue/5t5.htm Sweatshops dialogue]
* [//hsp.berkeley.edu/ UC Berkeley]
{{Portalbar|Biography|Business and economics|Fashion|San Francisco Bay Area}}
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[[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:1942 births]]
[[Category:American chairpersons of corporations]]
[[Category:American people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Haas family]]
[[Category:Harvard Business School alumni]]
[[Category:American philanthropists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:McKinsey & Company people]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]
[[Category:Levi Strauss & Co. people]]
[[Category:Newmark family]]