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Gregory La Blanc - Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES

Gregory La Blanc

Lecturer| Distinguished Teaching Fellow | Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES

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Areas of Expertise (9)

Data Analytics

Blockchain

Complex Adaptive Systems

Behavioral Law and Economics

Alternative Investment Strategies

Data and Analytics Strategy

Business Model Innovation

Evolutionary Decision Theory

Behavioral Corporate Finance

About

At Berkeley Haas, Greg La Blanc teaches primarily in the areas of finance and strategy in the MBA and Masters of Financial Engineering programs and in Executive Education. La Blanc has also worked in competitive intelligence and litigation consulting and has advised consulting teams in finance, marketing, and strategy. His research interests lie at the intersection of law, finance, and psychology, in the area of business strategy and risk management. La Blanc is the recipient of teaching awards including the Earl F. Cheit Award for Outstanding Teaching and the Berkeley EWMBA Graduate Instructor of the year.

La Blanc received a BA (History, Politics, Philosophy, and Economics) and a BS Economics (Business Administration) from the University of Pennsylvania, where he continued his education as a University Scholar and graduate fellow, studying in the schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, and Law. He later pursued a JD at the George Mason University and an LLM at UC Berkeley Law School. La Blanc has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in all areas of business. Prior to arriving at Berkeley Haas in 2005, La Blanc taught at Wharton, Duke, and the University of Virginia.

Education (5)

Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Berkeley: LLM Program

George Mason University: JD

University of Pennsylvania: ABD, Financial History

Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: BS, Political Science

University of Pennsylvania: BA, History/Economics/Philosophy

Honors & Awards (7)

UC Berkeley Presidential Teaching Fellow

2009

Earl F. Cheit Award for Outstanding Teaching

2009

Haas EWMBA Core Graduate Instructor of the year

2004 – 2005

John Olin Fellow

Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley 2004 – 2005

Robert Levy Fellow in Law and Economics

George Mason University School of Law 1996 – 1999

Mellon Fellow

University of Pennsylvania

University Scholar

University of Pennsylvania

Selected External Service & Affiliations (1)

  • Faculty Director at Berkeley Fintech Institute

Positions Held (1)

At Haas since 2005

2005 – present, Lecturer, Haas School of Business and Berkeley Law 1999 – 2005, Instructor, Department of Economics, University of Virginia 1995 – 1999, Lecturer, Department of Economics, Duke University 1994, Lecturer, Departments of Finance and Management, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Media Appearances (10)

Data Analytics Gains Prominence in MBA Programs

Find MBA  online

2022-04-11

It has become increasingly clear over the last decade that MBAs need an understanding of data on the business side. “MBAs that understand data well enough to design and implement data strategy but also to communicate and manage the technical side have a profound advantage in the job market,” said Lecturer and Distinguished Teaching Fellow Gregory La Blanc.

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How recent technology developments and transformations in AI in the education industry have been affecting UC Berkeley

CIO Applications  online

2021-07-14

The future of education lies in technology that will help deliver better outcomes for students, the author writes. Gregory La Blanc, Distinguished Teaching Fellow of Economic Analysis and Policy at Haas, said there is "a huge opportunity in education for anyone who can gather the appropriate AI-enhanced training data and run the right experiments."

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Education: at university, can technology replace the teacher?

Challenges  online

2020-07-08

What will the university be used for? Can we do without teachers? The future of education is debated between Marie-Christine Levet (Educapital) and Gregory La Blanc (Berkley Haas), guests of the Live Event organized by Challenges and the Franco-American Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco.

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Facebook has a lot of questions to answer about Libra, its new cryptocurrency

Business Insider  online

2019-06-19

Facebook has a lot of issues that could make or break Libra, or even doom it before it gets off the ground. Many of them have to do with how the cryptocurrency will fit into the financial regulatory system. "Finance is the most regulated industry on the planet," said Gregory La Blanc, a teaching fellow at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Citing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's famous mantra, he continued: "You can't move fast and break things in this space."

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Data science in MBA programs: Rosy job prospects

Find MBA  online

2018-08-06

At Berkeley Haas, lecturer Gregory La Blanc says he does not expect most MBAs to become true data scientists. “But we do expect them to know enough to be able to build and manage teams of data scientists, to design business strategies around data, and design organizations that make all of their decisions using data and experimentation,” he said.

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For financial peace of mind, look no further than your iPhone

OZY  online

2018-07-26

Fintech is becoming a part of life, aided by synergy with banks. “While fintech startups are more agile and less encumbered by legacy technology, [big banks] have enormous amounts of data and can use that data to make better decisions,” Lecturer Gregory La Blanc said.

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7 Ways MBA Programs Work to Make Investment Pay Off

US News  online

2018-03-28

Gregory La Blanc, a lecturer at Haas, has launched three in the last four years, in data science; the future of the workplace; and blockchain, the secure, decentralized ledger of online transactions that is behind bitcoin and that many experts say will transform a host of industries. "The outside world is moving very, very quickly," he says. "If students feel like the stuff they're learning isn't relevant or is outdated, they'll be frustrated...

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Millennials Ride the Bitcoin Rollercoaster: ‘I Just Did It Kind of Blindly’

SF Gate  online

2018-02-15

That energy from Millennial and Gen Z investors is to be expected, according to Gregory La Blanc, professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley...

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The 5 Best US Business Schools For Blockchain Courses

Business Because  

2018-02-14

After last year's drastic surge, the value of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other similar assets has proven to be volatile in early 2018. Both because, and in spite of this, the emerging cryptocurrency market remains a controversial and exciting topic. For the uninitiated, blockchain—cryptocurrency's underlying distributed ledger architecture—may still be regarded as esoteric, but it's certainly acquired a strong foothold within leading MBA curricula. Here are the five best US business schools for blockchain courses...

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Cryptocurrencies Come to Campus

The New York Times  online

2018-02-08

Because developments in the field are moving so fast, the business school professor also teaching the class, Greg La Blanc, said the students would have to forgive the teachers if they got things wrong on occasion. “We aren’t waiting until we perfect it,” he said. “Don’t compare it to the perfect blockchain course. Compare it to having no blockchain course at all.”

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Selected Papers & Publications (1)

In Praise of Irrational Investors


In The Law and Economics of Irrational Behavior, edited by Vernon Smith

Jeffrey Rachlinski

2005


Teaching (12)

Data science and data strategy

MBA 236

Data and decisions

MBA 200s

Analytics of workplace, workforce, and wellness

MBA 296

Strategic leadership

MBA 299

Microeconomics for decision making

MBA 201

Financial Institutions and Markets

MBA 232

Behavioral Finance

MBA 237

Introduction to Finance

UGBA 103

Corporate Financial Management

EWMBA 231

Competitive Strategy

EWMBA 299E

Financial Strategy

UGBA 137

Corporations I

LAW 250A

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