Why Kind Leaders Win: How Kindness Shapes Workplace Success

October 9, 2025

Do kind leaders finish last—or does kindness actually pay off?

On December 1, 2025, the Greater Good Science Center and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at Haas will host Why Kind Leaders Win, an inspiring on-stage conversation at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater (and online via livestream).

This on-stage conversation will feature UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons alongside leaders and scientists who are rethinking what leadership looks like in the modern workplace. They’ll tackle big questions:

 
• How does prosocial leadership influence company performance and profitability?
 
• What’s the difference between being “nice” and being truly “kind”?
 
• How do leaders balance kindness with accountability?
 
• How can leaders use their power for the greater good?

Drawing on research from Mei Feng and Weili Ge on 3,500 CEOs, the panel will uncover how leaders who prioritize kindness achieve greater profitability for their companies—while also fostering trust, resilience, and belonging in their organizations.

Please read on for more details around our speakers and visit our events page to register for the event.

Speakers

Rich Lyons

Rich Lyons is the 12th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, beginning his tenure as the first undergraduate alum to serve as Chancellor in July 2024. Prior to serving as Chancellor, he was the Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship from 2020-2024, leading the development and expansion of innovation and entrepreneurship campuswide. Lyons also served as the Dean of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business from 2008-2018.

Lyons received his BS degree from UC Berkeley in 1982 and returned to campus in 1993 as a faculty member at the Haas School of Business after receiving his PhD in Economics from MIT and following six years on the faculty at Columbia University. In 1998, he was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award, Berkeley’s highest teaching award.

Asked at a meeting among colleagues what his “six-word memoir is,” Lyons responded with “long-term love affair with ideas, learning.” As an alum and contributor since shortly after leaving Berkeley in the 1980s, he delights in mixing it up with alumni and working together to steward this remarkable university, truly one of society’s most important, and distinctive, assets.

Yamini Rangan

Yamini Rangan is chief executive officer at HubSpot. Prior to becoming CEO, Yamini served as HubSpot’s first-ever chief customer officer, overseeing the marketing, sales, and service teams.

A tech industry veteran, Yamini has more than 25 years of experience ranging from product marketing, sales, and strategy. Yamini previously served as chief customer officer at Dropbox, where she was responsible for embedding customer focus across the organization. Before Dropbox, she was VP of sales strategy and operations at Workday, where she helped quadruple revenue and scaled the sales organization. At SAP, Yamini held several customer-facing leadership roles in strategy, pre-sales and value-based selling and helped close landmark deals.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering, a master’s in computer engineering, and an MBA. Yamini was recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in Business by San Francisco Business Times in 2019 and was recognized as the Best CEO for Women by Comparably in 2022. Yamini currently serves on the board of Haas School of Business, Berkeley and was previously on the board of Splunk.

Denis Ring

After graduating from Santa Clara University in 1978, Denis entered the California province of the Jesuits. For the next 7 years he studied to become a Jesuit priest, with assignments that included working with the homeless and undocumented in LA, an orphanage in Mexico, and teaching at both Loyola High School and Loyola Marymount University. After 7 years he decided to leave the Order. In 1996, Denis approached John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, with a proposal to create a competitively priced private label program. Six months later, the Whole Foods 365 brand was launched.  Denis created and managed product development, vendor selection, graphics, logistics, and media for the next 6 years. In 2002 Whole Foods purchased his ownership in the brand. In 2004 he launched the Central Market Organic brand at HEB.  His company also introduced products for Woolworths in South Africa, Woolworths in Australia, Target, Costco, and several other retailers. In 2005 Denis was retained by Safeway to manage the creation and initial platform for O Organics. 

In 2012, Denis launched the OCHO Candy brand.  OCHO was a candy bar product line that was based in West Oakland, California and became one of the fastest growing confection brands in the US. In 2020, OCHO accepted an offer from a privately held company in Trinidad and Tobago to invest in the brand. OCHO moved manufacturing from West Oakland to Trinidad. Covid affected several smaller confection companies, including OCHO, and in early 2024, OCHO’s partners reached a point where, as a result of financial pressures, the brand was discontinued. 

A graduate of Santa Clara University and the Yale School of Management, Denis serves on the boards of Jesuit Volunteer Corps, the Center for Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and on the Jesuit School of Theology Berkeley.  Denis lives in Berkeley with his wife Sheila.

Weili Ge

Mei Feng, Ph.D., is a Professor of Business Administration at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and the College of Business Administration at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Feng’s research focuses on critical aspects of financial reporting and corporate governance, including management and analyst forecasts, accounting misstatements, and internal control over financial reporting.

Dr. Feng holds a PhD from the University of Michigan and a Master’s degree from Renmin University. Dr. Feng’s academic contributions have been widely recognized, with her most recent publication, “Prosocial CEOs, Corporate Policies, and Firm Value” (co-authored with Weili Ge, Zhejia Ling, and Wei Ting Loh), featured in the Review of Accounting Studies in March 2023.

KeyAnna Schmiedl

KeyAnna Schmiedl is Workhuman Chief Human Experience Officer, responsible for guiding all of the organization’s human experience strategy, including talent, total rewards, learning and development, culture and employee experience, organizational design, corporate social responsibility, and DEI initiatives. Previously, KeyAnna was the VP of Social and Environmental Impact (SEI) at Mozilla, the global head of Culture & Inclusion at Wayfair, and worked with top organizations such as Harvard University, Santander Bank, and IBISConsulting.

KeyAnna has received the industry’s esteemed Diversity Leader Award granted by the Diversity Journal® due to her stand-out work in creating an open, equitable, and inclusive workplace culture. KeyAnna was also featured on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 listOpens in a new tab and was named a DEI TrailblazerOpens in a new tab by Business Insider in 2021.

Her superpowers include navigating complex structures to grow relationships and opportunities, connecting key stakeholders, assessing organizational readiness to allow for dialogue on DEI and people process topics at appropriate levels for all constituencies, and challenging/equipping leaders to move from careful to thoughtful conversations.

KeyAnna holds an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Organizational Learning & Development from Suffolk University, an MBA in Human Resource Management, and a Bachelor of Science in Human Services from Fitchburg State University. KeyAnna resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, two boys, and a growing menagerie of pets.

Emiliana Simon-Thomas

Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Ph.D., is the science director of the Greater Good Science Center, where she oversees its fellowship program, Expanding Gratitude project, and is a co-instructor of the GGSC’s “Science of Happiness” online course.

Emiliana earned her doctorate in Cognition Brain and Behavior at UC Berkeley. Her dissertation used behavioral and neuroscience methods to examine how negative states like fear and aversion influence thinking and decision-making. During her postdoc, Emiliana transitioned to studying pro-social states like love of humanity, compassion, and awe. From there, she served as Associate Director/Senior Scientist at CCARE (the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education) at Stanford University, focusing on how compassion benefits health, well-being, and psychosocial functioning.

Today, Emiliana’s work spotlights the science that connects health and happiness to social affiliation, caregiving, and collaborative relationships, as she continues to examine the potential for—as well as the benefits of—living a more meaningful life.

Kia Afcari

Kia Afcari is the Director of Greater Good Workplaces at GGSC. He has over 20 years of experience helping leaders, teams, and organizations with collaborative change and has served as a consultant to a wide variety of organizations, including tech, biotech, and fintech companies, healthcare organizations, universities, NGOs, UN agencies, and nonprofits. Kia grounds his work in the science of prosociality and uses creative methods like “instant dance parties” and Boal-informed theater techniques to achieve results.  He is a certified executive coach, an Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator, Zenger Folkman 360 Extraordinary Leader Facilitator, and Core Strengths Facilitator.

Kia’s TEDx talk on How We Can Reshape Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Together has over 77,000 views, and for his work supporting major culture change efforts at scale, Kia was awarded the Chief Learning Officer Magazine’s Silver Award for Innovation for his accomplishments in helping to shift the organizational culture of UC Berkeley’s 8,000 staff.