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FALL/WINT ER 2020 WEBB M AGA ZINE
T HE WEBB SCHOOL S webb.org
news 22 & notes
THE WEBB SCHOOLS
a half minutes with Eugene Whitlock ’88 According to the Business Roundtable, a group of nearly 200 CEOs from the world’s biggest brands including Apple, Pepsi and CVS, shareholders are “no longer the chief concern of today’s companies.” The new mission statement of the group states that “employees are the focus of the modern corporation.”
Assistant vice chancellor-hr/chief people & culture officer, UC Berkeley
The same can be said of the world of higher education, where Eugene Whitlock ’88 has worked tirelessly to encourage institutions to focus as much on the people carrying out the mission as the mission itself by creating welcoming, equitable workplaces where people feel like they belong. Whitlock’s work in human resources, first as the vice chancellor and general counsel at the San Mateo County Community College District and now at UC Berkeley where he is assistant vice chancellor-HR/chief people & culture officer, has included a special focus on infusing equity and diversity into the hiring process to make sure the workforce reflects the community it serves. Whitlock attended Stanford University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in biological sciences, and then received his Juris Doctorate cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. Following graduation, he clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for Judge Alfred T. Goodwin and on the U.S. District Court in Miami for Chief Judge Edward B. Davis. He was admitted to the bar in California and New York. He has many years of experience living and working abroad. Along the way he studied a few languages and now speaks Spanish, French, and German fluently and a little bit of Dutch. His wife is from Argentina and their children are 5, 3, and 1. With a commitment to global society in mind Whitlock speaks to them in German and his wife speaks to them in Spanish.
