The top administrator at the Haas School of Business will leave his position next week, making room for one of his colleagues to take over leadership at the business school.

Tom Campbell, Haas' 13th dean who began his term in 2002, will be stepping down from his position after his term ends July 1.

According to an e-mail that Campbell sent to the Haas community last week, his potential replacement is Richard Lyons, executive associate dean at Haas and the school's S.K. and Angela Chan chair in global management. A search committee appointed Lyons as the candidate for dean, and he will assume the deanship if approved by the UC Board of Regents.

Lyons served as acting dean in 2005 when Campbell took leave to be California's finance director. Before he began his tenure at Haas in 1993, Lyons received his bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley, and a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Although Campbell was not part of the search committee for the new dean and thus did not take part in the decision making process behind Lyons' appointment, he said he thought Lyons would make a wonderful dean.

"He did an outstanding job (as acting dean)," Campbell said. "I know he will be a truly extraordinary leader for our school in the future."

During Campbell's term as dean, he proposed the tuition increase that will raise the professional school's fees from $26,881 to $40,882 by the 2010-11 school year. The fees have since been passed by the UC Board of Regents.

­Campbell said he intends to join the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP as a senior advisor. While Campbell said he will be the firm's "of counsel," an unpaid position, he will stay on the UC Berkeley faculty and continue teaching business ethics courses.

Campbell said he plans to take a two-year leave of absence beginning January 2009, during which time he will be a visiting professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.

Campbell received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Chicago in 1973. He earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1976 and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1980.

Prior to coming to Haas in 2002, Campbell taught at Stanford University Law School beginning in 1983, during which time he was also a member of the U.S. Congress from 1989-93, and a California state senator from 1993-95. Campbell rejoined the U.S. Congress in 1995 and served until 2001.

In 2001, Stanford gave Campbell the option of staying on as a professor or continuing his political career. Campbell ran for U.S. Senate in 2002, but lost, and joined the UC Berkeley faculty later that year.

In response to rumors that Campbell intends to rekindle a political career after leaving UC Berkeley, Campbell laughed and said that he wants to keep politics separate from his academic life.

"I'm trying to say nothing about politics until I'm no longer dean," he said.

Tags: RICHARD LYONS, HAAS BUSINESS SCHOOL, TONY CAMBELL