Todd FitchAlso taught Business at:
UC BerkeleyTodd Fitch
M.S. in Applied Economics, Johns Hopkins University, 2021
M.S. in Jurisprudence, Seton Hall University Law School, 2019
Graduate Certificate in Intellectual Property Law, Seton Hall University Law School, 2016
MBA, University of California, Berkeley / Columbia University, 2005
B.S. in Computer Science, San Jose State University, 1988
Professor Todd Fitch was a Lecturer (Continuing Status) at the Haas School of Business at the University of University of California-Berkeley and a Lecturer at both Berkeley Law and Berkeley Economics. Professor Fitch served as the Faculty Director of the Haas Center for Teaching Excellence from 2013-2016 and has also taught courses at the University of San Francisco, California Maritime Academy, and Sichuan University in Chengdu, China.
Professor Fitch has over thirty years of industry experience as an engineer, executive, and entrepreneur, with a focus on development, systems, and operations engineering. He worked as a software engineer developing telecommunications systems at IBM and rose to the level of Principle Engineer at Centigram/Mitel. He worked as a Senior Engineering Manager at Omnicell, managing multiple teams responsible for automation systems and data warehouse products and performing due-diligence for possible acquisitions, and as a Group Engineering Manager at Intuit, where he led quality engineering teams in the personal finance and small business divisions. He held C-level positions at two Silicon Valley startups that were focused on big data and predictive analytics.
Professor Fitch is also the inventor or co-inventor on thirty-one patents, many of them in the area of finance. In addition to teaching Business courses at Campus, Professor Fitch also serves as the Program Director. In that role, he is responsible for the development of the AABA curriculum and for the development of the other faculty in Campus's Business program.
Outside of the classroom, Professor Fitch is not only an avid traveler who splits his time between Northern California and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but also a Karate Instructor and Referee, a USPA-rated Skydiving Coach, and an accomplished runner (he completed his first marathon just ahead of Campus's first quarter in January 2022).
I hadn't taken an economics course until my graduate studies in business. I had no idea what I had been missing all those years!
Economics is fun and economics is all around us. Why do supermarkets put all the fun candy in the checkout lanes? Why are airline tickets cheaper if you stay over a Saturday night? Should you get up and walk out of a movie if you think it's terrible after 20 minutes, even though you can't get your money back? Economics has answers to all of these questions and more importantly, the economic way of thinking is useful in real life.
That's a tough question, because I'm not sure. I started out in the tech world as a software engineer and then as a manager at various levels, generally running engineering groups. I changed over to teaching because I found it to be more rewarding and I was tired of the tech world. If I weren't teaching, I'd probably be on to my next career, which is likely either bartender or boat captain (I have friends who have a tour boat company that want me to captain for them).
A couple of them stand out. First was my class on artificial intelligence when I was working on my B.S. in Computer Science. This was a LONG time ago when the idea of computers doing things humans could do was very much in its infancy.
Second was more recent — it was a class on Industrial Organization (IO). Sounds boring, I know, but I learned a lot about how complex economics is when it comes to monopolies and near-monopolies and how difficult it can be to make sure that companies play by the rules.
I wasn't a particularly great student as an undergrad. I did OK with my grades, but I was nothing outstanding. If someone had told me that I'd go back to school to get multiple advanced degrees and that I'd end up a college professor, I would have laughed hysterically!
I've been a karate student and instructor for many years — I have black belts in Shotokan and Ryobukai karate and I teach Shotokan (not so much anymore because my dojo is far away). I'm also a karate referee and attend 3 — 4 tournaments per year.
I'm also a runner and have run in many 5K, 10K, and half-marathons, and just ran my first full marathon in January 2022 (actually, I ran a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and full marathon over four days in the RunDisney Dopey Challenge - a total of 48.6 miles).
My current favorite hobby is skydiving. As of this writing, I have done 488 skydives, have a C license (a D license is the highest one can earn, which requires a minimum of 500 skydives and demonstrating some advanced skills), and a Coach rating (which means that I can teach the more advanced skills to skydiving students). I am now working on my Instructor rating, which I hope to earn byJune, 2022. I regularly jump from 13,000 feet, but in March 2021, I did a 30,000 HALO jump — that was scary and fun!
Students ask great questions and I get asked great questions every day. Great questions make me think and help me learn new things or think about something in a new way. I'm constantly challenged by my students, and I very much enjoy that.
I firmly believe that education is the gateway to the things you want to do in life. An education gives you options. And education teaches you how to learn so that you can be flexible and move on to something else either because you want to or you have to. I feel very fortunate that early in my education, I learned how to learn and I want to pass that on to others.
I think that education should be more accessible to everyone and that colleges could do more to help students be successful in their studies. The current model that most colleges use is too hands-off in my opinion. College can be hard to navigate and just learning the various subjects can be hard enough. More can and should be done. I believe that the Campus model will ensure that more students are successful in their college careers and have the opportunities that they deserve.
Have questions? Talk to admissions.
Our admissions advisors are here to answer any questions and help you navigate the admissions process.
Get in touch with us