Peter Haas
Peter Haas (1918 – 2005) was the chairman and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., succeeding his father Walter A. Haas. The company was founded by his great-granduncle in 1850. Haas was the patriarch of the San Francisco family that controls Levi Strauss and spent the bulk of his 60-year career building the company, with his brother Walter Haas Jr., into the world's largest brand-name garment manufacturer. Peter Haas was reluctant to join the family business. As a teen, he had watched the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge from his bedroom window and developed an interest in engineering. With the start of World War II, he tried to join the Air Force, but was thwarted by his poor eyesight. He graduated from the University of California in 1940 and later enrolled at Harvard Business School. In 1943, he graduated as a Baker Scholar, one of the school's top honors, and took a job as a riveter for an aircraft defense contractor. The experience gave Haas an understanding of the conditions of blue