[4] From his appointment as CEO in 1984, Haas was instrumental in redefining the company's business strategy: He created a flatter organization – including the reduction of the workforce by one third.
Walter Haas Jr. and his brother Peter insisted on running integrated factories in the American South, giving equal treatment to all races during the era of segregation.
[5] During his tenure as leader at Levi Strauss, Haas tried to create a corporate culture in which tens of thousands of employees around the world were treated fairly and well.
[9] In that same year the company published the first-ever corporate standards governing the treatment of employees in contractor factories around the world.
Each year, twenty Haas Scholars are selected from all disciplines and departments across the university on the basis of the merit and originality of their project proposals.
He is a trustee of the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, a San Francisco-based private family foundation established in 1953 with the goal to form a righteous and supportive society that offers basic rights and opportunities to all people.
[12] In addition, Haas is the former chairman of Stanford's Humanities and Sciences Council as well as the former president of the Levi Strauss Foundation.
[13] In 1998, President Bill Clinton honored Haas with the first annual Ron Brown Leadership Award in recognition of the company's anti-racism initiative called "Project Change".