Please join us in celebrating the Centennial Anniversary of HBS on Thursday, September 18th at 6:30 p.m. at the Chicago History Museum.  Dean Jay Light will be the keynote speaker sharing his thoughts on “Leading in Business and Beyond: Launching a Second Century at HBS”.  In addition to comments from Dean Light, the evening will include cocktails and class networking, a buffet dinner party and gala celebration. 

The event is open to all HBS alumni and their guests.  Please register to attend on-line or at 847-256-4846. 

Event details:
Location: Chicago History Museum at 1601 North Clark Street, Chicago IL 60614
Date: Thursday, September 18, 2008
Time: 6:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Price: $50 for all HBS alumni and their guests

Dean Jay Light, George F. Baker, Professor of Administration and Dean of the Faculty

Jay Light is a graduate of Cornell University (Engineering Physics, 1963) and Harvard University (the join FAS-Business School doctoral program in Decision & Control Theory, 1970.)  He worked in systems analysis at satellite guidance at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and in management consulting before joining the HBS faculty in 1970.  On a leave of absence from Harvard during 1977-199, he was the Director of Investment and Financial Policies for the Ford Foundation. 

Light has been Chairman of the Finance area (1968-1988), Senior Associate Dean and Director of Faculty Planning (1988-1994) and Senior Associate Dean and Director of Planning and Development (1998-2005) at HBS.  In this latter role, he led the School’s strategic planning efforts and helped shaped new educational and research program initiatives. 

Light was Interim Dean of Harvard Business School from August 2005 through August 2006, when he was named Dean.  In that role, he has overseen the close of Harvard Business School’s successful $600 million capital campaign, supported new faculty initiatives in health care and science-based businesses, and completed the renovation and restoration of Bake Library, the world’s preeminent collection of business books and archival materials.  He also has led innovations in the School’s core educational programs, including a team-based learning initiative in the MBA program and the launch of a new modular leadership development program in executive education.  He has played an active role in the University’s planning for Allston. 

Light has taught thousands of students in the School’s MBA and Doctoral programs, and in various executive programs for CFOs and investment managers.  In the MBA program, he has taught Investment Management, Capital markets, Entrepreneurial Finance, and Negotiating Ventures; his most recent assignment was the required first-year course in Finance where he developed several integrative valuation and negotiation classes used with all of the program’s 900 students. 

Light is the co-author (with W.L. White) of The Financial System (1979) as well as numerous articles and more than 50 cases and notes.  His research and course development interested include asset management, risk management for global investment management, negotiation and deal structuring, and corporate finance.  He has explored strategic business decisions in the money management industry and problems that arise in the management of very large pools of tax exempt money, particularly pension funds and endowments.  He has also examined how negotiation analysis and related techniques can be used in structuring financial transactions in the context of entrepreneurial situations, and to enhance value in private equity investments. 

Light is a director of the Harvard Management Company, a director of Partners HealthCare (the Mass General and Brigham & Women’s Hospitals), and chairman of its Investment Committee, a member of the Investment Committee of several endowments, a director of several private firms, and an advisor/trustee to several corporate and institutional pools of capital. 

Light, originally from Ohio, lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, with his wife, Judy; they are the parents of two children.