Howard H. Stevenson

Photo of Howard H. Stevenson

Howard Stevenson is Sarofim-Rock Baker Foundation Professor, Senior Associate Dean, Director of Publishing, and Chair of the Harvard Business Publishing Company board. The Sarofim-Rock Chair was established in 1982 to provide a continuing base for research and teaching in the field of entrepreneurship. Professor Stevenson is its first incumbent. He served as the Vice Provost for Harvard University Resources and Planning and as Senior Associate Provost from 2005-2007. As Senior Associate Dean and Directorof External Relations at Harvard Business School from 2001-2005, he led the successful capital campaign. From 1999-2001, he served as Chair of the Latin American Faculty Advisory Group. He also served as Senior Associate Dean and Director of Financial and Information Systems for Harvard Business School from 1991-1994. He has been chairperson of the Owner/President Management Program in Executive Education and of the Publications Review Board for the Harvard Business School Press of Harvard Business Publishing Company.

Howard was a founder and first president of the Baupost Group, Inc. which manages partnerships investing in liquid securities for wealthy families. When he resigned from active management, Baupost assets had grown to over $400 million. He is now co-chairman of the Advisory Board of Baupost LLC, a $21 billion registered investmentcompany. From 1978-1982, Professor Stevenson was Vice President of Finance and Administration and a Director of Preco Corporation, a large privately-held manufacturing company. In addition, in 1970-71, he served as Vice President of Simmons Associates, a small investment banking firm specializing in venture financing.

Prior to 1978, he held various academic appointments at Harvard University, specializing in Real Property Asset Management and General Management. He received his B.S. in mathematics, with distinction, from Stanford and his M.B.A., with high distinction, and D.B.A. degrees from Harvard University. He was a recipient of the ALCOA and Ford Foundation Fellowships for graduate study. He was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in 2007 by the Universite deMontreal.

He has authored, edited or co-authored eleven books and forty-two articles. Other scholarly papers of his have appeared in Sloan Management Review, Real Estate Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Business Strategy, Strategic Management Journal and elsewhere. He has also authored, co-authored or supervised over one-hundred fifty cases at Harvard Business School.

He is currently a director of Camp Dresser & McKee Inc. as well as a trustee for several private trusts and foundations. He is on the board of National Public Radio (NPR) and served as chairman of the NPR Board of Directors from 2008-2010. He is a trustee of Mount Auburn Hospital; a life trustee of the Boston Ballet; a trustee emeritus of the Nature Conservancy; and has been a director of Sudbury Valley Trustees where he served as president from 1996-2000. He is a member of the governing board of INSPER School of Business in SaoPaulo, Brazil and the Advisory Board of the J.J.Strossmayer University in Osijek, Croatia.