Wyss Gift Supports HBS Doctoral Programs

Wyss: HBS doctoral programs have a tremendous influence. Photo by Asia Kepka

HBS has received a $25 million gift to support doctoral programs from Hansjoerg Wyss (MBA ’65), an entrepreneur who built Synthes, Inc., into a leading international medical-device company specializing in orthopedic instruments and implants.

“One of the greatest challenges facing business schools today is a growing shortage of outstanding faculty,” said Dean Kim B. Clark. “This generous gift will enhance the experience of current students and allow us to strengthen the School’s doctoral programs in the future. It ensures that we will continue to produce world-class scholars and teachers who will go on to join the faculties of this and other universities around the globe.”

The gift is the largest ever given to a doctoral program at a business school. It will be used to establish the Hansjoerg Wyss Endowment for Doctoral Education, which will support a broad range of efforts to strengthen HBS doctoral programs. Among the activities that may be funded by the endowment are fellowships and stipends for doctoral students; increased support for students’ field research; new doctoral course development; teaching-skills training; and the renovation of doctoral facilities on campus. Sherman Hall, the campus home to the doctoral programs, will be rededicated as Wyss House, and doctoral candidates receiving support will be known as Wyss Fellows.

“The doctoral programs at Harvard Business School have a tremendous influence, not only through the candidates educated here, but through the thousands of students they eventually teach and the millions more who benefit from the research and new ideas they generate,” Wyss said. “I am proud to support this effort.”

Currently chairman and CEO of Synthes, Inc., Wyss has had a distinguished career as a pioneer in the medical field, bringing revolutionary orthopedic devices to market and changing the surgical approach to healing broken bones. After graduating from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1959, he worked for Chrysler Corporation, helping set up manufacturing plants around the world. He then enrolled at HBS, graduating with distinction in 1965. Following nine years working for large multinational corporations, Wyss struck out on his own as an entrepreneur and established Synthes USA. He has taken on leadership roles in both this country and Switzerland and grown Synthes into a major global corporation focused on the development, production, and distribution of orthopedic instruments and implants.

Involved in a number of HBS initiatives in the past, Wyss has facilitated the development of environmental management cases for the MBA Program and supported the School’s social enterprise efforts with the establishment of the Hansjoerg Wyss Visiting Scholars Fund in 2003.