Winston to Lead the Global Initiative
As the new executive director of the HBS Global Initiative, Victoria Winston will be a central figure in the School’s efforts to chart the future for its global activities.
Last winter, Dean Jay Light convened a faculty task force, led by Senior Associate Dean for International Development Krishna Palepu, charged with defining the School’s strategy for global engagement. “We are really asking ourselves what HBS should be doing twenty years from now,” says Winston. “Then, once we understand our long-term objectives, what should we do over the next one, five, and ten years to achieve them?”
The first overseas research center was launched in the Asia-Pacific (Hong Kong) in 1999, with additional centers opening in relatively quick succession in Latin America (Buenos Aires), Europe (Paris), Japan (Tokyo), and, most recently, India (Mumbai). During that period more than 250 research projects have been completed, involving a broad range of faculty members. “Feedback from the faculty has been very positive,” Winston notes. “The centers have enabled projects and connections that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible. Now we’re working to take that effort to the next level.”
A Wharton graduate, Winston has held senior marketing and strategy positions at a number of high-tech firms and more recently worked as a research associate for HBS professor Myra Hart, who retired in June. Winston grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, where her father was a development economist. “An international outlook was always central to my upbringing,” she remarks. “I can’t think of a more exciting time to be involved in the HBS global agenda.”
