of Note
HBS Meets Budget Challenges
HBS began the new fiscal year a leaner organization as it adjusted to the impact of the global economic downturn. Starting in early winter 2008, the School cut expenses by deferring capital projects; trimming budgets for catering, operations, IT, and travel; and freezing salaries for faculty and nonunion staff. In June, 42 employees signed up for Harvard’s Voluntary Early Retire-ment Incentive Program. To further reduce payroll — the School’s largest single expenditure — 16 staff and 50 temp and contractor positions were eliminated. In total, expenses declined by $40 million (nearly 10 percent of the operating budget). The School also sought additional revenue sources, including new Executive Education programs. Notably, MBA and Doctoral student fellowships increased modestly. HBS starts FY10 with a balanced budget, prepared to take advantage of future opportunities.
Six Receive Dean’s Award
Established in 1997, the Dean’s Award recognizes graduating students for extraordinary nonacademic contributions to Harvard, HBS, or the broader community. This year’s recipients, honored at June’s Commencement ceremonies, were Andrew Goldin (enhancing the MBA learning experience); Garrett Smith (New Orleans rejuvenation); and the team of Rye Barcott, Alex Ellis, Neil Wagle, and Kate Wattson (creating Building Green Businesses, a second-year field study seminar).
Students Take Aim at Foreclosures
Last spring four HBS students traveled to Minneapolis to visit the nonprofit Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF), which counsels people who are facing foreclosure on their homes. Meeting with HPF officials, the students discussed the nonprofit’s strategy, organization, and goals with an eye to helping it carry out its mission more effectively. They saw their work as a first step toward building ways to engage other students in the cause. “It’s really a way to help people stay in their homes,” Damali Brown (HBS ’10), one of the leaders of this year’s effort, told the Harvard Crimson.
New Executive Education Programs
HBS Executive Education is offering a number of programs designed to address the challenging global economy and to keep executives at the cutting edge of business thinking. Taught by senior HBS faculty, recent additions to the program lineup cover a variety of topics, including real estate, energy, and the economy. Among the new offerings are Building Businesses in Turbulent Times, Opportunities in Mortgage Markets, the Global Energy Seminar, Business Strategy for Partners in Law Firms, and The Global Economic Crisis. For a list of more than sixty Executive Education programs, visit www.exed.hbs.edu. HBS alumni receive a 30 percent discount.
Jesse Markham Dies at 93
Jesse Markham, an economist who joined the HBS faculty in 1968, died in his sleep on June 21 in Nashua, New Hampshire. Markham, whose work focused on price theory and industrial organization, was a well-known proponent of the “rule of reason” to determine whether a merger should pass muster under federal antitrust laws. The author of 12 books and more than 150 articles, Markham arrived at HBS from Princeton University. “I came here because the theories on which public policy was being built in economics didn’t square with the realities of the marketplace,” he said in a 1993 interview at the School. “I wanted to work in an environment where my colleagues, students, and contacts were close to managerial decision-making.”
