John Lynch (MBA ’79), New Hampshire’s Democratic governor, stepped away from the State House last February to teach a case about globalization at the University of New Hampshire. A UNH graduate who majored in English, Lynch confessed that his only formal college encounter with economics had been a pass/fail course in the subject (Portsmouth Herald, February 17, 2006).

Emphasizing that “the world is going global” and that “no businesses out there can just compete locally,” Lynch used a case study to help students think about how they might prepare a company to meet those realities. Economists estimate that, despite its modest size, Lynch’s Granite State exports more than $2 billion annually in goods and services.

Lynch, who was inaugurated in 2005, entered politics after resuscitating national furniture-maker Knoll, Inc., where he turned sizable losses into hefty profits and increased workers’ benefits and compensation at the same time. He also has a law degree from Georgetown and served for a time as director of Admissions at HBS in the 1980s.

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