Four HBS professors whose international research efforts range from biotechnology in Taiwan to foreign investments in Costa Rica have been named the first Novartis Faculty Fellows. The two-year fellowships, funded by a $2 million gift from the worldwide pharmaceutical firm Novartis AG, will support the groundbreaking overseas research of faculty members Srikant Datar, V. Kasturi Rangan, Debora L.Spar, and Jonathan West.

Commenting on the new fellowship, Dean Kim B. Clark noted, "The Novartis Faculty Fellows program complements our vision for the Global Initiative, which is intended, in part, to strengthen our global research capabilities. We are grateful to Novartis for supporting this significant goal."

The gift, which funds a four-year program that will include additional fellows, stems from a decade-long relationship between Novartis and HBS. Daniel L. Vasella (57th PMD), the company¹s president and executive committee head, attended HBS in 1989, when he was working for Sandoz, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical firm. Sandoz merged with another Swiss company, Ciba-Geigy, to become Novartis in 1996. In his new leadership role at Novartis, Vasella faced the challenge of transforming the two disparate companies into one global leader.

As part of this effort, Vasella began sending almost all top managers, himself included, to a customized Executive Education program at HBS that focused on leadership and change. Professor Srikant Datar developed and led the forum, interviewing Novartis managers from around the world to pinpoint the company's key challenges. He wrote a case about the merger, coauthored by Executive Education's director of research Carin-Isabel Knoop, that served as a focal point for the program. Knoop also developed a case about the company managing its Indonesian operations during the Asian financial crisis.

"With our merger, Novartis associates had to respond flexibly and rapidly to deep change," says Vasella, who now serves on the HBS Board of Directors of the Associates. "In the HBS program, our team and the faculty addressed the global challenges we face and the strategy that will guide our future success as a worldwide leader in life sciences. The quality of the HBS faculty has been tremendous and has helped our top management to develop a new Novartis mindset and an aligned commitment to high performance."

The cases, and other course material generated from the company's experiences, have proved valuable across the School. The Novartis Indonesia case anchored a daylong MBA exercise devoted to furthering students' understanding of the Asian financial crisis. Novartis cases have also been featured in various Executive Education programs.

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