Faculty and Research

Jay Light is a graduate of Cornell University (Engineering Physics, 1963) and Harvard University (the joint FAS-Business School doctoral program in Decision & Control Theory, 1970). He worked in systems analysis and satellite guidance at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and in management consulting before joining the HBS faculty in 1970. On a leave of absence from Harvard during 1977-1979, he was the Director of Investment and Financial Policies for the Ford Foundation.

Light has been Chairman of the Finance area (1986-1988), Senior Associate Dean and Director of Faculty Planning (1988-1994), and Senior Associate Dean and Director of Planning and Development (1998-2005) at HBS. In this latter role he led the School's strategic planning efforts and helped shaped new educational and research program initiatives.

Light was named Interim Dean of Harvard Business School in August 2005, and was appointed Dean in April 2006. During his tenure he has overseen the close of Harvard Business School's successful $600 million capital campaign, fostered new faculty initiatives in health care and science-based business, and completed the renovation and restoration of Baker Library, the world's preeminent collection of business books and archival materials. He is leading innovations in the School's core educational programs, including a team-based learning initiative in the MBA program and the launch of a new, modular leadership development program in executive education. He also plays an active role in the University's planning for Allston.

Light has taught thousands of students in the School's MBA and Doctoral programs, and in various executive programs for CFOs and investment managers. In the MBA program, in addition to the required first-year course in Finance, he has taught Investment Management, Capital Markets, Entrepreneurial Finance, and Negotiating Ventures.

Light is the co-author (with W.L. White) of The Financial System (1979) as well as numerous articles and more than 50 cases and notes. His research and course development interests include asset management, risk management for global investment management, negotiation and deal structuring, and corporate finance. He has explored strategic business decisions in the money management industry and problems that arise in the management of very large pools of tax exempt money, particularly pension funds and endowments. He also has examined how negotiation analysis and related techniques can be used in structuring financial transactions in the context of entrepreneurial situations, and to enhance value in private equity investments.

Light is a director of the Harvard Management Company, a director of Partners HealthCare (the Mass General and Brigham & Women's Hospitals) and chairman of its Investment Committee, a member of the Investment Committee of several endowments, a director of several private firms, and an advisor/trustee to several corporate and institutional pools of capital.

Light, originally from Ohio, lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, with his wife, Judy; they are the parents of two children.