Faculty and Research

KRISHNA G. PALEPU joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School in 1983, and he is currently the Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business Administration.  In addition to his academic position, Professor Palepu also has taken on a number of leadership roles at the School. He is currently the Senior Associate Dean for International Development at the Harvard Business School, and Senior Adviser to the President for Global Strategy at Harvard University.  Prior to assuming his current leadership positions, Professor Palepu held other positions at the School, including Senior Associate Dean, Director of Research, and Unit Chair.

Professor Palepu's current research and teaching activities focus on strategy and governance. Professor Palepu has published numerous academic and practitioner-oriented articles and case studies on these issues.

In the area of strategy, his recent focus has been on the globalization of emerging markets, particularly India and China, and the resulting opportunities and challenges for western investors and multinationals, and for local companies with global aspirations. He is a coauthor of the book on this topic, Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution. He developed and taught a second year MBA course, "Globalization of Emerging Markets," which focuses on these issues. In addition, Professor Palepu Chairs the HBS executive education programs, "Global CEOs Program for China" and "Building Businesses in Emerging Markets."

In the area of corporate governance, Professor Palepu's work focuses on board engagement with strategy. Professor Palepu teaches in several HBS executive education programs aimed at members of corporate boards: "Making Corporate Boards More Effective," "Audit Committees in a New Era of Governance," and "Compensation Committees: New Challenges, New Solutions." 

In his prior work, Professor Palepu worked on mergers and acquisitions and corporate disclosure. Based on this work, he coauthored the book, Business Analysis and Valuation Using Financial Statements: Text and Cases, which won the American Accounting Association's Wildman Award for its impact on management practice, as well as the Notable Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award for its impact on academic research. This book, translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish, is widely used in leading MBA programs all over the world. It is accompanied by a business analysis and valuation software model published by the Harvard Business School Publishing Company.

Professor Palepu has served on a number of public company and non-profit Boards. He has also been on the Editorial Boards of leading academic journals, and has served as a consultant to a wide variety of businesses. Krishna Palepu is a researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Professor Palepu has a doctorate in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration.