Faculty and Research

Lynda M. Applegate is the Martin Marshall Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, teaching courses in entrepreneurial management and technology and innovation, and serving as Chair of the school's Entrepreneurial Management unit. Lynda also currently chairs HBS' Owner-Managed portfolio of executive programs, which include the Owner-President and Key Executive programs and the Building Businesses in Turbulent Times, Launching New Ventures, and Building Ventures in Latin America programs. Lynda has held other leadership positions at HBS, including serving as the head of Field Based Learning and as Cohort Chair of the MBA program. Between 1995 and 2003, she served as Co-Chair of the Harvard Policy Group on Networked Government Services and she also served on the Harvard University Technology Advisory Council. Prior to joining the HBS faculty, Lynda was on the faculty of the University of Michigan, University of Washington and University of Arizona. In addition to her academic positions, Lynda worked at Ford Motor Company in the 1960s and held management positions in the health care industry during the 1970s.

Lynda's current research and recent publications focus on the challenges of building new ventures and leading radical business innovation in the face of significant market, technological, capital market, and regulatory turbulence. A second stream of research examines emerging governance models to support inter-firm collaborative innovation. She is the author of 4 books, over 40 articles and book chapters, and over 300 published case studies on this subject. Her online course, Building E-Business, was among the first online executive courses available through Harvard Business School Publishing and her course, Building E-Government was among the first online learning programs available through the Harvard Kennedy School. She continues to pursue innovations in teaching and is currently launching a series of online educational offerings under the HBS@Work brand.

Lynda is the recipient of numerous awards for her research and teaching. Most recently, she was awarded the Robert F. Greenhill award for her outstanding contributions to HBS. She has also received Harvard Business School's prestigious Berol Award for Research Excellence and its Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching. In addition, she has also won "Best Paper" awards for her research on 21st century business models and on executive team decision making and collaboration.

Lynda is an active international consultant and has served on the board of directors of both public and venture-backed companies. She is an advisor and advisory board member for senior executives launching new business initiatives in established companies and for entrepreneurs launching independent ventures. In addition, she is on the board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Technology Council and has served as a member of the Industry Advisory Board for NASDAQ and as an advisor on the launch of the World Bank's Global Development Gateway. She also served as a policy advisor on business and technology to the Comptroller General of the U.S., participated on a Blue-Ribbon Panel to define a National Research Agenda on the development of the Network Economy, and was a member of an advisory roundtable on President Clinton's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection.

Summer 2009