Dear Friends,

We marked a number of exciting moments at Harvard Business School during 2013–2014—moments that reflected the culmination of years of effort and planning, and moments that signaled new and important beginnings.

Executive Education, an area at the School that has grown in its significance within our portfolio of educational programs, saw the opening of a wonderful residential and classroom building as we dedicated Tata Hall in early winter. Just a few months later, we broke ground on the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center at the site where Kresge Hall formerly stood; we also began renovations on Baker Hall, a residence building that will be renamed Esteves Hall when it reopens. These facilities are the physical representation of a plan for growth in Executive Education that we laid out a number of years ago—one that continues to view these programs as a way for our faculty to connect to and influence practice, and as an important cornerstone of our economic model at the School.

In HBX, our online learning platform, we welcomed the first cohort of participants in CORe and brought Clay Christensen’s course on disruptive strategy to teams in selected organizations. Additionally, HBX Live, our virtual classroom, began beta tests with larger and larger groups of learners, providing useful opportunities to determine how well the platform scaled and acclimate faculty to teaching in this new space. This has been a remarkable journey: in less than two years, we assembled a team, developed the technology, and had faculty members working to create an online experience as intense, engaging, and interactive as the one in the on-campus classroom. We look forward to deepening and extending our work on both the platform and the classroom in the year ahead.

Finally, in April and as part of a broader University-wide effort, we launched The Harvard Business School Campaign. Our goals for fundraising and, equally important, for alumni engagement are ambitious, as we view our aspiration as no less than shaping the School’s legacy for the 21st century. The Campaign seeks to bolster giving of all kinds and at every level—whether current use funds to enable innovation, or endowment funds to support established commitments.

I invite you to read further in this report to learn more about the initiatives and achievements of the past year. All of us at HBS deeply appreciate the generosity of our 80,000 alumni and other friends around the world in making these accomplishments possible. You are the leaders who make change happen in established companies, new ventures, social enterprises, and here at the School. Thank you for your support.

—Nitin Nohria
Dean of the Faculty