Dear Alumni and Friends,

I am delighted to share with you the 2019 Annual Report for Harvard Business School. Each year, we provide highlights from the past year and a detailed look at the School’s fiscal health. Our economic model—driven by MBA tuition, Executive Education and Publishing revenues, alumni gifts, and the endowment returns—enables us to invest in the core programs and activities of the School, including funding for faculty research, and to pursue innovations that will position HBS for leadership in the future.

We marked a number of exciting milestones and moments at Harvard Business School during 2018–2019—milestones that reflect the culmination of years of effort and planning, and moments that signal new and important beginnings. This was perhaps most evident with the dedication of Klarman Hall in October, an event focused on a daylong discussion about the state of American democracy that ushered in a new era of convening at Harvard Business School. Overnight, Klarman Hall has taken center stage as the place to showcase and discuss ideas from faculty and other thought leaders that have the power to change the role of business in the world.

Even as the School takes physical convening to the next level, our efforts to engage wider audiences via virtual platforms continue to build momentum. In January, HBX was renamed Harvard Business School Online, signaling a doubling down on our efforts to be a global leader in online management education. Over the past year, Online added 6 new programs and enrolled more than 19,000 learners—far more than those who come to campus annually. The HBX Live virtual classroom, where participants from around the world come together in real time for interactive case-based discussions, gained significant traction. Most importantly, since launching the online learning platform in 2014, we’ve learned a great deal about how to create and scale virtual courses that replicate the active, rigorous learning experience that is the hallmark of HBS.

Milestones were marked in other areas as well—including 20 years since the launch of the Asia-Pacific Research Center and 50 years since the launch of the African American Student Union at the School.

This Annual Report will be my last as dean of Harvard Business School. As I write this note, I am filled with optimism for the future of the School and the impact it will have in the world. And I am ever mindful that all of our efforts, past and future, are made possible by our incredible and generous alumni. For that support I am deeply grateful.

Nitin Nohria
Dean of the Faculty