The de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room

The de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room, located in Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, was made possible through the support of the de Gaspé Beaubien Family Foundation and is named in honor of the family’s support of Baker Library Historical Collections.

Baker Library Historical Collections is a rich resource for scholarship in business and economic history and cross-disciplinary studies. Thousands of items—including business records, diaries and correspondence, research papers, rare books, ephemera, and visual materials—provide the documentary evidence that allows scholars to investigate firsthand the important business theories, organizations, movements, and individuals that have shaped our nation’s history and globally influenced progress and developments today.

Renovations to the Reading Room and the continued preservation and acquisition of the Historical Collections were made possible through a 2004 endowment from the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation, a family philanthropy based in Montreal, Canada. With a goal of helping to engage the HBS community and beyond in the study and appreciation of the lessons and legacies of business history, the endowment supports a wide range of innovative projects and programs associated with Historical Collections.

In Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien’s words, the gift affirms the belief “that it is impossible to look to the future without learning from the past.”

About the Name

Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien II (MBA 1954) and his wife, Nan-b, are longtime HBS supporters. A member of one of the oldest merchant families in Quebec, Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien, after graduating from HBS, transformed Telemedia Communications, Inc., into a major media and communications company. Nan-b, a former psychologist at Montreal Children’s Hospital and faculty member at the Université de Montréal, was a key player in the rise of Telemedia, and is credited with setting up a unique human resources culture within the company.

Armed with the lessons of their personal experience at Telemedia, Nan-b and Philippe founded the Business Families Foundation in 1991. The mission of the nonprofit organization is to offer family businesses and the professionals who serve them the education and support they need to better understand their issues and face challenges. Through this foundation, they have worked with businesses around the world, providing hope and encouragement to other owners of family businesses. The foundation offers educational workshops and training programs that address key family business issues such as succession, sibling rivalry, business ownership, corporate and governance structures, and communication between family members.

The de Gaspé Beaubien family has strong ties with the School as the couple’s three children, Philippe III (MBA 1988), François (MBA 1989), and Nanon de Gaspé Beaubien-Mattrick (MBA 1991), all graduated from HBS. Dedicated supporters of the School, Nan-b and Philippe served as members of the Board of Dean’s Advisors from 1995 through 2000, and Philippe served as a member of the School’s Visiting Committee and its Canadian Advisory Board.