History
We see our history as a challenge—a legacy of energy and innovation we strive to equal every day as we redefine the nature of management education and invent the future of business.
Key Start Dates
1908
Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration established (the world's first MBA program) with a faculty of 15, 33 regular students, and 47 special students.
1922
The Doctoral Program was established.
1922
The Harvard Business Review was founded.
1924
The case method was established as the primary method of instruction.
1927
Business School campus constructed.
1945
First executive education program (Advanced Management Program) held — a group of sixty executives and recently demobilized veterans.
1959
Women graduates of the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration were admitted to the second year of the MBA program.
1993
Harvard Business Publishing was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University.
1997 to 2017
Global Research Centers opened in Silicon Valley; other regional research centers were opened in Asia-Pacific (1999), Latin America (2000), Japan (2002), Europe (2003), India (2006), Istanbul (2013), and Johannesburg (2017).
2013
Harvard Business School Online founded.
Deans
2021 to Present
2010 to 2020
2005 to 2010
Jay O. Light
PhD 1970
1995 to 2005
Kim B. Clark
PhD 1978
1980 to 1995
MBA 1959, DBA 1963
1970 to 1980
Lawrence E. Fouraker
1962 to 1970
George Pierce Baker
1955 to 1962
Stanley F. Teele
MBA 1930
1942 to 1955
Donald K. David
MBA 1919
1919 to 1942
Wallace Brett Donham
1908 to 1919
Edwin Francis Gay