Jay Light is Dean Emeritus of Harvard Business School and the George F. Baker Professor of Administration Emeritus. He earned his bachelor's degree in engineering physics with highest honors from Cornell in 1963. He then worked in satellite guidance and systems planning at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. He enrolled in the doctoral program in decision and control theory at Harvard in 1966, earning his doctorate four years later. He joined the faculty of HBS in December 1969. After a brief leave of absence from 1977 to 1979 to serve as director of investment and financial policies for the Ford Foundation, he returned to HBS as a full professor.
Light was named Interim Dean in 2005 and Dean the following year. During his tenure, he has overseen the renovation and restoration of Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, which houses the world's preeminent collection of business books and archival materials. He presided over the yearlong celebration of the School's centennial in 2008, reconnecting with alumni around the world and leading discussions on the future of MBA education. He has navigated HBS through the financial challenges of the global economic crisis, deploying a strategy that simultaneously reduced expenses and maintained investments in areas of long-term strategic importance, including faculty research and student financial aid.
Light has overseen a range of innovations in the School's MBA program, including the new January term, Immersion Experience Programs (a portfolio of faculty-led seminars in selected regions around the world), and the launch and development of joint degree programs with Harvard's Medical School and Kennedy School. He has fostered new faculty initiatives in health care, science-based business, and business and the environment, and expanded the Global Initiative with the opening of a research center in India and a new facility in China.
Light previously served as Chairman of the Finance area (1986-1988), Senior Associate Dean and Director of Faculty Planning (1988-1994), and Senior Associate Dean and Director of Planning and Development (1998-2005) at HBS. In this last role he led the School's strategic planning efforts and helped shape new educational and research program initiatives.
Light has taught thousands of students in the School's MBA and doctoral programs, and in various executive programs for CFOs and investment managers. He is the co-author (with W.L. White) of The Financial System (1979) as well as numerous articles and more than 70 cases and notes. His interests include asset management, risk management, negotiation and deal structuring, and corporate finance. He has explored strategic business decisions in the money management industry and related fields. He also has examined how negotiation analysis and related techniques can be used in structuring financial transactions in the context of entrepreneurial situations, and to enhance value in private equity investments.
Light, originally from Ohio, lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, with his wife, Judy; they are the parents of two grown children.
Perold, André, and Jay O. Light. "The Institutionalization of Wealth: Changing Patterns of Investment Decision-Making." Tōshi kōgaku [Investment technology] 2 (1990): 63–96.
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Perold, André, and Jay O. Light. "The Institutionalization of Wealth: Changing Patterns of Investment Decision-Making." In Wall Street and Regulation, edited by Samuel L. Hayes III, 97–126. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1987.
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Describes a second-year MBA's attempts to make money for a fledgling Web-hosting business. As the case ends, he must both sort out the company's business model and financing needs, as well as select from an array of financing and acquisition alternatives.
Light, Jay O., and Michael J. Roberts. "Virtualis Systems (A)." Harvard Business School Case 800-003, November 1999. (Revised October 2009.)
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A large East Coast insurance company is thinking of selling its investment management subsidiary. Several Eurobanks are thinking of acquiring this subsidiary.
The Investment Committee of New England Healthcare must decide how to invest three long-term investment pools: a long-term, endowment-type fund and two pension plans. In particular, the committee is evaluating whether the two pension funds--one is a "final salary" pension plan, the other a "cash balance" pension plan--should have special investment considerations due to the unique characteristics of these plans' liabilities.
Focuses on a graduating HBS MBA who has been working part-time with a Web-hosting firm in California. Discusses the question of which of several "business models" make the most sense for the company to pursue.
This case illustrates the importance of structuring negotiations with large companies and investors that are critical to a start-up's success. It depicts a firm with innovative technology that contracts with giant companies in order to survive. It also demonstrates how the company's management must be flexible when constructing a business model that will accommodate the positions of its strategic partners and investors. Arepa must decide which business model to adopt and how to sequence and structure negotiations with distribution partners, content providers, and investors. All of the decisions interrelate.
A very successful entrepreneur who has built a factoring business in Atlanta is trying to decide how to sell this business. The issues are how to value the company and the strategy of selling.
In November 2000, six-month-old start-up Bang Networks is preparing a proposal for its first paid subscription contract. The recent MBA founders of the new San Francisco--based company believe they have a unique new solution for effective delivery of real-time Web content. This case discusses how to negotiate with the large media company that has been an early beta customer and that Bang could really use as a referenceable customer as it approaches its formal launch.
An embryonic Internet-based telecom marketing firm considers its first (seed) round of funding. They are choosing between a fixed price round and a discounted convertible round.
Jay O. Light, Jay W. Lorsch, James O. Sailer and Katharina Pick
The largest state pension fund continues the evolution of its approach to corporate governance contemplating "relationship investing" and other new approaches.
Light, Jay O., Jay W. Lorsch, James O. Sailer, and Katharina Pick. "California PERS (B)." Harvard Business School Case 201-091, February 2001.
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Examines California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the world's fourth largest pension fund. Dale Hanson, CEO of CalPERS, has a problem; how does he use CalPERS' influence as the holder of a small percentage of 1,300 American companies to put pressure on corporate America to achieve better returns for shareholders? The case discusses the constraints which confront CalPERS as a quasi-state agency and describes their efforts to improve corporate governance to date.
Light, Jay O., Jay W. Lorsch, and James O. Sailer. "California PERS (A)." Harvard Business School Case 291-045, July 1991. (Revised August 2000.)
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Jay O. Light, Lynda M. Applegate and Daniel J. Green
Provides an overview of broadband access technology. Includes technical overviews of cable, DSL, fixed wireless, and satellite systems, and suggests the technical suitability of each to accommodate broadband applications.
Jay O. Light, Lynda M. Applegate and Daniel J. Green
As data packet switches threatened the voice circuit switch industry in 1999, major switch and router vendors began paying high premiums to acquire venture-backed switch companies. This note explains what a switch is and suggests why large vendors might be so anxious to acquire new technology.
Light, Jay O., Lynda M. Applegate, and Daniel J. Green. "Revolution in the Communications Switching Industry." Harvard Business School Background Note 800-121, September 1999.
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A venture capital/private equity fund is preparing to negotiate with the two parties in a prospective PCS joint venture: the entrepreneur and AT&T Wireless. The negotiation will decide how equity and control are shared in the venture.
A small hydraulic-valve manufacturer attempts a second buyout in order to take out its current equity partners. A three-way deal must be negotiated between management, the new mezzanine lender, and the departing equity owners.
Describes how commodity futures work, what products and exchanges are available, and who the players in the commodity markets are. Also presents a careful discussion of the pricing of futures in commodity markets, focusing on cost of carry and risk premium approaches, and explaining backwardation and contango markets.
Froot, Kenneth A., Jay O. Light, and Nancy Donohue. "Note on Commodity Futures." Harvard Business School Background Note 293-018, July 1992. (Revised May 1996.)
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Yale University's investment office was responsible for managing its endowment, which totaled nearly $4 billion in June 1995. Yale had developed a rather different approach to endowment management, including substantial investments in "less efficient" equity markets such as private equity, real estate, and "absolute return" investments. The investment office was now considering devoting even more of their assets to these markets.
Describes a new investment which is linked to an index of commmodity futures prices. Explores how the index is constructed, how commodity futures (as opposed to other futures and spot prices) behave, and what the portfolio impacts of such an investment might be.
Presents a comparative description and analysis of pension funds in different countries. There is a special focus on comparing the United States and the United Kingdom.
A New York-based money manager owns a sizable percentage of the common shares of Cleveland-Cliffs, a U.S. iron ore producer. The money manager would prefer that Cliffs pay out or otherwise return $100 million of "excess cash" to the shareholders. The management resists this suggestion, and instead argues for investing in the business. The money manager offers an alternative partial slate of directors.
Perold, André, and Jay O. Light. "Risk Sharing and Corporate Pension Policy." Paper presented at the American Finance Association Annual Meeting, December 01, 1985.
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Crane, D. B., J. O. Light, K. G. Palepu, and A. F. Perold. "Capital Market Intermediaries: Summary Observations on a Workshop Held at Harvard Business School." May 2003.
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