Faculty Partners
Our world-renowned faculty, primarily from Harvard Business School, bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in areas such as entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, systems change, technology, finance, operations, workplace dynamics, change leadership, growth, and resilience. Their diverse backgrounds span startups, venture capital, economics, technology, education, politics, social services, the arts, the military, and beyond.
The founding faculty began with the idea of delivering high-quality business and leadership education to a local cohort of leaders across multiple sectors, fostering relationships and uncovering common goals for community change.
Our faculty’s extraordinary talents and experience offer LEADS fellows a unique opportunity to learn, grow, and expand their connections across various sectors.
Rawi E. Abdelal
Herbert F Johnson Professor of International Management, Emma Bloomberg Co-Chair,
Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative
Rawi Abdelal is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at Harvard Business School and the Emma Bloomberg Co-Chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.
Professor Abdelal's primary expertise lies in international political economy, with his research focusing on the politics of globalization and the political economy of Eurasia. His first book, National Purpose in the World Economy, won the 2002 Shulman Prize for outstanding work on the international relations of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. His second book, Capital Rules, explains the evolution of the social norms and legal frameworks of the international financial system. Abdelal has also edited or co-edited three books: The Rules of Globalization, a collection of Harvard Business School cases on international business; Measuring Identity; and Constructing the International Economy.
Rawi is currently working on two projects. The first, The Fragile State of the World, explores the interconnected challenges that undermined the first era of globalization (circa 1870-1914) and threaten the current age of global capitalism. The second project, The Profits of Power, examines the geopolitics of energy in Europe and Eurasia.
Julie Battilana
Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business, Harvard Business School
Alan L. Gleitsman Professor of Social Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School
Julie Battilana is a professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School and of social innovation at Harvard Kennedy School, where she is also the founder and faculty chair of the Social Innovation + Change Initiative. Professor Battilana's research examines the politics of change in organizations and society, with a particular focus on organizations and individuals that initiate and implement changes that break with the status quo. She teaches courses on power and influence, leadership, and organizational change. She is the author of two books: Power, for All: How it Really Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2021) and Democratize Work: The Case for Reorganizing the Economy (University of Chicago Press, 2022, originally published in French by Le Seuil, 2020).
Her articles have been published in the Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Leadership Quarterly, Management Science, Organization, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Research in Organizational Behavior, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Strategic Organization. Her research has also been featured in The Boston Globe, Forbes, Huffington Post, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. She lives in Belmont, MA.
Ethan S. Bernstein
Edward W. Conrad Associate Professor of Business Administration
Ethan Bernstein is an associate professor in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School. In an era when the nature of work is changing, Professor Bernstein studies the impact of workplace transparency—the observability of employee activities, routines, behaviors, output, and performance—on productivity, with implications for leadership, collaboration, organization design, and new forms of organizing.
Professor Bernstein’s research has been published in journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Academy of Management Annals, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Harvard Business Review, Research on Organizational Change and Development, and People + Strategy. His work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, NPR, Inc., Forbes, Fast Company, Businessweek, Esquire, Nikkei Business, Nikkei Shimbun, Le Monde, Maeil Business (Korea), and TEDx Boston, among others. He was a 2014 HBR McKinsey Award Finalist, and his research has won numerous awards, including the inaugural J. Richard Hackman Dissertation Award, the Academy of Management’s 2013 Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior award, and the Academy of Management’s 2013 Best Publication in Organization and Management Theory award, among others.
Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Bernstein spent five years at The Boston Consulting Group in Toronto and Tokyo. He was tapped by Elizabeth Warren to join the implementation team at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he spent nearly two years in executive positions, including Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy Assistant Director of Mortgage Markets, at the newest United States federal agency.
Professor Bernstein earned his doctorate in management at Harvard, where he also received a JD/MBA degree. While a doctoral student, he was a Kauffman Foundation Fellow in Law, Innovation, and Growth. He remains a member of the New York and Massachusetts Bar Associations. He holds an AB in Economics from Amherst College, which included study at Doshisha University in Kyoto.
Professor Bernstein is a self-declared culinary adventurer and an avid cyclist, runner, skier, reader, and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me listener. Originally from Los Angeles, he now lives in Newton with his wife, Maly (HBS MBA 2006), and their two young sons.
Nicole Brigandi
Founder & Leadership Coach, Adaptive Edge Co
Nicole is an organizational development specialist and certified leadership coach. Her background integrates the study of applied business psychology with nearly 20 years of cross-industry consulting experience in the US, New Zealand, UK, and Europe. She has worked for Deloitte as an organizational design and strategic change specialist, and has extensive in-house experience developing teams and leaders. Most recently, Nicole was a founding member of a growing management consultancy in the UK focused on creating innovative solutions for modern workplace challenges.
Nicole is passionate about creating inclusive, high-performing cultures that are equipped to scale meaningfully. Her research skills, combined with practical expertise and compassion, help her understand systemic barriers and navigate complexity. She supports leaders, teams, and organizations in shaping workplace culture and developing strategies for managing ambiguity and leadership team dynamics.
Jeffrey J. Bussgang
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Co-Founder and General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners
Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board, LEADS
Jeff Bussgang is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and Co-Founder and General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. He studies lean startups and the strategy and management challenges faced by founders.
Jeff’s career spans entrepreneurship, venture capital, academia, and civic leadership. He is a co-founder and general partner at Flybridge Capital, an early-stage technology venture capital firm with over $700 million under management. He also serves as a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he teaches a popular class on entrepreneurship called Launching Technology Ventures. In this role, he has co-authored forty HBS cases, book chapters, and teaching notes on startup management and entrepreneurship. His two books—Entering StartUpLand and Mastering the VC Game—have been praised by The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, TechCrunch, and The Financial Times as essential guides for entrepreneurs.
Jeff is an active community member, serving as co-chair of the Leadership Council at the educational non-profit Facing History and Ourselves, co-founder of Hack.Diversity, a private-public partnership addressing the underrepresentation of highly-skilled minority employees in Boston’s innovation ecosystem, co-founder and co-chair of the Global EIR Coalition, an immigration reform non-profit, and co-founder and former chair of The Alliance for Business Leadership, a progressive policy organization. He also serves on the board of EdX, the massively open online course provider created through a joint venture between Harvard and MIT.
Tiziana Casciaro
Professor, Organizational Behavior and Chair, Integrate Thinking
Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Tiziana Casciaro is a Professor of Organizational Behavior and the Marcel Desautels Chair in Integrative Thinking at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
Dr. Casciaro’s research on organizational networks, professional networking, power dynamics, and change leadership has been published in top academic journals in management, psychology, and sociology, and has earned distinguished scientific achievement awards from the Academy of Management.
Thinkers50 has recognized Tiziana as one of the thirty thinkers most likely to shape the future of organizational management and leadership. She regularly publishes in the Harvard Business Review, and her work has been featured in The Economist, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, Fortune, and TIME magazine.
She is the co-author of the book Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business (Simon & Schuster, 2021), which received the Academy of Management’s 2022 George R. Terry Book Award for the most outstanding contribution to the global advancement of management knowledge over the past two years.
Originally from Italy, Tiziana earned her B.A. in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Milan, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Organization Science and Sociology from Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining the University of Toronto, she served on the faculty of Harvard Business School.
Kat Everett
Instructor
Katrina “Kat” Hobbs Everett, M.Ed., is a constructive deconstructionist, anti-racist educator, entrepreneur, curator, activist, writer, spoken word artist, and business owner. She is a senior-level executive with over 25 years of experience in the human and social services field, working in a variety of professional settings, including grassroots organizations, city, state, and federal entities, public K-12 schools, and public and private higher education institutions. With 13 years of experience in diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging (DEIJB) education, Kat also has extensive community engagement expertise working with diverse communities. She has collaborated with cross-sector teams locally, nationally, and globally.
Kat co-founded Power of Self-Education (POSE) Inc., a community engagement and advocacy nonprofit with a mission to “inspire people and mobilize resources to strengthen communities.” She is the founder of Everetts Enterprise LLC and Kateverett.com, a certified Black-owned and woman-owned business that provides large and small-scale consulting, coaching, and facilitation services to individuals, groups, and businesses to assist with transformative culture shifts and foster places of belonging. Kat is also the founder, curator, and owner of COCO Brown, a cultural community healing center, studio, and co-working space that uses art, music, storytelling, and movement to strengthen community relationships. Additionally, she is an adjunct professor in the Social Justice, Women, and Gender Studies program at Merrimack College. Kat’s personal mission is to “Constantly Cultivate Community.”
Jesse Flores
Design Thinker
Jesse is a seasoned strategic designer with 10 years of experience building businesses and consulting for Fortune 500 companies across various industries. His work in design practice spans organizational, service, and product design, with a particular focus on democratizing design methods and approaches for non-design audiences.
Roles in product management, strategic leadership in startups, and operations have provided him with additional practical insights and business acumen to apply to design as a practice. As a BIPOC, first-generation college graduate, Jesse’s work often aims to disrupt traditional power dynamics in both approach and output.
Frances X. Frei
UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management
Frances Frei is a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School. Her research investigates how leaders create the conditions for organizations and individuals to thrive by designing for excellence in strategy, operations, and culture. She regularly advises senior executives on large-scale change initiatives and organizational transformation, including leveraging diversity and inclusion to significantly improve performance.
A global thought leader on leadership and strategy, Frances is widely recognized for her dynamic teaching style and breakthrough courses optimized for rapid, lasting impact. She developed one of the most popular classes at HBS, which explores business models that reliably delight customers. She also led the design and launch of HBS’s innovative FIELD curriculum, built around experiential and immersive learning experiences.
At HBS, Frances has held extensive leadership roles, including Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Recruiting, Executive Education, and Faculty Chair for the MBA required curriculum. In these roles, she led significant change efforts, including addressing the gender gap in satisfaction and performance for students and faculty and broadening the reach of executive education to meet the evolving needs of executives and their organizations. This includes enhancing the off-campus program and utilizing the state-of-the-art HBX studio on campus.
In 2017, Frances was appointed Uber's first Senior Vice President of Leadership and Strategy with a mandate to help the company navigate its highly publicized crisis in leadership and culture. In her ongoing work with Uber, she has focused on equipping thousands of employees with tools to excel in a context of hyper-growth, strategic change, and evolving cultural values.
Her firsthand experience in Silicon Valley provided her with a new perspective on the urgent topic of trust. In May 2018, Frances delivered a widely viewed TED talk on ‘How to Build (and Rebuild) Trust,’ offering a powerful framework for building, maintaining, and restoring stakeholder trust.
Frances is the best-selling author of Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business. She and her co-author Anne Morriss published their second book, Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You, in June 2020.
She holds a Ph.D. in Operations and Information Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Francesca Gino
Professor of Business Administration
Francesca Gino is an award-winning researcher and teacher, and a tenured professor at Harvard Business School. Her consulting and speaking clients include Bacardi, Akamai, Disney, Goldman Sachs, Honeywell, Novartis, P&G, and the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy. She is the author of Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules in Work and Life.
Professor Gino has been honored as one of the world’s Top 40 Business Professors Under 40 and one of the world’s 50 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers 50. Her work has been featured on CNN and NPR, as well as in the Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American, and Psychology Today. In addition to teaching, Professor Gino advises firms and not-for-profit organizations in the areas of negotiation, decision-making, and organizational behavior.
Hise Gibson
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Professor Gibson graduated from West Point Academy, where he was a member of the Division-1A Army football team. Following graduation, he was commissioned in the US Army as an Aviation Officer in the UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter. He served with distinction in various command and staff positions for over 25 years, with his most recent operational assignment being as a Battalion Commander in the historic 82nd Airborne Division. He earned the rank of Colonel before retiring in 2021. He has led soldiers in combat and his military decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Master Aviator badge, Parachutist badge, and Air Assault badge.
He holds an MS in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School and a Master’s in Operational Art and Science from the Air Command and Staff College. He earned his Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in Technology and Operations Management. Until July 2021, he served as an Academy Professor in the Systems Engineering Department at the United States Military Academy. He also established and directed the Systems Decisions and Analysis Center, directed the department’s core engineering sequence, and engaged in strategic outreach as a Fellow at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
Professor Gibson's research and consulting activities focus on technology integrations, operational effectiveness, leadership, leader development, human capital development, change management, and leading teams through crises. He currently lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Nicole, and their two daughters.
Lane A. Glenn, PhD
President, Northern Essex Community College
Dr. Lane A. Glenn is President of Northern Essex Community College (NECC), with campuses in Haverhill and Lawrence, MA.
Dr. Glenn is focused on student success and is passionate about helping students achieve their educational goals, especially those who are underprepared for college. He is also a strong advocate for colleges and universities as engines of economic and workforce development, particularly in Massachusetts Gateway Cities.
As a researcher, author, and consultant, Dr. Glenn has advanced community colleges through his involvement on numerous regional and national boards. He is the chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Task Force on Statewide Assessment, was appointed to the STEM Advisory Council by the Massachusetts governor, and chairs the International Advisory Board of the Chair Academy, which provides leadership development programs for college and university leaders worldwide.
Dr. Glenn has been described as an “optimistic thought leader” who actively promotes the community college mission through various publications, social media, and his blog, “Running the Campus.” In 2018, he was named “Pacesetter of the Year” by the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations for his higher education advocacy efforts.
He holds a PhD in Theater from Michigan State University, a Master’s degree in Speech from Oklahoma State University, and a Bachelor’s in English from Northeastern State University. He is proud to say he started his education at Rose State College, a community college in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
Ranjay Gulati
Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class Of 1942 Professor Of Business Administration
Ranjay Gulati is the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor and the former Unit Head of the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. Until recently, he chaired the Advanced Management Program, the flagship senior leader executive program at HBS. Professor Gulati studies how “resilient” organizations—those that prosper both in good times and bad—drive growth and profitability. His work bridges strategy (establishing clear strategic pillars for growth), organizational design (reimagining purposeful and collaborative organizational systems), and leadership (fostering inspired, courageous, and caring execution).
Professor Gulati was ranked among the top ten most cited scholars in Economics and Business over a decade by ISI-Incite. The Economist, Financial Times, and the Economist Intelligence Unit have listed him as one of the top business school scholars whose work is most relevant to management practice. His research has been published in leading academic journals of business, the Harvard Business Review, and a range of other outlets. He is the author of several books and has frequently appeared on CNBC and other media outlets.
Professor Gulati advises and speaks to corporations large and small around the globe. He also frequently leads small-group workshops focused on helping leadership teams of high-growth companies enhance the growth trajectory of their businesses. He has served on the advisory boards of several entrepreneurial ventures and has appeared as an expert witness in business litigations.
Professor Gulati holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, a Master’s Degree in Management from M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management, and two Bachelor’s Degrees, in Computer Science and Economics, from Washington State University and St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, respectively. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts.
Sandy Schultz Hessler
Professor Start Up Intensive at Central Wyoming College and Founder of Six Minutes Daily
Sandy has spent her career helping individuals and organizations develop their vision and make it a reality. With over 30 years of experience working with businesses ranging from Fortune 50 companies to start-ups, along with a lifetime of study on human potential and consciousness, Sandy began her career in brand management at Procter & Gamble. She then co-founded a marketing services start-up called Imagitas, which was sold to Pitney Bowes in 2005. Sandy has taught leadership, communications, and marketing at Tufts University, Miami University of Ohio, and Harvard Kennedy School, where she served as Assistant Dean, running the Office of Career Advancement (career services).
For the last seven years, Sandy has created and taught leadership classes and the Start-Up Intensive, a 10-week, 200-hour boot camp in Jackson, WY. She takes great pride in witnessing the success of numerous clients and organizations as they ignite their inner wisdom to manifest their powerful future through her company, Six Minutes Daily, Inc. Six Minutes Daily is currently developing accountability tools, including a habit-building app, to help people and teams build their daily practice toward alignment, health, connection, and prosperity. Her book, Six Minutes Daily, is set to be released in Winter 2022.
Sandy has an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, and advanced degrees from Harvard University, Miami University of Ohio, and the University of Santa Monica. She is a mother of five and an avid hiker, snowboarder, and adventurer.
Lindsay N. Hyde
Senior Lecturer of Business Administration
Lindsay is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School in the Entrepreneurial Management unit. She co-teaches Entrepreneurial Failure, a course focused on why start-ups fail and how founders and founding teams rebound and learn from failure.
Additionally, Lindsay is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Moderne Ventures, a $200M venture capital fund focused on the real estate sector. She advises portfolio companies on go-to-market strategy, customer acquisition, and B2B sales.
Prior to her time at Moderne, Lindsay founded and led start-ups in the real estate and education spaces, earning recognition as one of Goldman Sachs' "100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs." She co-founded Baroo, a venture-backed services-as-amenities platform used by major Class A multifamily owners and operators. She also served as the Executive Director of Wildflower Schools Massachusetts, an early education start-up incubated in the MIT Media Lab, which launched Montessori microschools across the state. Lindsay began her career by founding Strong Women, Strong Girls, an international not-for-profit mentoring organization that has impacted the lives of over 10,000 women and girls globally.
In addition to her work with early-stage companies, Lindsay is a Director at Monro (NASDAQ: MNRO), where she serves on the Audit and Nominating and Corporate Responsibility committees. She also serves on the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility for Harvard University.
Lindsay earned her AB, magna cum laude, in Sociology and the Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality from Harvard College and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
Joshua D. Margolis
James Dinan and Elizabeth Miller Professor of Business Administration Unit Head, Organizational Behavior
Joshua D. Margolis is the James Dinan and Elizabeth Miller Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he is the Unit Head for the Organizational Behavior Unit and Faculty Chair of the Program for Leadership Development. His research and teaching focus on leadership and ethics, particularly on equipping emerging leaders to lead organizations with ingenuity and integrity.
Joshua is the author of over 50 case studies and has published his research in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Management. He co-authored the book People and Profits: The Search for a Link between a Company’s Social and Financial Performance.
Joshua has received the Robert F. Greenhill Award, the HBS Student Association Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence, the Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching, and the Academy of Management Award for Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior. He is a lifelong fan of the Muppets and Jim Henson, the Red Sox, and Nanci Griffith. Joshua lives in Boston with his wife (a pediatric ER physician) and his daughter (a self-proclaimed Swiftie, currently in college).
Jan W. Rivkin
C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration
Jan W. Rivkin is a Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. He has previously served as Faculty Chair of the MBA Program, Senior Associate Dean for Research, and head of the Strategy Unit. His research, course development, and teaching focus on two main areas: business strategy and U.S. competitiveness.
Rivkin's scholarly work has been published in journals such as Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Research Policy. Much of his work employs simulations of complex adaptive systems to explore the theoretical implications of cross-cutting interactions. His empirical research includes large-scale statistical studies, field research, and case studies.
Rivkin also co-chairs HBS's project on U.S. competitiveness. In this role, he collaborates with a faculty team to identify strategies that leaders can use to enhance the ability of U.S. firms to compete globally and support American living standards. His work in this area focuses on (a) how managers decide where to locate business activities and (b) how business leaders can effectively collaborate with policymakers, nonprofit leaders, educators, and others to foster shared prosperity in America’s cities.
Rivkin received his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard. He also studied chemical engineering and public policy at Princeton and earned an M.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics on a Marshall Scholarship.
Rivkin and his wife live in Newton, Massachusetts, with their two sons.
Richard S. Ruback
Baker Foundation Professor, Willard Prescott Smith Professor of Corporate Finance, Emeritus
Richard S. Ruback is the Willard Prescott Smith Professor of Corporate Finance at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on applied corporate finance, particularly corporate-control transactions and valuation. His course development aligns with his research interests. Throughout his career, he has taught a variety of corporate finance courses. Recently, he and Royce Yudkoff have been developing and teaching a new second-year case course titled “The Financial Management of Smaller Firms” and a field course called “Entrepreneurship through Acquisition.” Ruback and Yudkoff also recently published their book, HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business. Published by Harvard Business Review Press, the book serves as a practical roadmap through the steps required to find, evaluate, negotiate, and finance the acquisition of a smaller firm.
Ruback earned his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Rochester in 1980 and taught at MIT's Sloan School before joining the HBS faculty as a visiting professor in 1987. He was appointed associate professor in 1988 and full professor in 1989. Ruback has served as an editor for the Journal of Financial Economics and is the author of numerous articles on corporate finance and valuation.
Ruback has also served as a consultant to corporations on corporate finance issues and as an independent advisor to outside directors. Additionally, he has acted as an expert witness on valuation and security issues.
Lori Trahan
U.S. Congresswoman, Massachusetts 3rd District
Lori Trahan was born and raised in a working-class family in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her father was a union ironworker, and her mother was a domestic worker who juggled various part-time jobs while raising four girls. The first in her family to graduate from college, Lori earned a scholarship to play Division I volleyball at Georgetown University. She joined the staff of former Congressman Marty Meehan as a scheduler, eventually working her way up to Chief of Staff. After her public service, Lori worked in the private sector as the only female executive at a tech company before co-founding Concire, a woman-owned and operated consulting firm. At Concire, she advised various companies on business strategy and how to create conditions for employees—especially women—to thrive. Lori and her husband, Dave, currently reside in Westford, MA, where they are raising their two young daughters, Grace and Caroline, while keeping tabs on their three grown stepsons, Thomas, Dean, and Christian.
As a member of the House Education and Labor and House Armed Services Committees, Lori is dedicated to fighting for working families on issues such as affordable health care, quality public education, workforce development, the environment, and combating the opioid crisis. Lori is the first Portuguese-American woman elected to Congress and is a member of the New Democrats and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Brian L. Trelstad
Senior Lecturer of Business Administration
Joseph L. Rice, III Faculty Fellow
Brian Trelstad is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School in the General Management Unit, teaching an elective course on Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change, as well as the first-year required course on Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA). His teaching and research focus on social entrepreneurship, systems change, impact investing, and the role of business in society.
Brian is also a Partner and Board Member at Bridges Fund Management, an impact investing fund that invests in health, education, and environmental services businesses. Prior to Bridges, Brian was the Chief Investment Officer at Acumen, where he oversaw investments in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a co-chair of Impact Capital Managers, a national membership association of impact investors in the United States, and a founding board member of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). Before Acumen, Brian worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, was a lead environmental staff person at the Corporation for National Service, and has been involved in a range of non-profit and for-profit startups.
Brian serves on the boards of VisionSpring, Candid, and New Jersey Future, and is both a Kauffman Fellow of the Center for Venture Education and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.
Mitch B. Weiss
Richard L. Menschel Professor Of Management Practice
Chair, MBA Required Curriculum
Mitch Weiss is the Richard L. Menschel Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. He created and teaches the school's course on Public Entrepreneurship, which focuses on public leaders and private entrepreneurs who make a difference in the world. He is the faculty chair for the first year of the MBA program, where he has taught The Entrepreneurial Manager for many years. Mitch has been honored twice with the Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching and is also a recipient of the Greenhill Award. He helped build the Young American Leaders Program at Harvard Business School and is a senior advisor to the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. Mitch's work and the Public Entrepreneurship course have been referenced in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Politico, and other outlets. He is the author of We the Possibility from Harvard Business Review Press (2021). Mitch has been named one of the 100 most influential academics in government.
Prior to joining HBS in 2014, Mitch served as Chief of Staff and partner to Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino. He helped shape New Urban Mechanics, Boston’s municipal innovation strategy, making it a model for peer-produced government and change. Mitch also championed Boston’s Innovation District as a regional platform for entrepreneurship and growth.
He contributed to Boston’s educational reform agenda, including its District-Charter compact, and led speechwriting for the Mayor’s Inaugural and State of the City addresses. In April 2013, Mitch guided the Mayor’s Office response to the Marathon Bombings and played a key role in starting One Fund Boston.
Mitch has presented on government innovation at 10 Downing Street and the World Bank. He was recognized by the Boston Business Journal as one of Boston’s “Top 40 under 40” and by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce as one of Boston’s “Ten Outstanding Young Leaders.”
From 2006 to 2009, Mitch was the first Executive Director of the Tobin Project, a catalyst for transformative research in the social sciences. Prior to his roles in the public and social sectors, Mitch worked at Merrill Lynch & Co., focusing primarily on mergers and acquisitions for many well-recognized food companies.
Mitch holds an A.B. with Honors in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a George Baker Scholar.