HBS Prof. To Assume Yale Post

Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management Joel M. Podolny ’86 was tapped to serve as the new dean of the Yale School of Management (SOM), Yale President Richard C. Levin announced yesterday morning.

Podolny, who is 39, currently holds a joint appointment at Harvard Business School (HBS) in the organizational behavior unit and at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, where he is a professor of sociology.

He will begin his new post July 1.

Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration David A. Thomas—who has taught a required course for first-year students at HBS, “Leadership and Organizational Behavior,” with Podolny—said yesterday that his colleague was capitalizing on a unique opportunity.

“The bottom line is that it’s an extraordinary opportunity,” Thomas said yesterday. “And if you know Joel as a person, that opportunity is really consistent with his values.”

Thomas added that Podolny’s appointment may be a move by Yale to reinforce SOM’s guiding philosophy.

“The school is based on the notion that the public and private sectors are integrated, rather than separate,” said Thomas, who is a graduate of SOM. “The school has gone through a period of having moved away from that mission, and Rick Levin realizes that they need to get back to it.”

In a statement released yesterday, Levin offered high praise for the newly appointed dean.

“Professor Podolny brings scholarly distinction, administrative experience, and an infectious enthusiasm that will serve us well,” he wrote.

Thomas said that attracting Podolny took some convincing—Podolny initially turned down requests to serve as dean of SOM before finally accepting when the school renewed its efforts.

Podolny has worked at Harvard since 2002 and has served as the director of research at HBS since 2003. Previously, he was a professor and a dean at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for 11 years.

Podolny’s academic research has centered on the areas of economic sociology, complex organizations, and social networks, according to his online faculty profile. His most famous work has dealt with how status relates to market competition, read the profile.

At Stanford and at Harvard, he has taught courses in the areas of organizational behavior, strategy, and global management, according to his profile.

As an undergraduate at Harvard, he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in social studies. He received a PhD in sociology from Harvard in 1991.

Podolny was in not available for comment yesterday.

In his new position at Yale, Podolny will succeed Jeffrey E. Garten, who has served as dean of SOM since 1995.

-Staff writer Daniel J. T. Schuker can be reached at dschuker@fas.harvard.edu.