HBS Appoints Acting Dean

Robinson Jr. Professor of Business Administration Jay O. Light will become acting dean of the Harvard Business School (HBS), the University announced yesterday.

Light, the senior associate dean for planning and development at HBS, will assume the post on August 1, when outgoing HBS Dean Kim B. Clark leaves to become president of Bringham Young University (BYU)-Idaho.

Clark, a devout Mormon who has served as dean for 10 years, abruptly announced his decision to resign on June 6, less than two weeks after he was asked by Gordon B. Hinkley, the president of the Mormon Church, to take the helm at BYU-Idaho.

University President Lawrence H. Summers, who announced Light’s appointment, also named a 15-member advisory group to assist him in selecting a new permanent dean.

However, Summers has the final say in all dean-level appointments.

Acting deans usually remain in their post for at most a year before a permanent dean is announced.

“In the months ahead, I look forward to working with my colleagues in the HBS community and President Summers to ensure we continue making progress on our important priorities and initiatives,” Light said in a press release yesterday.

Light could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Assistant-level deans are often chosen to serve as acting dean during the search for a permanent dean.

In a letter to the Harvard Business School community yesterday, Summers had high praise for Light.

“Jay has been a distinguished member of the HBS faculty for 35 years, and is widely admired within and beyond Harvard for his intelligence and judgment, his organizational savvy, and his devotion to HBS and to Harvard as a whole,” Summers wrote.

“We are fortunate to have someone of Jay’s professional experience and personal qualities to lead HBS during the pendency of the search for a long-term successor to Kim Clark,” he added.

Clark also had kind words regarding his successor.

“Jay is an outstanding choice for this important role,” Clark said in a press release. “He has been a wonderful partner for me over the last ten years, and is respected by all who know him. I am confident he will lead HBS wisely and well until a long-term Dean is named.”

Light holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a doctorate from Harvard’s joint HBS-Economics program in Decision and Control Theory.

Prior to serving as senior associate dean, Light served as chair of HBS’s finance unit and as senior associate dean for Faculty planning.

Light, an expert in institutional asset management and the entrepreneurial management of technology companies, is also a director of Harvard Management Corporation and serves on the board of several corporations.

—Staff writer Adam M. Guren can be reached at guren@fas.harvard.edu.