Jana Pompadur Kierstead is the Executive Director of the MBA and Doctoral Programs at Harvard Business School. She brings over 25 years of experience to this role, with more than 20 years dedicated to leadership in business education. In her role as the Executive Director, Jana leads a team of over 120 full-time professionals who manage the student experience from admissions and financial aid, to student life and career services.
In 2013, Jana was selected to lead the School’s online learning initiative, Harvard Business School Online (formerly HBX). In that role she collaborated across the school to shape the initiative and lead Harvard Business School’s online learning program as the landscape of e-learning continued to evolve. HBS Online aims to establish a standard of excellence in online business education by creating sustained and differentiated value for individuals and organizations that make a difference in the world. HBX advances Harvard Business School’s reputation for excellence in business education and the broader business community, as well as the vast intellectual property, academic pedagogy and faculty talent of the School as a premier provider of high quality online business education. Since its inception in January 2013, HBS Online has launched twelve products on two distinct platforms and has reached over 50,000 learners from more than 170 countries.
Just prior to assuming the role of Executive Director of the MBA Program in February 2012, Jana oversaw the MBA Career and Professional Development team at HBS. Under her leadership, the group created a broad portfolio of career development, recruitment programs, and global engagement opportunities for HBS students and maintained strong recruiting relationships with hundreds of global organizations.
Before HBS, Jana worked in the private sector as a director at A. T. Kearney's media and entertainment executive search practice and held management positions with CBS Corporation and RP Companies. Jana earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. She currently serves as a Trustee for the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital–Needham and an Overseer for the Museum of Science, Boston.