Valerie Porciello is the Executive Director of the Division of Research and Faculty Development at Harvard Business School and a member of the School’s administrative leadership team. She is responsible for the overall strategy and performance of the DRFD, an organization with more than 300 staff and an operating budget of $53M that includes faculty administration, research administration, and a wide array of faculty research, teaching, and administrative support services.
Valerie partners with HBS faculty leadership to advance a strategic agenda for faculty development and research. This work encompasses recruiting and onboarding, appointments and reviews, planning and staffing, and the allocation of research funding and other support resources to more than 300 faculty members. In addition, she engages in initiatives related to faculty culture, mentoring, engagement, and governance, as well as the creation of new functions to enhance the HBS faculty support infrastructure. New service offerings have included Research Computing Services, the HBS Behavioral Lab (BeLab), the Case Research and Writing Group, the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning, an Executive Fellows Program, and a Predoctoral Fellows Program. Current projects focus on research integrity and compliance, external funding, teaching skills development, and diversifying the faculty.
Prior to joining Harvard, Valerie served on a leadership team at Digital Equipment Corporation charged with managing the organizational transformation of an IT service delivery business with more than 24,000 customers across the Northeastern U.S. She holds a BS, summa cum laude, and an MBA with high distinction from Bentley College. She is also a graduate of the Program for Management Development (PMD77) at HBS.