Jay O. Light

Jay O. Light

George F. Baker Professor of Administration, Emeritus

George F. Baker Professor of Administration, Emeritus

+1 (617) 495-6358
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Jay O. Light
Contact Information
(617) 495-6358
Publications Research Summary

Journal Articles
Journal Articles

  • Light, Jay O. "Change is in the Offing." How to Fix Business Schools. Harvard Business Review Blogs (May 7, 2009). View Details
  • Perold, André, and Jay O. Light. "The Institutionalization of Wealth: Changing Patterns of Investment Decision-Making." Tōshi kōgaku [Investment technology] 2 (1990): 63–96. View Details

Book Chapters
Book Chapters

  • Perold, André, and Jay O. Light. "The Institutionalization of Wealth: Changing Patterns of Investment Decision-Making." In Wall Street and Regulation, edited by Samuel L. Hayes III, 97–126. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1987. View Details

Cases and Teaching Materials
Cases and Teaching Materials

Presentations
Presentations

  • Perold, André, and Jay O. Light. "Risk Sharing and Corporate Pension Policy." Paper presented at the American Finance Association Annual Meeting, December 01, 1985. View Details

Other Publications and Materials
Other Publications and Materials

  • Crane, D. B., J. O. Light, K. G. Palepu, and A. F. Perold. "Capital Market Intermediaries: Summary Observations on a Workshop Held at Harvard Business School." May 2003. View Details
All Publications

Jay Light is Dean Emeritus of Harvard Business School and the George F. Baker Professor of Administration Emeritus. He earned his bachelor's degree in engineering physics with highest honors from Cornell in 1963. He then worked in satellite guidance and systems planning at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. He enrolled in the doctoral program in decision and control theory at Harvard in 1966, earning his doctorate four years later. He joined the faculty of HBS in December 1969. After a brief leave of absence from 1977 to 1979 to serve as director of investment and financial policies for the Ford Foundation, he returned to HBS as a full professor.

Light was named Interim Dean in 2005 and Dean the following year. During his tenure, he has overseen the renovation and restoration of Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, which houses the world's preeminent collection of business books and archival materials. He presided over the yearlong celebration of the School's centennial in 2008, reconnecting with alumni around the world and leading discussions on the future of MBA education. He has navigated HBS through the financial challenges of the global economic crisis, deploying a strategy that simultaneously reduced expenses and maintained investments in areas of long-term strategic importance, including faculty research and student financial aid.

Light has overseen a range of innovations in the School's MBA program, including the new January term, Immersion Experience Programs (a portfolio of faculty-led seminars in selected regions around the world), and the launch and development of joint degree programs with Harvard's Medical School and Kennedy School. He has fostered new faculty initiatives in health care, science-based business, and business and the environment, and expanded the Global Initiative with the opening of a research center in India and a new facility in China.

Light previously served as Chairman of the Finance area (1986-1988), Senior Associate Dean and Director of Faculty Planning (1988-1994), and Senior Associate Dean and Director of Planning and Development (1998-2005) at HBS. In this last role he led the School's strategic planning efforts and helped shape new educational and research program initiatives.

Light has taught thousands of students in the School's MBA and doctoral programs, and in various executive programs for CFOs and investment managers. He is the co-author (with W.L. White) of The Financial System (1979) as well as numerous articles and more than 70 cases and notes. His interests include asset management, risk management, negotiation and deal structuring, and corporate finance. He has explored strategic business decisions in the money management industry and related fields. He also has examined how negotiation analysis and related techniques can be used in structuring financial transactions in the context of entrepreneurial situations, and to enhance value in private equity investments.

Light, originally from Ohio, lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, with his wife, Judy; they are the parents of two grown children.

Journal Articles
  • Light, Jay O. "Change is in the Offing." How to Fix Business Schools. Harvard Business Review Blogs (May 7, 2009). View Details
  • Perold, André, and Jay O. Light. "The Institutionalization of Wealth: Changing Patterns of Investment Decision-Making." Tōshi kōgaku [Investment technology] 2 (1990): 63–96. View Details
Book Chapters
  • Perold, André, and Jay O. Light. "The Institutionalization of Wealth: Changing Patterns of Investment Decision-Making." In Wall Street and Regulation, edited by Samuel L. Hayes III, 97–126. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1987. View Details
Cases and Teaching Materials
Presentations
  • Perold, André, and Jay O. Light. "Risk Sharing and Corporate Pension Policy." Paper presented at the American Finance Association Annual Meeting, December 01, 1985. View Details
Other Publications and Materials
  • Crane, D. B., J. O. Light, K. G. Palepu, and A. F. Perold. "Capital Market Intermediaries: Summary Observations on a Workshop Held at Harvard Business School." May 2003. View Details
Research Summary
Investment Decisions and Decision Problems in Professional Investment Management
Jay O. Light is evaluating strategic business decisions in the money management industry as well as problems that arise in the management of very large pools of tax exempt money, particularly pension funds and endowments. From this research he is developing teaching materials that will be used in the elective course Investment Management, and in various senior executive education programs. These materials will explore investment decisions and decision problems in professional investment management organizations, both those that manage publicly-traded equity and those that manage private equity.
Negotiation Analysis and the Structuring of Financial Transactions
Jay O. Light is developing materials that will explore how negotiation analysis and related techniques can be used in structuring financial transactions in the context of entrepreneurial situations, and how they might be used to enhance value in private equity investments.

 

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