Leonard A. Schlesinger named senior vice president for development

Leonard A. Schlesinger, currently the George F. Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, has been appointed senior vice president for development at Brown University. Schlesinger will also serve as professor of sociology with tenure and professor of public policy.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Leonard A. Schlesinger, the George F. Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, will join the faculty and administration of Brown University Oct. 1, 1998. Schlesinger will serve as senior vice president for development and as counselor to the president and will hold faculty appointments as professor of sociology with tenure and professor of public policy.

"I am absolutely delighted that Len will return to his alma mater both to teach and to lead our fund-raising efforts," said Brown President E. Gordon Gee. "Len's distinguished career and achievements in the worlds of academe and business make him an ideal leader at a time of great change and great challenges."

As senior vice president for development, Schlesinger will head the University's entire fund-raising enterprise, serve on the president's senior-level councils, and consult with Gee and other senior officers on issues of organization, mission, strategy and policy. He will provide leadership to a capital campaign underway at the School of Medicine and begin planning for the University's next major capital campaign. (The Campaign for the Rising Generation, Brown's most recent comprehensive fund-raising effort, had raised 118 percent of its original $450-million goal when it concluded in June 1996.)

Prior to his own arrival as Brown's 17th president in January 1998, Gee commissioned Schlesinger and two other external consultants to give him their independent assessments of the University's strengths, challenges and potential and to make recommendations about how to move forward. Gee used those recommendations and other sources in forming his own agenda for the University's future.

"My undergraduate experience at Brown has always been a significant touchstone for me," said Schlesinger. "I have been privileged to serve Brown as a consultant on strategic planning in 1991 and during the recent leadership transition. The opportunity to join the leadership of this great institution was exciting and energizing, and I look forward to becoming part of the team that will lead Brown into the next century."

Schlesinger's selection follows a national search undertaken in November 1997 by a 10-member committee of faculty, trustees and fellows. Members included Ross E. Cheit, associate professor of political science; Paul R. Dupee Jr., trustee; Peder J. Estrup, dean of the Graduate School and research; Timothy C. Forbes, fellow; Eleanor H. Gimon, trustee; H. Anthony Ittleson, trustee (chair); Richard S. Landau, former national chair of the Brown Annual Fund; Debra L. Lee, trustee; David E. McKinney, trustee (vice chair); and Charles M. Rosenthal, trustee emeritus. Chancellor Emeritus Artemis A. W. Joukowsky and Chancellor Stephen Robert served as ex-officio members.

Leonard A. Schlesinger

Schlesinger, a 1973 graduate of Brown University (A.B., American civilization), earned his M.B.A. at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business Administration in 1973 and his doctorate at the Harvard Business School in 1979. He joined the Harvard faculty as an instructor in 1978, advancing to assistant professor (1979), associate professor (1989) and professor (1993). He was named to the Baker chair in 1994. He currently chairs the Service Management Area, teaching an elective course on technology-enabled service.

In addition to teaching and research, Schlesinger recently served as senior associate dean and director of external relations for the school, responsible for alumni and corporate relations, media relations, communications and development. He chaired the design and delivery efforts for a major curriculum redesign within the M.B.A. program. For three years (1985-88), he worked outside the Harvard Business School as executive vice president, treasurer, director and later chief operating officer of Au Bon Pain Co. Inc., a chain of French bakeries. He has also served as a director of The Limited Inc., Borders Group Inc., GC (General Cinema) Companies Inc., and Pegasystems Inc.

Schlesinger's writings on management have been widely published, and he has consulted on organization design, human resources and service management for more than 70 major corporations, nonprofit organizations and public agencies in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Asia and Australia. He is the author or co-author of eight books, numerous articles and several video series. His recent books include The Service Profit Chain (Free Press, 1997) and The Real Heroes of Business ... and Not a CEO Among Them (Doubleday Currency, 1994).

Schlesinger resides in Lincoln, Mass., with his wife Phyllis (Fineman) Schlesinger, also a 1973 Brown graduate and professor of organizational behavior at Babson College, and their three daughters, one of whom will enter Brown this fall.