Part of the inauguration of Jim Yong Kim as 17th president of Dartmouth, the panel discussion features General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, Brown University president Ruth Simmons, Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, Freddie Mac head Ed Haldeman, and global health pioneer Dr. Paul Farmer talking with professor Sydney Finkelstein about the future of education, business, and social justice.
Bio
Dr. Paul Farmer
Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer is Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he is also Chair, and a founding director of Partners In Health, an international non-profit organization that provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty.
Dr. Farmer’s work draws primarily on active clinical practice and focuses on community-based treatment strategies for infectious diseases in resource-poor settings, health and human rights, and the role of social inequalities in determining disease distribution and outcomes. He is Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston, and served for ten years as medical director of a charity hospital, L’Hôpital Bon Sauveur, in rural Haiti. Along with his colleagues at BWH, in the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change at HMS, and in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi, Dr. Farmer has pioneered novel, community-based treatment strategies for AIDS and tuberculosis (including multidrug-resistant tuberculosis).
Dr. Farmer and his colleagues have successfully challenged the policymakers and critics who claim that quality health care is impossible to deliver in resource-poor settings.
Sydney Finkelstein
Sydney Finkelstein, the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business, is widely known as one of the top authorities on strategy and leadership.
He spent six years studying 51 companies and conducting 200 interviews of business leaders for his #1 best-selling book, Why Smart Executives Fail (2003).
The book identifies the fundamental reasons why major mistakes happen, points out the early warning signals that are critical for investors and managers alike, and offers ideas on how organizations can develop a capability of learning from corporate mistakes.
Charles E. Haldeman Jr.
Charles E. "Ed" Haldeman, Jr. is chief executive officer of Freddie Mac, a publicly-traded company that is the second largest source of mortgage financing in the United States and a leader in the nation's efforts to keep families in their homes during the nation's current housing crisis.
Haldeman has 35 years of experience in finance and as a corporate leader. He joined Freddie Mac from Putnam Investments where he served as Chairman of Putnam Investment Management, LLC, the investment advisor for the Putnam Funds, from July 2008 until June 30, 2009. Prior to assuming the role of chairman of Putnam Investment Management, he served as president and chief executive officer of Putnam Investments, a position to which he was appointed in 2003 and charged with reorganizing the business and improving business policies and compliance following a series of probes into the industry's business practices.
Based on that success, CFA Magazine named him "One of the Most Influential CFA Institute Members" in December 2006, citing his personal commitment to fiduciary duty, his work to restore Putnam's reputation and his creation of an organizational culture that reinforced trust in the firm.
Haldeman also spearheaded the sale of Putnam Investments to Power Financial Corporation in January 2007.
Jeffrey R. Immelt
Jeffrey R. Immelt, the CEO of General Electric since 2001, has been named one of the World's Best CEOs by Barron's three times. He is also a member of President Obama's Economic Recovery Board.
Michael Porter
Michael E. Porter is a leading authority on competitive strategy, the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states, and regions, and the application of competitive principles to social problems such as health care, the environment, and corporate responsibility.
Professor Porter is generally recognized as the father of the modern strategy field, as has been identified in a variety of rankings and surveys as the world’s most influential thinker on management and competitiveness.
He is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, based at Harvard Business School. A University professorship is the highest professional recognition that can be awarded to a Harvard faculty member. In 2001, Harvard Business School and Harvard University jointly created the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, dedicated to furthering Professor Porter’s work.
He is the author of 18 books and over 125 articles. He received a B.S.E. with high honors in aerospace and mechanical engineering from Princeton University in 1969, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. He received an M.B.A. with high distinction in 1971 from the Harvard Business School, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University in 1973.
Ruth J. Simmons
Ruth J. Simmons was sworn in as the 18th president of Brown University on July 3, 2001. Under her leadership, Brown is making new investments to secure its standing as one of the worldâ's finest research universities.
A French professor before entering university administration, President Simmons also holds an appointment as a professor of comparative literature and of Africana Studies at Brown. She graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans and completed her Ph.D. in Romance languages and literatures at Harvard. She served in various administrative roles at the University of Southern California, Princeton University, and Spelman College before becoming president of Smith College, the largest women's college in the United States. At Smith, she launched a number of initiatives including an engineering program, the first at an American women's college.
Simmons is the recipient of many honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship, the 2001 President's Award from the United Negro College Fund, the 2002 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, and the 2004 Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal. She has been a featured speaker in many public venues, including the White House, the World Economic Forum, the National Press Club, the American Council on Education, and the Phi Beta Kappa Lecture at Harvard University.
She is a member of the Howard University Board of Trustees and serves on a number of boards, including Texas Instruments and The Goldman Sachs Group, and has been awarded numerous honorary degrees.
Ruth J. Simmons, President of Brown University, argues that one of the most important aspects of education is student exposure to people with different ideas and beliefs.
She explains that no one, no matter how powerful, is beyond being "circumscribed by who you are as a human being."
Dr. Paul Farmer, Professor of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, describes the "unbroken chain of events" that led him to his work in Haiti. He explains that he wanted to be a physician until he took an undergraduate class in medical anthropology, advising current students to "be open to letting [a class] change your life."
Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, describes his experiences working for financial aid to pay for college. He explains that one of his most influential experiences was grading papers for legendary mathematician John Kemeny, who taught him that "the smartest people in the world ask more questions than they answer."
