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Nancy F. Koehn, an authority on entrepreneurial history, is the James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Koehn's research focuses on entrepreneurship, leadership, and connecting with customers in the Information Revolution.  Her most recent book, Brand New:  How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (Harvard Business School Press, 2001) examines six entrepreneurial visionaries who have created powerful brands and best-of-class companies in moments of great change.

Koehn is also the author of The Power of Commerce:  Economy and Governance in the First British Empire (1994), as well as acontributor to Remember Who You Are:  Life Stories That Inspire the Heart and Mind (2004); The Intellectual Venture Capitalist:  John H. McArthur and the Work of the Harvard Business School, 1980-1995 (1999); Creating Modern Capitalism:  How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions(1997); and Management Past and Present:  A Casebook on American Business History (1995).  She has written and supervised cases on Oprah Winfrey, Starbucks Coffee Company, Whole Foods, Wedgwood, Estée Lauder, Madam C.J. Walker, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, Dell Computer, Ernest Shackleton, and other leaders and organizations.

At the Harvard Business School, she teaches the MBA elective Entrepreneurial Leadership:  Past, Present, and Future.  She has also taught the MBA elective in business history, The Coming of Managerial Capitalism, one of the School's most popular courses, and in executive education programs.  In 1998, the HBS Student Association selected Koehn as one of two Outstanding Professors in the Elective Curriculum.

Koehn consults with many companies and speaks frequently before business leaders on a range of subjects including leading in turbulent times, the power of strong brands, visionary entreprenuers, and learning from history.  She has appeared on "Good Morning America," CNBC's "Moneywheel," "Nightly Business Report," and "Street Signs," "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," A&E's "Biography," CNN's "Money Line" and many other television programs.  She is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio.

Before coming to HBS in 1991, Koehn was a member of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences for seven years, first as a graduate student in history and then as a lecturer in the History and Literature concentration and the Department of Economics.  During the years, she recieved the Allyn Young prize in 1989 and numerous Danforth commendations for excellence in teaching.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 1983.  She received her MA and Ph.D. in European history from Harvard University in 1985 and 1990, respectively.   

Monday, March 9th

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