Debora Spar

Debora L. Spar is a leading expert on how technology shapes business, political and societal structures, gender roles, and society. She currently serves as the Senior Associate Dean of Harvard Business School. Prior to this position, she was the Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration and had served as senior associate dean for faculty research and development at Harvard Business School. She taught courses on the politics of international business, comparative capitalism, and economic development.

Prior to Harvard, Spar served as the seventh president of Barnard College from 2008 to 2017. During her tenure, Spar was a vocal proponent of women's education and leadership, spearheading initiatives that include the Athena Center for Leadership Studies, an interdisciplinary center devoted to the theory and practice of women's leadership, and Barnard's Global Symposium series, an annual gathering of high-profile and accomplished female leaders held each year in a different region of the world.

Apart from her role at Barnard College, Spar took on the role of an academic dean at Columbia University. She was also the 10th president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts from 2017 to 2018. Her leadership positions extend to the corporate world, where she served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American investment bank Goldman Sachs from 2011 to 2017.

Spar's scholarly research focuses on issues of international political economy, examining how rules are established in new or emerging markets and how firms and governments together shape the evolving global economy. She has penned several insightful books on these topics, including "Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Invention, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet" (2001), "The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception" (2006) and "Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection" (2013). Her work has been recognized in various mediums, and she has appeared on shows such as "60 Minutes," "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer," and "ABC World News Tonight."

Spar is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and received her doctorate in government from Harvard. She is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and has served as a trustee of the Nightingale-Bamford School. She is married to Miltos Catomeris, an architect whose specialty is academic, institutional, and corporate campuses, and they are the parents of three children.