james i. cash, jr

Dr. Cash is an Emeritus James E. Robison Professor and Senior Associate Dean of the Harvard Business School, where he first joined the faculty in 1976 and retired in 2003.  He taught in all the major HBS programs, and served as Chairman of Baker Library, Chairman of the MBA program and Chairman of the Harvard Business School Publishing Company at different times during his time at the school.

His work and research is focused on the strategic use of information technology in the service sector.  Among his publications are articles in accounting and information technology journals, several Harvard Business Review articles including, “Teaming Up to Crack Innovation and Enterprise Integration” (November-December 2008), "IS Redraws Competitive Boundaries" (March-April 1985) and "Information Technology and Tomorrow's Manager" (November-December 1988), several books: Building the Information-Age Organization: Structure, Control; and Information Technology with Eccles, Nohria and Nolan (Irwin), Corporate Information Systems Management: Issues Facing Senior Managers and Corporate Information Systems Management: Text and Cases with McFarlan and McKenney (Irwin), Global Electronic Wholesale Banking with Mookerjee (Graham & Trotman), and an instructional videotape, Competing Through Information Technology with Warren McFarlan (Nathan/Tyler).

Dr. Cash participates on a number of public, private and not-for-profit boards, including General Electric, Wal-Mart, Chubb, The Boston Celtics, The Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation.  In the past he has served on the Boards of Microsoft, Sprint, Scientific Atlanta, State Street Corp, Partners Healthcare, Mass General Hospital, The Gardner Museum and the Museum of Science.

Under the umbrella of The Cash Catalyst he runs personal development programs for executives in Global 500 organizations: The Executive and Board Symposium, The Cash CIO Forum and The Cash IT Leadership Development Program.

In 1965 he became the first African-American to sign an athletic letter-of-intent in the Southwest Conference at Texas Christian University to play basketball.  He received Conference and Academic All-American honors before graduating with a BS in Mathematics. Later he received a Master of Science in Computer Science from Purdue University's Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences; and a Doctor of Philosophy in Management Information Systems (MIS) and Accounting from Purdue University's Krannert Graduate School of Management.