Biography

We normally do not kick-off our Executive Luncheon Series until September, but we are taking advantage of a great opportunity and kicking off August 20th!  Native Texan* and HBS professor, Joe Lassiter, will be in town, and has graciously agreed to speak to our club.  Those of you who had the pleasure of having Professor Lassiter at HBS know he's not only brilliant, but he's funny and charasmatic, as well.  He promises to be insightful and entertaining!

Professor Lassiter's talk, "Building Green Businesses," will introduce the HBS field-based research program.  He will discuss where environment and energy impacts consumer and social attitudes, and political and regulatory processes are dominant forces providing opportunities for the creation of new businessses, the scaling of embryonic businesses, or the re-design of established businesses.

Stephanie Hertzog
President, HBS Club of Houston

* Technically, Lassiter is from Arkansas, but he moved to Houston at the age of 9 and attended Memorial High School.  I'm giving him "native Texan'" status!
                                               

                                               Additional information on Professor Lassiter below: 

Joe teaches Entrepreneurial Finance and Building Green Businesses in the MBA Program as well as Marketing Strategy in the Executive Education Program. He is Co-Faculty Advisor to the HBS Student Business Plan Contest. His academic research and professional work focus on high-potential ventures, including both those formed as new companies and those formed within existing organizations.

From 1994 to 1996, Joe was President of Wildfire Communications, a telecommunications software venture backed by Matrix Partners and Greylock Management. From 1977 to 1994, Joe was a Vice President of Teradyne (NYSE/ automatic test equipment) and a member of its Management Committee. Joe joined Teradyne in 1974 as a Product Manager while on sabbatical from MIT. As a general manager, he was responsible for organizations ranging from start-ups to international, multi-plant businesses. As an individual contributor, he was best known for his work on product development/ sales management problems and on the application of TQM methods to business planning and control.

Joe began his career at MIT's Department of Ocean Engineering as an Instructor in 1970 and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1972. He developed and taught a course on marine mineral resource economics. He lectured in hydrodynamics, marine transportation, and computer simulation modeling. In a joint program with Harvard Law School, he lectured on marine legal / regulatory policy. His research focused on forecasting economic and environmental consequences of offshore oil and gas development. He was appointed to the MIT-led National Academy of Engineering study on the future of engineering education. Joe received his BS, MS, and PhD from MIT and was awarded National Science, Adams and McDermott Fellowships. He was elected to Sigma Xi.

Please mark your calendar for Thursday, August 20th.