Warren McFarlan Summit Speaker

F. Warren McFarlan is the T.J. Dermot Dunphy Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration and the Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School.

Professor McFarlan earned his AB from Harvard University in 1959, and his MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School in 1961 and 1965 respectively. He has had a significant role in introducing materials on Management Information Systems to all major programs at the Harvard Business School since the first course on the subject was offered in 1962.

He has been a long-time teacher in the Advanced Management Program: International Senior Managers Program, Delivering Information Services Program, and several of the Social Sector programs. He teaches currently in the First Year Financial Reporting and Control course, and Second Year MBA course "Doing Business in China in the Early 21st Century," as well as in several short Executive Education programs.

In 1973, shortly after his appointment to full professor he, along with four other faculty members, was sent to Switzerland to set up the School's International Senior Management Program. He returned from Switzerland in 1975 to become Chairman of the Advanced Management Program, a position he held until 1978; and Chairman of all Executive Education Programs from 1977-1980. He was Senior Associate Dean and Director of Research from 1991 to 1995, Senior Associate Dean and Director of External Relations from 1995-2000, and Senior Associate Dean and Director of Asia Pacific from 1999-2004.

Professor McFarlan's book, Connecting the Dots, coauthored with Cathleen Benko appeared in 2003. Seizing Strategic IT Advantage in China, coauthored with Professor Richard Nolan and Professor Guoqing Chen of Tsinghua University, appeared in 2003 (available only in Chinese). Professor McFarlan's newest book, Corporate Information Strategy and Management: Text and Cases (seventh edition), coauthored with Professors Lynda M. Applegate and Robert D. Austin appeared in 2006. Creating Business Advantage in the Information Age coauthored with Professors Lynda M. Applegate and Robert D. Austin appeared in 2002. "Working on Nonprofit Boards: Don't Assume the Shoe Fits" appeared in the November/December 1999 issue of the Harvard Business Review, and "Information Technology and the Board of Directors" with Richard Nolan appeared in October 2005. He is editor of Information Systems Research Challenge, published by the Harvard Business School Press, 1984. He served a three-year term as Senior Editor of the MIS Quarterly (1986-1988). Prof. McFarlan is a member of several corporate and non-profit boards, serving for over ten years on hospital boards.

Summit 2009

Summit 2009 IT Managers Forum IT Managers Forum

For more by Warren McFarlan, see:

• Summit 2005 Embracing Continuous IT Change for Success