August 2008

After a six-year tenure as Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government, John Ruggie has stepped down to begin a well-deserved sabbatical. John has been an outstanding director of M-RCBG, bringing a heightened international focus to the Center’s work. He has created a research program on business and human rights as part of his mandate as special representative of the UN Secretary-General. He founded the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, which examines the role of business in international development and corporate accountability. During John’s tenure, the Center was renamed the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government, following a generous gift from Bijan and Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani. John introduced a new program to provide seed grants for faculty research; he gave new focus and energy to the Center’s fellows and student programs; and he has generally raised the profile and impact of the Center in all its many endeavors across multiple sectors and policy areas. John’s unique combination of academic prowess and deep engagement with critical issues across the globe gives him remarkable wisdom and insights. The School and the Center are far more effective as a result of his leadership.

We are fortunate that John is not leaving the Center or the School. While on sabbatical this year, he will be completing his fourth year as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on business and human rights. He will also be serving as a Guggenheim Fellow and will write a book on how to improve the human rights performance of companies, focusing particularly on transnational corporations. John will be returning to the classroom to continue teaching in the fall of 2009.

I am very pleased to announce that Roger Porter has agreed to succeed John Ruggie as Director of M-RCBG for the coming year. Roger is no stranger to the role, having previously served as CBG’s director from 1995 to 2000. Roger brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to M-RCBG. He is the IBM Professor of Business and Government. He has served for more than a decade in senior economic policy positions in the White House, most recently as Assistant to the President for Economic and Domestic Policy from 1989 to 1993. He served as Director of the White House Office of Policy Development in the Reagan Administration and as Executive Secretary of the President’s Economic Policy Board during the Ford Administration. He is the author of several books on economic policy, including Presidential Decision Making and Efficiency, Equity and Legitimacy: The Multilateral Trading System at the Millennium.

Please join me in thanking John Ruggie for his years of service, and in giving a very warm ‘welcome back’ to Roger Porter as he returns to the M-RCBG Director’s chair.

Best,

David

David T. Ellwood, Dean
Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy
Harvard Kennedy School