Harry L. Hansen papers

Harry Louis Hansen was a pioneer of management education and a major figure in the development of advanced business programs throughout the world. He studied at Haverford College in 1933, and continued on at Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration (HBS) to earn his master's degree in 1935, and a doctorate in 1939. In 1950, Hansen became a full professor at HBS, and 1965 was the inaugural Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing. He retired in 1977.

As a member of the Harvard Business School's faculty for more than four decades, Hansen's commitment to management education was recognized throughout the world. He was one of the first members of the faculty to see the necessity of broadening the scope of its teaching and research, and in large part due to his early efforts, the courses at HBS became more international in their focus long before most people gave any thought to the global economy. He directed his first overseas Advanced Management Program in 1956 in the Philippines and in 1963 became the first head of Harvard's Division of International Activities. He subsequently established programs and taught management seminars in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan and Indonesia, including the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), where he served as principle negotiator for the collaboration between HBS and IIMA and stayed on as the HBS Project Director for five years. His work also led to the establishment of business schools at both Oxford and Cambridge universities in the 1980’s. After his retirement from HBS, he became a distinguished professor at Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa (IESE), in Barcelona, Spain, and in 1983, became active in the establishment and continuing development of the Institute Pengembangan Manajemen Indonesia, serving in a variety of roles including chairman of the International Advisory Committee. In 1985 he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts and received Harvard's Distinguished Service Award. Hansen died in 1992.