Harvard’s practitioner‑fellow model
Harvard Business School rolled out a spring cohort of Executive Fellows—practitioners embedded to bring real‑world learning and mentorship into campus life—which underscores how alumni in practitioner roles can be deployed to re‑engage graduates and students. Embedding alumni as short‑term fellows or mentors creates programming that appeals across career stages. (news.harvard.edu)
HBS says the Executive Fellows program — launched in 2020 — brings experienced practitioners into classroom and research collaborations, a model chaired by Professor Len Schlesinger. (hbs.edu) For scale, Harvard reported a campus-wide cohort of 95 Executive Fellows for the 2025–2026 academic year, indicating the program operates at large institutional capacity beyond single-semester placements. (hbs.edu) This spring’s list names John Andrews (MBA 2001), co‑founder and CEO of Cimulate, working with Jim Matheson on the MBA Required Curriculum course The Entrepreneurial Manager. (hbs.edu) Peter Campbell (MBA 1992), founder of Education Growth Partners, is paired with Brian Trelstad on initiatives about how students and alumni navigate pathways to purpose, while Scott Friend (MBA 1995), partner at Bain Capital Ventures, is co‑teaching Scaling Technology Ventures with Jeffrey Rayport. (hbs.edu) Other named placements include David Cazorla Jäggin (Henkel) on scaling innovation with the Strategy Unit, Luba Greenwood advising Amitabh Chandra on MS/MBA Biotechnology: Life Sciences programming, Megan Hall (MBA 2006) partnering with Gerald Chertavian and Brian Trelstad on new social‑enterprise launches, and Michael Mahoney (Boston Scientific) collaborating with Ranjay Gulati on Turnarounds and Transformations. (hbs.edu) HBS specifies fellows contribute across curricular and co‑curricular activities — course sessions, mentoring, short intensive formats, and faculty case work — with appointments ranging from a few months up to a year and extensions possible. (hbs.edu)
