Martin Taps Levy as Dean for Administration

Dean Joseph B. Martin has appointed Paul F. Levy, a consultant with extensive experience in administration and strategic planning, to be the new Harvard Medical School (HMS) executive dean for administration and to hold the expanded position of vice president of Harvard Medical Center, the independently chartered consortium of the School and its affiliates.

Levy will have primary responsibility for budgeting and finance, planning, personnel, facilities, HMS business subsidiaries, and community and government relations. In addition, in his new role as vice president for Harvard Medical Center (HMC), he will help expand Martin's efforts to reinvigorate the consortium originally founded in 1956 to held fund the Countway Library and other efforts. Martin envisions HMC having a role in fostering collaborations like the clinical trials proposal announced last summer and the recently established JDF Center for Islet Cell Transplantation at Harvard Medical School.

"I have a deep admiration and respect for the breadth and quality of the research and teaching at Harvard Medical School and within the full Harvard medical community," says Levy. "It is a privilege to have this opportunity to help implement the jointly established priorities of the School and its affiliates."

For the past six years, while teaching infrastructure planning and environmental management at M.I.T., Levy has maintained an active consulting practice focusing on business strategic planning and project management. Prior to that he headed the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, leading the efforts to clean up Boston Harbor. He has served in a variety of administrative positions requiring expertise in planning and operations.

"During the harbor clean-up, Paul proved a brilliant leader in developing the moral, legal, and collaborative basis for that astonishing accomplishment," says Martin. "He is a pro at strategic planning and negotiation with issues and industries in transition.

"He is exactly what we need as we prepare the Quad for a new era of multidisciplinary science and our medical education programs for a period of radical change in financing and venue," he adds. "These academic missions of the School have never been more intertwined with the academic missions of the affiliates, and Paul's skills should help in creating true synergy in these missions."

Levy, who starts at HMS Oct. 1, has served as an adjunct professor of environmental policy at M.I.T. since 1992, while consulting with many national and international clients on strategic planning, regulatory support, and negotiation. During the previous five years he was director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, having served as chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and in various administrative roles in the technology and utilities fields. He holds undergraduate degrees from M.I.T. in economics and in urban studies and planning, as well as a master's degree in city planning awarded in 1974. Originally from New York, he lives in Newton Centre.