Business School dedicates Greenhill House

Dean Kim B. Clark presided over ceremonies on campus recently celebrating Gayle and Robert F. Greenhill M.B.A ’62, and their family, who established a $15 million endowment last June supporting the School’s extensive global research efforts.

In recognition of the endowment, Clark officially renamed Humphrey House. A 1966 building that in keeping with early HBS tradition had originally been named after a U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (George M. Humphrey, who served as secretary from 1953 to 1957 under President Eisenhower), it will now be called Greenhill House.

The building, whose interior has been completely renovated and redecorated, will be home to the HBS Global Initiative, a program focused on enhancing the School’s international course-development and research activities by building closer ties with companies, other academic institutions, and alumni around the globe.

“This marks an important time in the history of the School,” said Clark at the unveiling of the building’s new name. “Our mission is to educate leaders, and it’s essential that we deepen our students’ engagement with the world. As Professor John Quelch [Senior Associate Dean for International Development] has put it, Greenhill House is an anchor for our Global Initiative and the School’s work around the world.”

Commented Quelch, “The generosity and vision of the Greenhill family is an endorsement of our progress to date, a daily reminder to the entire HBS community of our commitment to building a truly global business school, and a challenge to all of us in the Global Initiative team to meet Dean Clark’s goals and expectations in this area.”

From their base in Greenhill House, members of the Global Initiative staff will work regularly with other HBS personnel in the School’s research centers in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Japan, and Latin America to promote these ties and create new educational materials and research insights related to global business.

The facilities will also accommodate the School’s Global Research Group, a team of experienced, multilingual case writers and researchers who focus on furthering the School’s commitment to a wide range of international research efforts.

More than half of Harvard Business School’s 210 faculty members conduct research overseas, and at any given time, HBS researchers are active in more than 40 countries. As a result, about 30 percent of new HBS cases produced each year deal with organizations and issues outside the United States.

The third group to move into Greenhill House comes from the staff of the School’s Executive Education programs, which have long had a substantial international representation. Each year, more than 7,000 men and women from more than 2,500 sponsoring organizations attend one of 85 open enrollment and custom programs on the HBS campus. Almost half of the participants hail from a country other than the United States. In addition, Executive Education offers programs to managers in developing economies around the world, including those in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

The Greenhill Family has been closely and actively involved with Harvard Business School for many years. In 1987, the Greenhills established the HBS Greenhill Award, an annual award given by the dean to recognize outstanding members of the HBS community who are making significant contributions to the School. Robert Greenhill served as a member of the School’s Visiting Committee for many years.

Currently the chairman and chief executive officer of Greenhill & Co. LLC, an independent global investment bank headquartered in New York City, Robert Greenhill graduated from Yale in 1958, served two years of active duty in the U.S. Navy, and earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1962 as a Baker Scholar.

Upon joining Morgan Stanley, he served in a number of leadership roles during 30 years with that firm. Leaving Morgan Stanley in 1993, he moved to Smith Barney Inc. as chairman and CEO. He founded his own firm in 1996.

A Vassar alumna, Gayle Greenhill chairs the board of New York City’s International Center of Photography, a museum school and center for photographers and photography. She is an avid collector of photography and a devoted supporter of the Photography Department of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.

The Greenhills’ three children – and their spouses – are also graduates of the School: Sarah Greenhill Wildasin and James Wildasin (both M.B.A. 1989), Robert Jr. and Sarah Bodman Greenhill (both M.B.A. 1995), and Mary Greenhill Cagliero and Massimiliano Cagliero (both M.B.A. 1997).