Harry Davis 

Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Distinguished Service Professor of Creative Management

Harry L. Davis studies leadership, strategy, creativity and innovation. His scholarly research has appeared in a number of top-tier academic journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing. Among his publications are “The Promising Start-up Within: A Guide to Internal Corporate Venturing,” written with Russ Rosenzweig and published in The Virtual Strategist in October 2001, and “Purchasing Behavior in Embedded Markets,” written with fellow Chicago Booth faculty member Jonathan Frenzen and published in the June 1990 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

Davis, who joined the faculty in 1963, has introduced many innovative executive education programs in the United States and abroad. These programs include the first core leadership program of any top-rated MBA program in the country and the Management Lab. Davis also helped Chicago Booth pioneer its first international campus in 1983 where he served as deputy dean for MBA programs until 1993. He was also professor of behavioral science for the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels.

Davis served as a trustee for the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, was on the boards of Golden Rule Insurance, Harnischfeger Industries, and was chairman of the board of the Graham School of General Studies. The Harry L. Davis Center for Leadership was founded in 2010. It is an incubator, a proving ground, for generating new insights about leadership that impact education, practice, and discovery for future generations of students. The Center provides courses and programs that encourage experimentation, reflection and lifelong learning.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1959 and an MBA in marketing in 1960 from Dartmouth College. He earned a master’s degree in sociology in 1969 and a PhD in marketing in 1970 from Northwestern University.

 Outside of academia, Davis enjoys classical guitar and passenger trains.