Leonard A. Schlesinger became the 12th president of Babson College on July 1, 2008—bringing to the College an extraordinary blend of leadership experience in academia and industry, particularly in the retail and service sectors. He came to Babson from Limited Brands, based in Columbus, Ohio, where he served in executive positions since 1999, most recently as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. Among his accomplishments, he dramatically strengthened customer and employee loyalty, resulting in increased profitability. Earlier in his career, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Au Bon Pain.
His academic career includes twenty years at Harvard Business School where, most recently, he served as the George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration, leading MBA and executive education programs. Courses he taught include organizational behavior, human resource management, general management, and service management. President Schlesinger is well–known for his pioneering research and publications on the "service profit chain." He also was an architect and chair of Harvard Business School's MBA Essential Skills and Foundations programs. After his time at Harvard Business School, he served as a faculty member and senior administrator at Brown University.
In addition, President Schlesinger has lectured and consulted on service quality and customer satisfaction for over 100 major corporations, non–profit organizations, as well as governments and international leadership organizations around the world. He was an active leader in the design and development of the "Work–Out!" initiative at General Electric and the "Reinventing Government" process for the U.S. Department of Labor.
His writings on organizational management have been widely published. He is the author or co–author of nine books, including The Value Profit Chain (Free Press, 2003), The Service Profit Chain (Free Press, 1997) and The Real Heroes of Business…and Not a CEO among Them (Doubleday Currency, 1994), and has written over 40 articles for academic audiences as well as for The New York Times, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review. He has served on the editorial boards of four major academic journals and has published numerous case studies on management issues that have sold well over one million copies. He also has completed three video series and a satellite teleseminar on service management issues.
President Schlesinger currently serves as a Board Member of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is a member of the Corporation of the Winsor School, and is Senior Adviser to Charlesbank Capital Partners. His past Board service includes Borders Group, Inc., The Columbus Foundation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, GC Companies Inc., Limited Brands, Pegasystems, Inc., and The Ohio State University Medical Center Partners.
President Schlesinger holds a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, an MBA from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in American Civilization from Brown University. His wife, Phyllis, is a management professor specializing in organizational behavior and a former faculty member of Babson College and The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. They have three daughters.