Action Learning at MIT Sloan

Support Staff

Name: Michelle Fiorenza
Tel: (617) 253-9455
E-mail: fiorenza@mit.edu

Group(s)

Global Economics and Management

Research Center(s)

Main Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship

General Expertise

Corporate governance; Economic crisis; Economics; Economy, current conditions; Entrepreneurship / New ventures; Government; New stock markets; Political economy; Sustainability; Tax policy; Trade policy; Unemployment; United States; Venture capital

Biography

Simon Johnson is the Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

He is also a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., a co-founder of BaselineScenario.com (a much cited website on the global economy), a member of the Congressional Budget Office's Panel of Economic Advisers, and a member of the FDIC’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee.

Prof. Johnson is a weekly contributor to NYT.com's Economix, is a regular Bloomberg columnist, has a monthly article with Project Syndicate that runs in publications around the world, and has published high impact opinion pieces recently in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Republic, BusinessWeek, and The Financial Times, among other places. In January 2010, he joined The Huffington Post as contributing business editor. Professor Johnson is the co-author, with James Kwak, of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and The Next Financial Meltdown, a bestselling assessment of the dangers now posed by the US financial sector (published March 2010) and White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt and Why it Matters to You (April 2012).

In his roles as a professor, research fellow and author, Johnson's speaking engagements include paid appearances before various business groups, including financial institutions and other companies, as well before other groups that may have a political agenda. He is not on the board of any company, does not currently serve as a consultant to anyone, and does not work as an expert witness or conduct sponsored research. His investment portfolio comprises cash and broadly diversified mutual funds; he does not trade stocks, bonds, derivatives or other financial products actively./p>

From March 2007 through the end of August 2008, Johnson was the International Monetary Fund's Economic Counsellor (chief economist) and Director of its Research Department. He is a co-director of the NBER Africa Project, and works with non-profits and think tanks around the world./p>

Johnson holds a BA in economics and politics from the University of Oxford, an MA in economics from the University of Manchester, and a PhD in economics from MIT.

IMPORTANT: For any media requests to Professor Johnson, please be sure to copy Michelle Fiorenza: fiorenza@mit.edu.

Web Site: http://baselinescenario.com

Publications

White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt and Why it Matters to You [2012]

13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and The Next Financial Meltdown [2010]

Starting over in Eastern Europe : entrepreneurship and economic renewal. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 1995.

The Collected Papers of Franco Modigliani: Monetary Theory and Stabilization Policies. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1989.

The Collected Papers of Franco Modigliani: Saving, Deficits, Inflation, and Financial Theory. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1980.

View complete list of publications (PDF)

Support Staff

Name: Christine Haynes
Tel: (617) 253-6621
E-mail: cmhaynes@mit.edu

Group(s)

Global Economics and Management

Research Center(s)

Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship

General Expertise

Asia; China; Developing countries; Emerging markets; Environmental policy; Foreign investment; Global economics; Global entrepreneurship; Globalization; Government; Hong Kong; India; International management; International trade; Investment, foreign; Korea; Political economy; Singapore; Southeast Asia; Taiwan; Thailand

Biography

Yasheng Huang is the International Program Professor in Chinese Economy and Business and a Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Huang founded and runs the China Lab and the India Lab, which aim to help entrepreneurs in those countries improve their management skills. He is an expert source on international business, political economy, and international management. In collaboration with other scholars, Huang is conducting research on human capital formation in China and India, entrepreneurship, and ethnic and labor-intensive foreign direct investment (FDI). Prior to MIT Sloan, he held faculty positions at the University of Michigan and at Harvard Business School. Huang also served as a consultant to the World Bank.

His research has been profiled in many publications, including The Wall Street Journal,The Economist, Businessworld, Le Monde, The Economic Times, as well as in numerous Chinese publications. He also has contributed to the Financial Times, The New York Times, and Foreign Policy. Huang’s published books include Inflation and Investment Controls in China (1996), FDI in China (1998), Selling China (2003), and Financial Reform in China (2005, co-edited with Tony Saich and Edward Steinfeld). His most recent book, Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics (2008), is based on detailed archival and quantitative evidence spanning three decades of reforms. Huang shows that private entrepreneurship, facilitated by financial liberalization and microeconomic flexibility, played a central role in China’s economic miracle.

Huang has held or received prestigious fellowships, such as the National Fellowship at Stanford University and the Social Science Research Council-MacArthur Fellowship. He is a member of the Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, a Fellow at the Center for Chinese Economic Research and the Center for China in the World Economy at Tsinghua University, a Fellow at the William Davidson Institute at Michigan Business School, and a World Economic Forum Fellow.

Huang holds a BA in government from Harvard College and a PhD in government from Harvard University.

Web Site: http://web.mit.edu/yshuang/www/index.html

Publications

A Fire Sale without Fire: An Explanation of Labor-Intensive FDI in China [2008]

Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics [2008]

Does Ethnicity Pay? Evidence from Overseas Chinese FDI in China [2008]

Is Entrepreneurship Missing in Shanghai? [2008]

Just How Capitalist is China? [2008]

What is Wrong with Shanghai? [2008]

Shari Loessberg is an experienced entrepreneur in established and emerging markets. In the US, she founded and runs Big World, a strategy firm focused on new ventures in new markets. She also co-founded Zeta Networks, a tech startup with roots at MIT. In addition, Loessberg spent five years in Moscow, where she was a partner, director, and general counsel of Brunswick (now UBS Russia), a start-up investment firm in the earliest days of the Russian equity market. She has particular experience in emerging market venture capital and investment, and entrepreneurship in emerging economies. She serves on the advisory council of Accion's Frontier Fund; as an advisor to Endeavor International; and has served as a founding director of financial services startup companies in Vietnam and Africa. She also serves on the board of National Financial Partners (NYSE: NFP) and several US-based tech companies

Michellana Y. Jester, Manager of MIT Sloan School of Management’s Action Learning Program, began her career as a strategic management consultant before she began working in higher education. As a consultant for nearly a decade, she worked for private corporations, non-profit organizations, and public agency clients to strategically solve organizational challenges. Michellana’s consulting engagements specialized in leadership development, organizational change, and team building.

Michellana's work in her current role at MIT Sloan draws from her private and non-profit sector experience, helping to link theoretical concepts to real world business practice for MBA and other graduate students. As the Manager of Sloan’s Action Learning Program, Michellana is responsible for leading the design and delivery of experiential and project based courses, while developing and supporting learning objectives and learning transfer for multiple stakeholders including faculty, graduate students, and host companies.

Michellana holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Anthropology from Mills College where her learning focus was group dynamics and cultural anthropology. She holds a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where her studies were concentrated in leadership, group dynamics, and economics. She recently completed her doctoral work at Columbia University’s Teachers College, where her research focus was adult learning, development and leadership.