Bing Wang

Bing Wang is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Her academic research focuses on innovation and value creation in the context of global transformation, with particular emphasis on emerging markets. She investigates how design thinking and strategic investment frameworks can be integrated to address complex challenges in urban environments and entrepreneurial ventures.

Prior to joining the MIT Sloan faculty, she was an Associate Professor in practice of real estate and the built environment at Harvard University. For over a decade, Wang was the Faculty Head in the Master’s real estate concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and since 2012, has cochaired two of Harvard University’s flagship real estate executive programs at Harvard Business School and Harvard Design School.

As a scholar, professor, and practitioner, Wang’s work lies at the intersection of value creation, urban innovation, and global market dynamics within entrepreneurial ecosystems and technological undertakings. She has led or collaborated on projects with regional and city governments, environmental agencies, developers, and major institutions, including the World Bank, the U.S. and China National Science Foundations, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Bank of China, McKinsey & Company, and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, among others.

Her research has been recognized with Best Manuscript Awards from the American Real Estate Society in 2016 and 2018. She has authored and edited four books, including The Architectural Profession of Modern China, Global Leadership in Real Estate and Design, Understanding China’s Real Estate Markets, and Innovation Dynamics of Real Estate: PropTech and Beyond (forthcoming). Wang also has published more than 40 book chapters, peer-reviewed journal papers, and articles. She serves on the editorial boards of Planning Theory & Practice (UK), The Journal of Sustainable Real Estate (USA), The Encyclopedia of Ecological Culture (China), and on the editorial advisory board of The German Journal of Real Estate Research (Germany).

Wang’s global business practice enriches and reinforces her academic work. She previously served as an investment advisor to Lehman Brothers, founded a design and urban planning studio, and cofounded two private equity investment firms: KaiLong Group and Yongyou Investments. As a cofounder, she played a key leadership role as one of the two majority shareholders, bringing in well-known institutional investors such as Citi Group, Starwood Capital, Cargill, Rockpoint and Secured Capital Japan to her companies.

Wang currently serves as a Steering Committee Member of the Harvard China Fund, an elected board director of both the American Real Estate Society and Chinese Society for Urban Studies, and a Board Governor of The School of Architecture founded by Frank Lloyd Wright. She is also a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and serves as an advisor and/or principal partner in business partnerships across the U.S., China, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. Her partnerships have master-planned 980 acres of land, designed 6.7 million square feet of physical space for local communities, invested and managed over US$1.1 billion in urban assets and real estate transactions.

Wang received her Doctoral degree in urban development and real estate and Master’s degree in urban design, both from Harvard University, and Bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University. She has been a visiting faculty member or guest lecturer at Tsinghua University in China, the University of Cambridge in the UK, and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in India.