In addition to the American Council of Learned Societies, he serves on the Board of Directors of Cabot Corporation The China Fund, Inc. Professor Kirby's research and consulting have focused on strategies for business and education in China. As dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences., he led Harvard's largest school, with 10,000 students, 1,000 faculty members, 2,500 staff, and an annual budget of $1 billion. At Harvard, he has served as chair of the history department, director of the Harvard University Asia Center, and director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. His most recent books include Can China Lead? (Harvard Business Review Press) and China and Europe on the New Silk Road (Oxford University Press).īefore coming to Harvard in 1992, he was professor of history, director of Asian studies, and dean of University College at Washington University in St. His current projects include case studies of trend-setting Chinese businesses and a comparative study of higher education in China, Europe, and the United States. He has authored or co-authored more than fifty HBS cases on business in China, ranging from start-ups to SOEs agribusiness and middle-class consumption banking and microfinance healthcare and education corporate governance and corporate social responsibility and the global strategies of Chinese firms. He writes and teaches on the growth of modern companies in China (Chinese and foreign state-owned and private) Chinese corporate law and company structure business relations across Greater China (PRC, Taiwan, Hong Kong) and China's relations with the United States and Europe. He serves as Chairman of the Harvard China Fund, the University's academic venture fund for China, and Faculty Chair of the Harvard Center Shanghai, Harvard's first University-wide center located outside the United States.Ī historian of modern China, Kirby's work examines contemporary China's business, economic, and political development in an international context. He is a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.