Cynthia Montgomery

Cynthia Montgomery is the Timken Professor of Business Administration and the former head of the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, where she taught for over twenty years. For six years she led the strategy track in the school’s highly regarded Owner, President, Manager Program (OPM), attended by top managers of mid-sized companies from around the globe. Currently, she is a core faculty member in the School’s Advanced Management Program and holds the Charles B. (Tex) Thornton Co-Chair of the program.

Before joining Harvard, Montgomery taught at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Michigan and at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, where she received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year award. Her influential research and teachings focus on strategy, corporate governance, and the unique roles leaders play in developing and implementing those strategies. She received the Greenhill Award twice for her outstanding contributions to Harvard Business School’s educational mission.

Montgomery has published extensively in the fields of strategy and economics. She is a top-selling Harvard Business Review author, and her work has appeared in nearly a dozen top-tier academic journals and managerial outlets, including Financial Times, Management Science, American Economic Review, Rand Journal of Economics, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Economic Perspectives, and Journal of Business. Her book "The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs," which has been translated into 14 languages, and her Harvard Business Review article "Putting Leadership Back into Strategy" have been particularly impactful. She is also the co-author of "Corporate Strategy: Resources and the Scope of the Firm" with David J. Collis, and the editor of “Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm.” She has co-edited "Strategy: Seeking and Securing Competitive Advantage" with Michael E. Porter.

Montgomery has served on the Board of Directors of two Fortune 500 companies, several non-profit organizations including Harvard Business Publishing and McLean Hospital, and a number of mutual funds managed by BlackRock, Inc. Her distinguished career and board involvement highlight her deep understanding of both theoretical and practical aspects of business and governance.