Maidique heading to Harvard Business School as visiting professor

MIAMI – Florida International University President Emeritus Modesto A. Maidique has been invited to be a visiting professor at the Harvard Business School (HBS) this fall.  Working with colleagues participating in the Harvard Leadership Initiative and leadership experts throughout Harvard University, Professor Maidique will continue and extend his research on effective CEO decision-making.

“Leadership is at the heart of everything we do at Harvard Business School, where our mission is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world,” said Linda A. Hill, the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and faculty chair of the HBS Leadership Initiative.  “At the HBS Leadership Initiative, we aim to both broaden and deepen the body of influential and rigorous research in this field.  We are delighted that President Maidique will join the HBS faculty this fall as a visiting professor.  His long and impressive record of achievement as a scholar and educational leader will add new insights and perspectives to our efforts.  We are eager to welcome him to our campus.”

As part of his research, Maidique will continue to explore the process through which CEOs make major decisions.

“Preliminary research and my own 30 years of leadership experience point to ‘gut feel’ or intuition as being a determining factor in major CEO decisions,” Maidique said. “Especially in these challenging economic times, we need strong leadership and sound decisions. Working along some of the best minds in this field at Harvard, we can further understand the difference between good and bad CEO decisions.”

Maidique is the Alvah H. Chapman, Jr., Eminent Scholar Chair in Leadership and Professor of Management in the College of Business Administration at FIU. He is also the executive director of the FIU Center for Leadership, a think tank engaged in cutting-edge research in the area of leadership development.

Maidique previously served on the faculty at the Harvard Business School from 1976-1981.  He also served on the faculty at MIT and Stanford University.  From 1986 to 2009, Maidique served as president of FIU and led its transformation from a medium-sized master’s granting university to a major research university. Under Maidique’s leadership, FIU tripled in physical size, grew to nearly 40,000 students, added Schools of Engineering, Architecture, Law, and Medicine and a Division IA football team, and now ranks among the 25 largest universities in the United States, with a billion dollar budget, membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and Research I designation.

Media Contact:  Jean-Paul Renaud at 305-348-2716.