Noam T. Wasserman is an American academic. He is currently the dean of the Yeshiva University Sy Syms School of Business. Previously, he held the position of professor of clinical entrepreneurship at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

and the director of USC's Founders Central Initiative. Additionally, he previously served as an associate professor of business administration at the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. His research focuses on

Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior (OB) or organisational behaviour is the: "study of human behavior in organizational settings, the interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself".Moorhead, G., & Griffin, R. W. (1995) ...

and

Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

. He has written about the challenges faced by the

founders Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

Early life

Noam Wasserman graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1992, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and engineering and a Bachelor of Science in economics from Wharton. He received a master in business administration from the

in 1999, where he was a

Baker Scholar Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

. He received a master's degree in sociology from the

Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) is the largest of the twelve graduate schools of Harvard University. Formed in 1872, GSAS is responsible for most of Harvard's graduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and natura ...

in 2001, and a PhD in

organizational behavior Organizational behavior (OB) or organisational behaviour is the: "study of human behavior in organizational settings, the interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself".Moorhead, G., & Griffin, R. W. (1995) ...

from the Harvard Business School in 2002.

Career

Wasserman was an assistant professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School from 2003 to 2008. He was an associate professor from 2008 to 2016. He received the Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award from the

Academy of Management The Academy of Management is a professional association for scholars of management and organizations that was established in 1936. It publishes several academic journals, organizes conferences, and provides others forums for management professors ...

in 2010 for "Founders’ Dilemmas", a "second-year M.B.A. elective course" at the HBS. The course asks students if they plan on starting their own businesses after the HBS, and highlights what interpersonal issues they may encounter. Additionally, Wasserman was a visiting associate professor at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 2014. In 2016, Wasserman become a professor of clinical entrepreneurship at the

. He is also the founding director of USC's Founder Central Initiative, which researches issues and decision making faced by founders in the early stages of startups. Wasserman is the author of ''The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup''. The book is based on data on "10,000 founders from 3,500 start-ups" assembled by Wasserman. It was reviewed in the ''

Family Business Review ''Family Business Review'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Business. The journal's editor is G. Tyge Payne (Texas Tech University). It has been in publication since 1988 and is currently published by SAGE ...

''. Wasserman draws a distinction between chief executive officers who are "Kings" and want to keep their job at all costs, and those who are "Rich" and don't mind stepping down if this leads to more profit-making for the company. While Wasserman writes about business corporations, Mark Charendoff, the president of the Maimonides Fund applies this dichotomy to philanthropic gifts, arguing that donors should ask themselves if the CEOs of non-profit organizations are more interested in the results derived from their donations, or in their own careerist self-interest. On March 4, 2019, it wa
announced
that Wasserman would become the dean of the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University. His position took effect in May 2019.

Personal life

Wasserman is married, and he has eight children. They reside in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton, A ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasserman, Noam T. Living people Academics from Brookline, Massachusetts University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Harvard Business School alumni Harvard Business School faculty Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni Year of birth missing (living people)