Professor Lester C. Thurow, Dean of the Sloan School of Management since 1987, has announced that he will step down from that post effective July 1.
His resignation has been accepted with regret by President Charles M. Vest and Provost Mark S. Wrighton.
"Lester Thurow has been an outstanding dean of the Sloan School," Dr. Vest said. "Under his leadership the school has developed extensive international activities consistent with the globalization of business. Through the Leaders for Manufacturing Program and extensive curricular revision, he has led the school to reconceptualize much of management education for the decades ahead. He has been extraordinarily effective in his communications to business and policy leaders and the broader public."
Professor Wrighton said Dean Thurow "has led the Sloan School with vision, drive and achievement. In his tenure as dean he has expanded the faculty and increased its diversity, attracting many fine women and men to join its ranks. The Sloan School has established an extraordinary level of fine research and scholarship and Dean Thurow's efforts in this regard have been critical. Together with former Dean of Engineering Gerald L. Wilson, and more recently with Dean Joel Moses, Dean Thurow has shepherded the development of the Leaders for Manufacturing Program, one of MIT's most important new educational initiatives. Under Dean Thurow's leadership, the Sloan School has launched initiatives in internationalization in Singapore, Taiwan and Europe. Most recently, Dean Thurow has been a key contributor in developing new plans for expansion of facilities, including the recently announced Jack C. Tang Center for Management Education."
Both Dr. Vest and Professor Wrighton praised Dean Thurow's service on the Academic Council.
Dean Thurow told members of the Sloan School on Monday of his resignation and said he plans to take a sabbatical year, during which he intends to "climb one more mountain," and then return to the Sloan faculty and resume his research and teaching.
Professor Thurow, an expert on public finance, macroeconomics and income distribution, describes himself as an "economics educator." He is known internationally for interpreting complex economics issues for the lay public.
His books include Head to Head: Coming Economic Battles Among Japan, Europe and America (1992), a best seller last year; The Zero-Sum Solution: Building a World-Class American Economy (1985); Dangerous Currents: The State of Economics (1983); and The Zero-Sum Society (1980).
He currently writes a column on economic issues for The Boston Globe and appears regularly on the Public Broadcasting System's television program, The Nightly Business Report.
Professor Wrighton said plans for the selection of Dean Thurow's successor are being formed and an Advisory Committee to the Provost will be appointed soon.
A version of this article appeared in the February 10, 1993 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 37, Number 22).
