Josh Baron

Dr. Josh Baron is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and a part of the Strategy Unit. In the MBA program, he teaches in the Required Core Strategy course as well as elective courses on Ownership and Leading a Family Business. He also teaches in several executive education programs, including Owner/President Management, Family Office Wealth Management, and Families in Business. He is the Faculty Cochair for Family Office Wealth Management.  He was formerly an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, where he taught MBA courses on Family Business Management and Managing Conflict in Family Business.

Josh’s interests are in how to build businesses to last for the long-term, how to manage conflict, and how ownership affects company goals and strategies. He has a particular focus on family businesses. He has written extensively for Harvard Business Review and is co-author of their Family Business Handbook. He has also written for The Huffington Post, Trust & Estates Magazine, and Family Business Magazine, among others, and has been cited in The New York Times and Forbes. He is the author of a book about international relations, Great Power Peace and American Primacy: The Origins and Future of a New International Order.

Josh is a co-founder and Senior Advisor at BanyanGlobal, a leading advisor to family enterprises. For the last 15 years, he has worked closely with families who own operating companies, family foundations, and family offices together. He helps these families to define their purpose as owners and to establish the structures, strategies, and skills they need to accomplish their goals. Prior to Banyan, he worked at Bain & Company and the Bridgespan Group.

A graduate of The University of Pennsylvania, Josh received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and a BA in International Relations with Honors. He also holds a Masters with Distinction in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and a Masters and Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

When he is not teaching, researching, or advising, Josh and his wife Beth most enjoy spending time with their twins Eloise and Charlie, who in their endearing ways provide endless opportunities for developing fresh insights into family dynamics.