William James Poorvu

Class of 1961 Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship, Emeritus. Successful real estate investor and developer who headed the real estate program at the Harvard Business School for decades. His research was in the areas of the entrepreneurial process in real estate companies, international real estate and capital formation for real estate. From 1968 to 1977, he was Senior Lecturer for Harvard Graduate School of Design's Department of City Planning. His two most recent books are Creating and Growing Real Estate Wealth: The 4 Stages to a Lifetime of Success, 2008 and The Real Estate Game - The Intelligent Guide to Decision-Making and Investment, 1999. From 1963-1982 he was the co-founder, Vice Chair and Treasurer of Boston Broadcasters, Inc., former licensee of WCVB-TV, the ABC affiliate in Boston, and in 1982 a co-founder and Chair of The Baupost Group L.L.C., an investment firm where he Co-Chairs its Board of Advisors. For 22 years he was also an independent Trustee of the MFS Group of Mutual Funds. He is a Life Trustee and former Vice Chair and Treasurer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a Life Trustee and former Treasurer of the Gardner Museum, Yale University Investment Committee, the Yale University council as well as on various government commissions including the State Department's Overseas Presence Advisory Panel. He is currently the Vice Chair of the NPR foundation. He served on the Carnegie Corporation Investment Committee.