Dr. Wheelwright, with his wife, Margaret, presided over the Boston Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from
November 2015 through October of 2018. He and his wife live in Oakley, Utah where he continues to serve on a handful of Boards of Directors. He and Margaret love to spend time with their five children, 20 grandchildren, and soon-to-be 3 great-grandchildren. From June of 2007 through July of 2015, Dr. Wheelwright served as President of BYU-Hawaii, one of three BYU campuses operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. BYU-Hawaii primarily serves students from the Pacific and Asia and offers a full complement of undergraduate programs. With over half its students from outside the U.S. and with students from over 70 countries, it has one of the most diverse
student bodies of any U.S. University.
From 2003-2006, Professor Wheelwright was a Baker Foundation Professor and SeniorAssociate Dean, Director of HBS Publication Activities. In that role, he oversaw the HBSPublishing Company (including HBR, HBS Press books, HBS cases, e-Learning products, and newsletters/conferences). He also oversaw the major on-campus construction projects. From 2000-2003, after retiring from the faculty, he and his wife fulfilled a full-time voluntary assignment as the President of the London, EnglandMission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
From 1995-1999, Professor Wheelwright served as Senior Associate Dean responsible for the MBA Program. He then served as Senior Associate Dean and Director of FacultyHiring and Planning and had oversight responsibility for distance learning. Professor
Wheelwright has taught the required first-year MBA course in Technology and Operations Management, several second-year MBA courses, and in a number of HBSExecutive Education Programs.
Professor Wheelwright first taught at Harvard from 1971-1979 and was the ThomasHenry Carroll-Ford Foundation Visiting Professor from 1985-1986. He rejoined the Harvard faculty in 1988. In his years away from Harvard, he was the Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers Professor of Management at the Stanford University GraduateSchool of Business. In his position at Stanford, he directed the strategic management
program and was instrumental in initiating the manufacturing strategy program.In his research, Professor Wheelwright has examined product and process development and their connection with competitive advantage and operations excellence. His most recent business book, developed with HBS colleague Clayton Christensen and Stanford colleague, Robert Burgelman, is Strategic Management of technology and Innovation, 5th ed. (Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009). Along with Harvard colleagues Bob Hayes, Gary Pisano, and Dave Upton, Professor Wheelwrightpublished Operations, Strategy, and Technology - Pursing the Competitive Edge(New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2004), a complementary volume to the highly regarded books, Dynamic Manufacturing: Creating the Learning Organization (NewYork: Free Press, 1988) and Restoring Our Competitive Advantage-CompetingThrough Manufacturing (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1980). He has also co-
authored several works with Harvard Business School colleague Kim Clark, including leading Product Development: The Senior Manager's Guide to Creating andShaping the Enterprise (Free Press, 1995). Professor Wheelwright is also the author or
co-author of more than a dozen other books.
Professor Wheelwright has a B.S. degree in Mathematics from the University of Utah and an M.B.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. In addition to his Harvard and Stanford positions, Professor Wheelwright served on the faculty of INSEAD (European Institute of Management) in Fontainebleau, France. He was Vice President of Sales in a family-owned printing company and has consulted in the areas of business/operations strategy and improving product development capabilities.