Whitehead Institute welcomes David Bell to its Board of Directors

The Whitehead Institute Board of Directors has elected David Bell, a longtime professor at Harvard Business School and a scholar of decision-making under risk, to the board.

“David brings a rare combination of academic insight, leadership experience, and strategic perspective,” says Board Chair Sarah Williamson. “His deep understanding of organizations, his thoughtful approach to complex decisions, and his longstanding engagement with Whitehead Institute will be invaluable as we continue to advance our mission of pursuing fundamental discoveries in science.”

Bell recently retired after a distinguished career at Harvard Business School, where he served as a professor and held several leadership roles, including chair of the marketing faculty, senior associate dean for faculty recruiting, and chair of the program for management development. His research focused on how people make decisions under uncertainty, including the ways regret and disappointment influence decision-making.

Outside of Harvard Business School, Bell has served on the boards of the Harvard Business Review, the Harvard Coop, Boston Acoustics, and Pilgrim’s Pride. For the past six years, he has also been a member of the Whitehead Institute Finance Committee.

Bell says he was drawn to the opportunity to deepen his engagement with the Institute following his retirement.

“After many rewarding years at Harvard Business School, I was looking for meaningful ways to contribute,” he shares. “Having heard so many wonderful things about Whitehead from my friend and colleague [longtime former Board member] Arthur Schleifer, and after serving on the Institute’s Finance Committee, I have come to appreciate its extraordinary culture and commitment to fundamental discovery. As an MIT alumnus, it’s especially gratifying to reconnect with the Institute in this capacity, and I look forward to supporting its mission.”

Prior to joining Harvard Business School, Bell was a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, a Fellow of Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, and a lecturer in the Harvard Engineering Department. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT.