Bio
Garth Saloner has served as the ninth dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) since 2009. He has previously held positions as senior associate dean for academic affairs, director for research and curriculum development, and director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.
Saloner’s career is highlighted by a deep passion for entrepreneurship and a commitment to educating students to think and act with a comprehensive economic perspective. His intellectual interests focus on organizational economics, antitrust economics, strategic management, competitive strategy, and entrepreneurship. He has been an innovator in the evolution of management education with the goal of transforming leaders who can change the world.
In 2006, Saloner led the Curriculum Review Committee that restructured the GSB’s MBA program, prioritizing a personalized approach to drive leadership transformation. Stanford GSB introduced the new curriculum in 2007, which provides courses at multiple levels and challenges each student according to their background and experience. The curriculum now includes courses in critical analytical thinking, personal leadership, cross-cultural understanding, and innovative thinking courses, alongside requirements for traditional sound management discipline.
Saloner has been a Stanford faculty member since 1990, and is recognized for his ground-breaking research on network effects, which underlie much of the economics of e-commerce and business. As a faculty member, he has taught management, strategy, entrepreneurship, and e-commerce, and as dean, he has taught courses on Strategic Leadership, Women’s Perspectives on Entrepreneurship, and Critical Analytical Thinking.
Saloner is a two-time recipient of the Business School’s Distinguished Teaching Award (1993, 2008), one of only two professors to twice receive the award. He has authored or co-authored two books including Strategic Management and Creating and Capturing Value: Perspectives and Cases on Electronic Commerce.
In 2001, he took a two-year leave from Stanford to serve as an advisor, board member, or investor with a number of Silicon Valley startups. His experience extends to applying innovation as an engine for growth in developing economies. Most recently, Saloner conceptualized and led the effort to establish the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies, which was launched in November 2011. Known as SEED, the Institute aims to improve the lives of people in poverty on a massive scale through entrepreneurship and innovation. In July 2013, SEED established its first regional innovation hub in Ghana to provide coaching and training to entrepreneurs in West Africa.
A native of South Africa, Saloner received a BCom (Bachelor of Commerce) and MBA (with distinction) from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He received an MS in statistics, an AM in economics, and a PhD in economics, business, and public policy from Stanford University between 1978 and 1982. He has previously taught at Harvard University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1982-1990), first as an assistant professor, and later as a tenured full professor in both the economics department and the Sloan School of Management.
Saloner and his family have been active in the Stanford community for more than twenty years. Stanford is now part of the Saloner “DNA”, with the family having earned a combined eight academic degrees from the university.
In addition to spending time with his close-knit family, Saloner is an avid wildlife photographer, a cycling enthusiast, and enjoys international travel.