David L. Finegold, DPhil has over 30 years of experience in higher education as a researcher, author, professor, academic dean, senior vice president and chief academic officer. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1985, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, from which he received his DPhil in Politics in 1992.
A renowned scholar and educational innovator, Dr. Finegold has dedicated his career to education reform, the design of high-performance organizations, and extensive comparative research on education and skill-creation systems from around the world. He began his career as a senior research fellow in the Centre for Education and Industry at Warwick University in England. He then spent four years as a social scientist for the Institute on Education and Training, a division of the RAND Corporation dedicated to improving worldwide education policy and decision-making.
Faculty positions soon followed at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, and as a founding faculty member of the life sciences-focused Keck Graduate Institute (KGI). The 7th of the Claremont Colleges, KGI features rigorous curricula, personalized instruction, and intensive faculty/student interactions in a vibrant residential college community. While at KGI, he created the business and ethics curriculum, recruited and mentored faculty, and led collaboration with the other members of this leading consortium of liberal arts colleges.
From 2006 to 2011, Dr. Finegold was Dean of the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR) where he led the faculty in the study of people, organizations, and the changing nature of work. He helped SMLR and Rutgers enhance their leading positions in the study of the benefits of building more inclusive organizations, including: increasing the diversity of the faculty, helping to create a program for developing women leaders in STEM, hosting New Jersey’s Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education, and supporting the expansion of The Center for Women and Work.
As Dean, he increased the number of faculty by 25%, grew financial reserves by over 500% (despite persistent state budget cuts), and increased the endowment by more than 600%. He added successful new degree programs, fostered increased collaboration with industry leaders and other stakeholders across New Jersey, and helped design a range of successful executive education offerings in Strategic Healthcare Management and BioPharma Innovation.
In 2011, Dr. Finegold was promoted to Senior Vice President for Lifelong Learning and Strategic Growth at Rutgers University. In this role, he led a range of key initiatives, including overseeing international programs and the Division of Continuing Studies, expanding Rutgers’ partnerships with New Jersey community colleges, and growing Rutgers Online. With colleagues from the Tata Institute of Social Science, he was one of four recipients in May 2012 of the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative Award to build higher education capacity in India.
In 2013, he was appointed the Chief Academic Officer of American Honors, an entrepreneurial organization that seeks to improve the quality and affordability of undergraduate education by building or expanding honors programs with community colleges across the United States. This innovative model is focused on reducing inequality, promoting student success, lowering student debt, and ensuring successful transfer from community college to a network of over 75 leading public and private college and university partners. At American Honors, he was responsible for building the four-year partnership network, international strategy and partnerships, research, and working with colleagues on the overall academic experience.
In March 2016, Dr. Finegold was appointed the 19th President of Chatham University.
Dr. Finegold, is a prolific writer of both professional and popular publications, and has authored or co-authored seven books and monographs, including BioIndustry Ethics (2005), Corporate Boards: New Strategies for Adding Value at the Top (2001), and Are Skills the Answer? (2001). In addition to his comparative research on education and training, his work has focused on new, more sustainable economic models for creating value, such as B-Corporations, public-private partnerships, venture philanthropy and social investing. Dr. Finegold has been a frequent keynote speaker at conferences around the world, and has provided policy advice and research on skills issues to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and to the governments of Australia, Canada, Singapore, India, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. He was an Atlantic Fellow and Policy Advisor to the Leitch Review, Her Majesty’s Treasury, London.
Dr. Finegold is originally from New York, NY and his wife, Susan, is a native of England. They are the parents of a son, Sam, a graduate of Harvard, and a daughter, Charlotte, a graduate of Yale.