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News Release

Last modified: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Stanford University scholar to deliver annual Bonser Lecture

David P. Baron, the David S. and Ann M. Barlow professor of political economy and strategy at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, will present the Charles F. Bonser Distinguished Lecture in Public Policy at Indiana University on Thursday (April 18) at 4 p.m. in Woodburn Hall, Room 101. The event is free and open to the public.

Baron will speak on "Challenging the Corporation: How Activists Influence Corporate Policy."

The Bonser Distinguished Lectures in Public Policy are sponsored by the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Kelley School of Business. The lecture series honors Bonser, the founding dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Previous lecturers have included Sen. Richard Lugar and William Julius Wilson, director of the Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program at Harvard University.

Baron earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan, a master of business administration degree from Harvard University and a doctorate in business administration from IU. He is the author of more than 100 articles in economics and political science, including influential work on the design of regulatory institutions, the organization and functioning of legislatures, and the nature of electoral competition with both informed and uninformed voters.

He has been a leading advocate for including non-market strategy in the business school curriculum, and he is the author of the widely-used textbook, Business and Its Environment. He also has written numerous case studies designed to help business students appreciate the importance of public policy for business management.

The Bonser Lectures are designed to bring prominent and influential figures in academia, business and politics to IU's schools of public and environmental affairs and business to speak on the complex interactions between public policy and business. Bonser, IU associate business dean from 1969 to 1972, was asked by then-IU President John Ryan in 1971 to explore plans for a new School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He was appointed the school's first dean in 1972.

During Bonser's 17-year tenure as SPEA dean, the school developed into one of the largest and most highly rated public affairs schools in the nation. The school currently has about 200 faculty and staff and about 3,000 students on five IU campuses.

Bonser's association with IU goes back to the early 1960s, when he earned a master of business administration degree at IU, joined the business faculty and then completed a doctorate in business. Upon his retirement from SPEA's deanship, then-IU President Thomas Ehrlich presented him with a presidential citation. Bonser retired from active service at IU in 1997.

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