Acting dean receives helm of Harvard Business School

BOSTON (AP) — Jay O. Light, who has served as acting dean of Harvard Business School for nearly nine months, was named Monday to the post on a permanent basis.

Light, a Harvard business faculty member since 1970, began leading the 98-year-old school on an interim basis on Aug. 1 after the departure of Kim B. Clark.

Harvard President Lawrence Summers, who in February announced his own plans to step down after a stormy five-year tenure, announced Light's appointment.

"I am very pleased that Jay Light has agreed to become dean," Summers said in a news release. "He has done an outstanding job as acting dean, and no one is more familiar with the range of opportunities and challenges facing Harvard Business School, or better prepared to guide the school in meeting them."

Clark stepped down last summer after nearly 10 years in the post to become president of Brigham Young University-Idaho, a job offered to him personally by the head of the Mormon Church.