Harman Named Widney Business Professor
“Sidney Harman has been an innovative and groundbreaking leader in business, technology and the arts throughout his distinguished career,” said USC Provost C. L. Max Nikias. “The Widney professorship recognizes his extraordinary talents and contributions, while providing a new role for him to influence young scholars as they prepare to create the next great achievements in their fields.”
The position is one of USC’s most prestigious, named after university founder Judge Robert Maclay Widney. The appointment is university-wide, and Harman will lecture at a number of USC schools.
Harman is chairman and founder of Harman International Industries, whose many electronics and audio-equipment brands include Harman Kardon, JBL, AKG Acoustics, Mark Levinson and Infinity. He co-founded Harman Kardon, a pioneering company in the high-fidelity audio business, in 1952.
“We’re delighted to add Sidney Harman’s experience, relationships and talents to the USC faculty in a more permanent fashion,” said James G. Ellis, dean of the USC Marshall School of Business. “He already has had a terrific impact on USC Marshall’s students and faculty in many ways.”
In 2005, Harman delivered the Commencement address at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. Last spring, he was a speaker at USC Marshall’s MBA Commencement ceremony. Last fall, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by USC Marshall’s Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and served as visiting professor and entrepreneur in residence with USC Marshall. He is a board member of USC’s Leadership Institute, whose founding chairman is USC Marshall’s University Professor of Business Warren Bennis, the noted writer and thinker on leadership.
As a business leader, Harman is particularly known for his company’s Quality of Working Life programs, which have been the subject of numerous case studies at business schools. He is the co-author, with pollster Daniel Yankelovich, of Starting With the People (Houghton Mifflin, 1988) and the author of Mind Your Own Business (Currency/Doubleday, 2003).
For three years, Harman was president of Friends World College, a worldwide experimental Quaker college. He is the founder and an active member of the Program on Technology, Public Policy and Human Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Harman serves on the boards of Freedom House, the Aspen Institute, BENS (Business Executives for National Security) and the Harman Family Foundation. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the principal donor and sponsor of Washington D.C.’s Harman Center for the Arts and its new Sidney Harman Hall.
A graduate of Baruch College of the City University of New York, Harman endowed that college’s Writer-in-Residence program. He endowed a similar program in the arts at the Aspen Institute. Harman has been a trustee of the Martin Luther King Center for Social Change, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Public Agenda Foundation and Emory University’s Carter Center.
Harman is married to Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
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USC in the News
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The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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