Orit Gadiesh, MBA 1977

Orit Gadiesh, HBS 1977, joined Bain & Company, the Boston-based global managing consultancy, upon graduation from HBS as a Baker Scholar and recipient of the Brown prize for marketing. Born in Israel, she has taught at The Hebrew University and the Jerusalem Institute of Management, and served in the Israeli Army. Orit took over as chairman of Bain in 1993 and has presided over a period of steady growth as well as the company’s expansion into new areas of consulting for technology startups and private equity firms. She has served on the boards of academic and financial institutions, including on the board of trustees of the World Economic Forum and the board of directors of WPP, the Atlantic Council, and the Publications Review Board of Harvard Business School Press. Forbes has included Orit numerous times on its list of the 100 most powerful women in the world. The interview with Orit was conducted around 2001.