POUNDS, DR. WILLIAM F.
Bill Pounds is Dean/Professor Emeritus of MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Dr. Pounds received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University) in l950 and joined Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York, as an industrial engineer. After service as a naval aviator from l95l-55, he returned to Eastman Kodak where he carried out assignments in operations research, methods engineering, cost and statistical quality control, and production and operational planning. In 1957 Dr. Pounds returned to Carnegie for graduate studies where he received a Master's Degree in mathematical economics in 1959 and his Ph.D. in 1964. After serving as Assistant to the General Manager of the Forbes Finishes Division of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Cleveland, Ohio from 1960 to 1961, Dr. Pounds joined the M.I.T. faculty in l96l as an Assistant Professor of Management in the Sloan School. Dr. Pounds' teaching and research concentrated on quantitative methods of managerial analysis, the problems of operations management, and models of decision behavior. He was instrumental in developing the operations management curriculum in the Sloan School. In more recent years his interests have focused on the management and governance of corporations. In l966, he was promoted to Professor and became Dean of the Sloan School. Under his administration a number of new programs were developed, including mid-career graduate management education for urban executives and for health care professionals, as well as an accelerated Master's Degree Program in Management. He also negotiated arrangements whereby executives from the U.S.S.R. and the People's Republic of China could participate in the Sloan Fellows Program in return for reciprocal visits by all the Fellows.
In addition, Dr. Pounds played a prominent role in developing the Sloan School's international programs and was responsible for a time for coordinating all the international commitments of M.I.T. In l964 and l967 he was a member of the faculty of the Sloan School's Advanced Management Program in India, and in l965 he organized and directed an operations management program in Colombia. Dr. Pounds worked with M.I.T. alumni and others in Spain who were seeking to develop a new technological institute in Madrid. He also helped start M.I.T. programs in Iran, Japan, and several Latin American countries. He led sponsored research projects in both Venezuela and Indonesia. In l98l Dr. Pounds stepped down as Dean and resumed his professorial duties on a part-time basis while also serving as Senior Advisor to the Rockefeller family. In the latter capacity, he was also President and Chief Executive Officer of Rockefeller Financial Services, Inc., Chairman of the Rockefeller Trust Company, Chairman of the Rockefeller Insurance Co., Chairman of Rockefeller and Co., Inc., and Chairman of Venrock, Inc. He also served as a member of The Rockefeller University Council and on the board of the Rockefeller Group Inc. In l99l Dr. Pounds retired from his various Rockefeller responsibilities and returned to M.I.T. faculty on a full-time basis. He retired from M.I.T. in 1998. Dr. Pounds is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a former member of the House Advisory Committee on Science and Astronautics. He has consulted extensively with corporations and public agencies. The National Association of Corporate Directors named him Corporate Director of the Year in 2000. Dr. Pounds has served as Trustee and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as Director and Chairman of the Board of Management Sciences for Health, Inc., as Trustee and Vice Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of the Putnam Mutual Funds, as Trustee of the WGBH Educational Foundation and as a director of IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., Sunoco Inc., General Mills Inc., Stop and Shop Cos. Inc., M/A Com Inc., Fisher Price Inc., EG&G Inc., the Mitre Corporation, Perseptive Biosystems, Inc., Sagitta Asset Management (Bermuda), Ltd., Teknekron, Inc., North American Management, Inc. and the Baystate Corporation. Currently, he is a Director of the Boston Lyric Opera and the Atlantic Salmon Federation, a Trustee of the Whitehead Institute and an Overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New England Conservatory. Dr. Pounds is married to the former Helen Means. They have two children, six grandchildren, and reside in Cambridge, Massachusetts.