While Willy Shih is currently the Robert & Jane Cizik Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, he brings the perspective of a practitioner who spent close to 28 years of his career in industry managing sophisticated technology development and manufacturing. In the process, he has crossed many discipline boundaries, everything from growing cell cultures to running the world’s first OLED production line and managing a semiconductor fab that produced devices operating on the surface of Mars. He spent many years managing manufacturing and supply chains for consumer products in the early stages of globalization, and has unique perspectives on manufacturing competitiveness.
In his 15 years at the Harvard Business School, he has focused his research on manufacturing competitiveness, looking especially across Asia. His writings on American competitiveness have been widely cited by policy makers here and abroad. He regularly speaks about the challenges the Covid-19 pandemic has wrought for global supply chains, and is often turned to for insights on semiconductors and Asian manufacturing more broadly. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and two undergraduate S.B. degrees from M.I.T.