Overview
This collection includes papers of Harvard Business School professor William J. Poorvu documenting his work as a a teacher, researcher, writer, and public speaker at Harvard University, and broadcast television executive with Boston Broadcasters, Inc.
Dates
- Creation: 1959-2016
Creator
- Poorvu, William J., 1935- (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research. Materials stored onsite. Please contact specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu for more information regarding access procedures.
Restricted material has been identified and separated. Note that box and folder lists of restricted material have been redacted.
Extent
34.5 linear feet (2 volumes, 34 boxes, 16 cartons)This collection reflects the work of William J. Poorvu as a teacher, researcher, writer, and public speaker, at Harvard University. Materials include teaching case studies, teaching notes, course materials, student field study reports, Poorvu’s published works and their associated drafts, interview transcripts, research files, planning documents, speech transcripts, correspondence, photographs, offprints, articles, and news clippings. The collection also documents Poorvu’s position as a broadcast television executive with administrative, financial, and legal records of Boston Broadcasters, Inc. The collection is divided into five series: I. Harvard University Teaching Files; II. Publications and Research Data; III. Book Project Research Files; IV. Speech, Conference, Presentation, and Symposia Files; and V. Boston Broadcasters, Inc. Records.
Biographical Note:
William J. Poorvu is a prominent real estate investor and educator whose innovative real estate courses were a model adopted by business schools throughout the United States. Poorvu received his B.A. from Yale University in 1956 and his M.B.A. in 1958 from Harvard Business School (HBS). From 1968-1977, he taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design as Senior Lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning. Poorvu became a lecturer at HBS in 1973, working closely with Professor Howard H. Stevenson. He became the school’s first adjunct professor in 1981, and in 1989 HBS named him the Class of 1961 Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship. Courses that Poorvu created and taught at HBS include Real Property Asset Management and Field Studies in Real Property. Poorvu retired from the active faculty in 2002 becoming the first non-tenured professor at Harvard University to be given Emeritus status.
Poorvu wrote or co-wrote many of the most popular real estate teaching cases used in programs throughout the country. Additionally he has published research on topics including the entrepreneurial process, capital formation for real estate, growing and managing real estate companies, and family businesses. Poorvu published four books: Real Estate: A Case Study Approach (1993), The Real Estate Challenge: Capitalizing on Change (1996), The Real Estate Game: The Intelligent Guide to Decision-Making and Investment with Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (1999), and Growing Real Estate Wealth: The 4 Stages to a Lifetime of Success (2008).
Outside of education, Poorvu is an active real estate practitioner, serving as a managing partner for several real estate companies. In 1963, Poorvu co-founded Boston Broadcasters, Inc. (BBI), for which he also served as Vice Chair and Treasurer. BBI was dedicated to creating community-oriented television with more local programming than any other station in the country. This idea came to fruition when the FCC granted a license to BBI to operate WCVB-TV on channel 5, which signed for the first time in March 1972. WCVB received numerous awards for programming and was recognized as the best local television station in the nation. BBI sold the station to Metromedia, Inc. in 1982. Poorvu also co-founded The Baupost Group, a hedge fund, in 1982, partnering with Howard H. Stevenson, Jordan Baruch, and Isaac Auerbach, and remains the Co-Chair of its Board of Advisors.
Provenance:
The William J. Poorvu papers were received by Baker Library Special Collections as a donation from William J. Poorvu in 2017 (A-18-006).
Processing Information
Processed: September 2018
By: Liam Sullivan
Creator
- Poorvu, William J., 1935- (Person)
- Author
- Baker Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- bak00467
Repository Details
Part of the Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School Repository
Baker Library Special Collections and Archives holds unique resources that focus on the evolution of business and industry, as well as the records of the Harvard Business School, documenting the institution's development over the last century. These rich and varied collections support research in a diverse range of fields such as business, economic, social and cultural history as well as the history of science and technology.
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