Debora Spar

Debora Spar is the former president of Barnard College and the author of numerous books, including Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Invention, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet, The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception, and Wonder Women: Sex, Power and the Quest for Perfection. Her most recent book is Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny. 

Spar is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and received her doctorate in government from Harvard. She is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves as a trustee of the Nightingale-Bamford School and a director of Goldman Sachs. Prior to her position at Barnard, Spar was the Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration and had served as senior associate dean for faculty research and development at Harvard Business School. At Harvard, she taught courses on the politics of international business, comparative capitalism, and economic development.