Guhan Subramanian, Chair, PON Executive Committee

Guhan Subramanian

Faculty Chair, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School

Joseph H. Flom Professor of Law and Business, Harvard Law School

Douglas Weaver Professor of Business Law, Harvard Business School

Faculty Chair, J.D./M.B.A. Program, Harvard University

 

The first person in the history of Harvard University to hold tenured appointments at both Harvard Law School (HLS) and Harvard Business School (HBS), Guhan Subramanian is a consummate educator, dealmaker, and leader. As the chair of the Program on Negotiation, he spearheads negotiation and mediation training programs for the more than 3,000 professionals who attend every year. At HLS, Subramanian teaches courses on negotiation and corporate law. At HBS, he teaches in several executive education programs, including Strategic Negotiations, Changing the Game, Making Corporate Boards More Effective, and Mergers and Acquisitions, of which he is faculty chair.

Subramanian’s research focuses on corporate governance, corporate law, and negotiation. His books include Dealmaking: The New Strategy of Negotiauctions. Eleven of his articles have been selected as being among the “top 10” articles published in corporate and securities law. The two-volume treatise Law and Economics of Mergers and Acquisitions, which includes 33 seminal articles from the field over the past 45 years, contains four of his articles—more than from any other scholar.

Subramanian advises individuals, boards of directors, and management teams on issues of dealmaking and corporate governance. He has been involved in major public-company deals, such as Oracle’s $10 billion hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft, Cox Enterprises’ $9 billion freeze-out of the minority shareholders in Cox Communications, Exelon’s $8 billion hostile takeover bid for NRG, and the $26 billion management buyout of Dell Inc. Over the past 10 years, he has been an advisor or expert witness in deals or situations worth more than $150 billion in total value. He is also the director of LKQ Corporation (NASDAQ: LKQ), a Fortune 500 company in the automotive sector.

Education

A.B., Harvard University
J.D., Harvard University
M.B.A., Harvard Business School

Research interests

Corporate law, corporate finance, dispute resolution, dealmaking, negotiation, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions

Selected publications

  • “Deal Process Design in Management Buyouts.” Harvard Law Review 130, no. 2 (2016): 590–658.
  • With Fernan Restrepo. “The New Look of Deal Protection.” Stanford Law Review 69, no. 4 (2017): 1013–1074.
  • “Corporate Governance 2.0.” Harvard Business Review93, no. 3 (2015): 96–105.
  • Dealmaking: The New Strategy of Negotiauctions.Norton, 2011.
  • With William T. Allen and Reinier Kraakman. Commentaries and Cases on the Law of Business Organization.4th ed. Aspen, 2012.
Comments

9 Responses to “Guhan Subramanian, Chair, PON Executive Committee”

  • Anaclet K.

    Dear Chair Subramanian,

    I am so much happy to send you this message. I am planning to enrol at Saint Paul University in Ottawa ( Canada ), for my Ph.D.
    degree in Conflits Studies, during the Automn semester 2021.

    I am writing to express my will to attend PON, while studying in Ottawa. My field is Political Science ( International Relations ).
    In my researches, I am focusing on conflicts and migrations, especially in Africa and Mediterranean Sea. To accomplish my Master
    degree, I had an internship at the Council of Europe ( Strasbourg) and made researches in Sicily ( Italy ), where I visited different
    Hot Spots ( the sites in which the migrants and refugees are received ).

    A Master degree at PON will certainly help me improve my researches and get some experiences from different experts of your
    prestigious Institution.

    Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

    Sincerely,

    Anaclet Kandodi
    Political Science
    University of Reims
    France

    Reply
    • Hello,
      Unfortunately PON does not offer a Masters Program. We do however, host a number of educational programs about negotiation, conflict resolution and mediation and you can find them on our website. Thanks you

      Reply
  • Guhan:

    I doubt you remember me, but I was a participant in a January PON one week course, I think it would have been 2007 perhaps. You taught a majority of our classes, several which I still have and use the notes for.

    I’m advising an interesting career start-up with technology/entertainment at the core. They seem to have an interesting business plan. Who could I speak with – you? Or someone that works with you – in terms of licensing a small portion of your content – we would hand pick it together – to included it in their “negotiating your next position” component.

    They have four components and each of them is anchored with a “best in class” partner…Gallup’s Strength Finder; Yale emotional intelligence work from Marc Brackett, etc. My goal would be to provide a few “teaser’s” that would stimulate future consumption of your whole program, obviously not detract. I would expect a license fee would be part of the mix, and while in early year’s this will not be a meaningful revenue stream, if this grows to the size it might be able to, it could turn into something of real value. Please tell me who I should work through

    Reply
    • Hello,
      It would be fine for you to use content from the PON site as long as you reference PON as the source.

      Reply
  • I teach negotiation skills and conflict management at a leading university in Brazil. As a reference William Ury knows me well. I am publishing a new book dedicated to Roger Fisher — who I consider to be the father of PON — and would like to provide a copy for yourself and the PON Library. I would be grateful if you could provide me with a name and address for this purpose The title of the book is Executive Diplomacy and the Art of Strategic Negotiations.

    Reply
    • Please send to J. Kerwin, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. 501 Pound Hall, 1563 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge Ma 02138

      Reply
  • Pon R.

    Dear Professor Subramanian,
    We are a private company from UAE, and we would like to check if it is possible to conduct a special course in Negotiation to be held at your facility for a group of our professionals from our company. Is this doable? if so, kindly advise cost of the course per person/ group, course duration and the topics that will be learned in that course.
    Availing this opportunity to express my sincere regards and highest esteem awaiting to hear from you at the earliest convenient.

    Reply
    • Gail O.

      Hello,
      I have forwarded your message to the appropriate people.

      Reply
  • Archana M.

    Dear Professor Subramanian, I am a Family Law Lawyer from Toronto, Canada. I attended the Negotiation and Leadership Program last summer and had pleasure of having dinner with you with other attendees. I was able to implement some of the negotiation techniques learnt during your presentation in one of my high conflict family law matter- involving complex corporate issues. I was able to reach a million dollar deal (literally) for my client and thought that I should contact you and specially thank you. I would like to connect with you via e-mail. Looking forward to your reply. Regards.

    Reply

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