FACULTY
Faculty Chair: Jerry Mechling
David Ager holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University. His research focuses on the intergroup nature of post-acquisition integration in the context of high growth entrepreneurial firms.
His dissertation is an ethnography based on a three year intensive field study of the post-merger integration of three mid-size customer relationship management software development firms, whose operations were based in Silicon Valley, the northeastern United States and Toronto, Canada. It proposes that even in situations where the cultures of the merging organizations are similar, actors may engage in what he labels an "avoid" dynamic that reinforces in-group and out-group differences, inhibiting integration. His study highlights the role of identity in shaping these post-acquisition integration outcomes. His dissertation contributes to a better understanding of the reasons why so many mergers and acquisitions fail. It also contributes to theories of social identity and theories about the role of emotions in economic life.
Ager has several years experience in the areas of joint ventures and alliances both in his capacity as Director of the Mexico Research Initiative at the Richard Ivey School of Business and as an adviser to a cabinet Minister in the Canadian government. He has also assisted a number of companies address issues of organizational development such as leadership development, talent management, change management, team building and succession planning, both as a member of the Finance team at Nortel and more recently as a consultant to several large multi-national firms from different industries including finance, high-technology, bio-technology, and wholesale distribution.
Ager holds an Honors B.Sc. in Economics and Human Biology from the University of Toronto, an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario and an A.M. in Sociology from Harvard University.
Elaine C. Kamarck is a Lecturer in Public Policy who came to the Kennedy School in 1997 after a career in politics and government. In the 1980s, she was one of the founders of the New Democrat movement that helped elect Bill Clinton president. She served in the White House from 1993 to 1997, where she created and managed the Clinton administration's National Performance Review, also known as reinventing government. At the Kennedy School she served as Director of Visions of Governance for the Twenty-First Century and as Faculty Advisor to the Innovations in American Government Awards Program. In 2000, she took a leave of absence to work as Senior Policy Advisor to the Al Gore presidential campaign. She conducts research on American politics, 21st century government, and governmental reform and innovation. She is author of The End of Government as We Know It. Kamarck received her PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jerry Mechling, Lecturer in Public Policy, is Director of the Leadership for a Networked World Program. His studies focus on the impacts of information and digital technologies on individual, organizational, and societal issues. He consults on these and other topics with public and private organizations locally and internationally. Most recently he was author of Eight Imperatives for Leaders in a Networked World and is presently finishing Leadership for a Cross-Boundary World. A Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and four-time winner of the Federal 100 Award, he was formerly a Fellow of the Institute of Politics, served as an aide to the Mayor and Assistant Administrator of the New York City Environmental Protection Administration, and served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the City of Boston. He received his BA in physical sciences from Harvard College and his MPA and PhD in economics and public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.
