Myles La Grange Mace (10 October 1911 - 24 March 2000) was a long-time professor at the
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...
. He was a pioneer in the study of entrepreneurship and corporate governance.
Early life
Mace was born in
Montevideo, Minnesota
Montevideo is a city in Chippewa County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 5,383 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Chippewa County. The town's mayor is Erich Winter and the Council President is Nathan Schmidt.
The ar ...
, son of Jack Mace.
He graduated from the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
in 1934 and
William Mitchell College of Law (then the St. Paul College of Law) in 1936. He was admitted to the Minnesota Bar, but decided to further his education at the
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...
, where he received his M.B.A. in 1938. He took a job at HBS after graduation as a research associate before leaving for military service four years later. He left the
U.S. Air Force in 1946 as a
lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...
, having been awarded the
Bronze Star
The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone.
W ...
with Oak Leaf Cluster.
Career at HBS
Mace returned to HBS and created the first-ever course in entrepreneurship at Harvard. Titled The Management of New Enterprises, the course has remained, in various incarnations, a fixture of the HBS curriculum for decades and is regarded as the foundation of the School's extensive entrepreneurial management program.
Mace's longstanding interest in corporate governance began with the research he undertook for his Harvard doctoral dissertation, which was published as a book in 1948 under the title The Boards of Directors of Small Corporations. Following the publication of two additional books, Growth and Development of Executives and Management Problems of Corporate Acquisitions, Mace took a leave of absence from his teaching duties to undertake a project involving in-depth interviews with more than 100 chief executive officers and board members. The result was the 1971 publication of the influential book ''Directors: Myth and Reality''.
Mace's research on boards of directors aroused significant interest and controversy in the business community by uncovering the fact that many boards were too symbolic mere rubber stamps for top management. Putting his research into practice, Mace served on the boards of
Litton Industries;
Interchemical Corp.; Jostens, Inc.;
Hanes Corp.;
Squibb BeechNut;
Camp, Dresser & McKee;
United Technologies; and
Harte-Hanks Newspapers
Harte Hanks is a global marketing services company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Harte Hanks services include analytics, strategy, marketing technology, creative services, digital marketing, customer care, direct mail, logistics, and ful ...
.
In 1955, Mace accepted an offer to join Charles B. (Tex) Thornton, who had just bought the Litton Co., a small electronics firm in California. Working with Thornton from 1955 to 1958 as vice president and general manager of the Electronics Equipment Division, Mace guided Litton's annual sales growth from $3 million to more than $80 million, as the company went on to become one of the most famous conglomerates in the history of American business.
Mace returned to HBS, where he remained until his retirement in 1972. During those years, he involved himself in a number of School activities, from teaching in a program for faculty members from foreign business schools to serving as the School's first associate dean for external affairs.
Family
Mace married Adelaide Rowley, daughter of Professor Frank B. Rowley,
and had at least three children, sons Myles Jr., Nicky and Terry (Terrence).
Retirement
In retirement, Mace remained active despite becoming blind because of glaucoma. He acted as contributing editor of the
Harvard Business Review
''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, M ...
from 1975 to 1978. He also continued to serve on several boards, wrote articles, and was consulted frequently by former students and colleagues. In 1984, Mace received HBS’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.
He died in
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
in 2000.
Archives and records
Myles L. Mace papersat Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mace, Myles
1911 births
2000 deaths
Harvard Business School alumni
Harvard Business School faculty
Minnesota lawyers
University of Minnesota alumni
William Mitchell College of Law alumni
People from Montevideo, Minnesota
20th-century American lawyers