Regina E. Herzlinger (born c.1944) is an American businessperson and academic.[1] She is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS) where she teaches the Master of Business Administration program.[2] [3] Herzlinger was the first woman to obtain tenure or become a chair at HBS.[1] She has also been the first woman on several company boards. Her approach has been described as fiscally conservative.[1]
Herzlinger was born Regina Elbinger circa 1944 in Tel Aviv, Israel, to Ella and Alexander Elbinger. Her father was a rabbinical scholar who had fled Russia in the 1920s. Herzlinger's parents then fled Nazi-controlled Germany in 1939 and moved to Israel, where she was born. Her mother was a card player and her father a businessman. The Elbingers emigrated to the United States when Regina was eight years old. She grew up in a Jewish community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where she attended a small Orthodox yeshiva, graduating in 1961. She was the first girl from her school to leave the community.[1] Herzlinger received a bachelor's degree in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965. Herzlinger met her future husband, George Herzlinger, when they were classmates at MIT. They were married in 1966. After graduating from MIT, Herzlinger obtained her Doctor of Business Administration degree from HBS.[4] [5] [6] She began teaching at HBS in 1971.[7] Herzlinger and her husband have two children.[8]
Herzlinger was formerly Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.[9] In 1999, she became the first Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh.[10]
Herzlinger has served as director or board member of Bard, Cardinal Health, ChemoCentryx, HCR Manor Care, HealthAllies.com, John Deere, Lumenos (now Anthem Inc.), Noven Pharmaceuticals (now Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical), Physicians Interactive, RealMed Corporation, Schering-Plough, Total Renal Care (now DaVita Inc.), and Zimmer Holdings. She also served as a member of the advisory board of KBL Healthcare Ventures.[7] Herzlinger sat on the board of WellCare from 2003 to 2010 where she led the board's audit committee. She resigned in 2010, citing a lack of co-operation from other board members in her efforts to deal with a number of accounting errors.[1] [11]
Herzlinger describes herself as a healthcare "activist" and argues against managed care. She has advised the United States Congress and President George W. Bush on healthcare policy.[1] [2] Herzlinger has served on the Scientific Advisory Group of the United States Secretary of the Air Force.[12] Herzlinger is the author of several best-selling books and has written for The Wall Street Journal and HuffPost.[1] [13] Her book Who Killed Health Care? was recognized by the United States Chamber of Commerce as one of the 10 most influential books in the healthcare debate.
Herzlinger founded Belmont Medical Technologies (formerly known as Belmont Instrument Corporation) with her husband. Their company's medical technology is primarily designed for fluid warming and temperature regulation[14] and as a bridge to heart transplant, with George Herzlinger's design of the intra-aortic Balloon Pump.[15]
Herzlinger is also closely involved with the Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). In collaboration with CAHME, the Herzlingers developed the CAHME/George and Regi Herzlinger Innovation Education Award.[16]
Herzlinger has created The GENiE Group (Global Educators Network for Health Innovation Education), a charity devoted to furthering health care innovation and funding in the Middle East.[17] [18]
Herzlinger has twice received the American College of Healthcare Executives James A. Hamilton Book of the Year Award (1977 and 1998).[19]