Harvard Business Review

Cynthia A. Montgomery, age 54, has been a Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business since 1989. Prior thereto, Dr. Montgomery was a Professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University from 1985 to 1989.

Rajiv Lal, is the Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard Business School where he is the course head for the required course in Marketing in the first year of the MBA program and also teaches in several Executive Education programs including the Top Management Seminar for Retailers and Suppliers. Lal was Professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University since 1982. He was the Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Visting Professor at Harvard Business School for 1997-98. He was visiting Professor of Marketing at INSEAD, France in 1986, 1988, 1992 and 1993. He did his undergraduate work in mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, India and received his PhD in Industrial Administration from Carnegie-Mellon University. Lal is an Area Editor for Marketing Science. Lal's current research is concerned with the dramatic changes affecting retailing. His most recent work in this area studies the impact of using the Internet as a channel of distribution on a retailer's pricing, merchandising and branding strategy. The paper was published in Marketing Science and nominated for the award of the best paper in Marketing and Management Science. His earlier work in retailing studies the impact of competition between different retail formats, such as EDLP and Hi-Lo grocers. He has also studied the consequences of the increasing use of store brands by grocery retailers on store loyalty and its implications for packaged goods manufacturers.

Kerr is chairman of the board of Meredith Corporation. He was elected chairman in January 1998, having served as president and CEO from January 1, 1997 until June 30, 2006. In 1994, Kerr was named president and COO of Meredith, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day business of the company's operating groups. At that time, Kerr was also appointed as a member of the Meredith Board of Directors and a member of the Board's executive committee. Prior to that, Kerr served as president of the Meredith Magazine Group and executive vice president of the company, where he was responsible for the strategic direction and day-to-day management of all magazine operations. Prior to joining Meredith in September of 1991, Kerr was a vice president of The New York Times Company and president of its magazine group, a position he held since 1984. Kerr has also held posts with Dillon, Read & Co., and McKinsey and Company. A native of Seattle, Kerr is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Washington. He earned a degree in modern history as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Kerr also serves on the Boards of The Principal Financial Group, Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. and Arbitron, Inc.