Lecturer in Management

Dr. Foster is an emeritus director of McKinsey & Company, Inc. At McKinsey Dr. Foster was a Director and Senior Partner. While at McKinsey he founded several practices including the technology and innovation practice, the healthcare practice and the private equity practice. From 1995 to 1998 he led McKinsey’s worldwide knowledge development.

Dr. Foster’s research interests are in the relationships between capital formation, innovation, and regulation. Dr. Foster has written two best-selling books: Innovation: The Attacker’s Advantage (1986) and Creative Destruction (2001), both of which were cited as among the “ten best books of the year” when they were published by the Harvard Business Review. Innovation: The Attacker’s Advantage was voted by CEO surveyed by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five best books of the year. Dr. Foster’s work has also appeared in Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times as well as several dozen articles in research and popular journals. In 2012 “Creative Destruction” was cited by the Harvard Business Review as one of the “Great Moments in Management” in the past century. Dr. Foster was also recognized as one of their ten “Masters of Innovation” in the past century. Dr. Foster was the external leader of the Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on Innovation and Economic Power which led to the publication of Technological Innovation and Economic Performance, Princeton University Press (2001).

In the nonprofit sector Dr. Foster is co-chair of the National Academies (of Science, Engineering and Medicine) President’s Circle, the National Research Council 's Policy and Global Affairs committee, and the executive committee of the W. M. Keck Foundation. He is also a member of the Yale School of Medicine Dean’s advisory board, a member of the Harvard Medical School Health Care Policy advisory committee, and a member of the board of directors of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he is a member of the Technology, Finance and Audit Committees. He is a member of the board of the Council for Aid to Education and serves as chair of the strategy committee there.

In the for-profit sector Dr. Foster is a venture partner at Lux Capital and a general partner at Mansa Capital, a growth equity investment fund focused on early stage healthcare services and technology. He is a member of the board and the audit committee of the Trust Company of the West. He is a founding member of the Goldman Sachs Chambers Street Executive Network. He is a member of the ZocDoc Advisory Board.

Dr. Foster has been a member of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Santa Fe Institute, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. He was the co-chair of the Healthcare Data Initiative, a joint venture of the Department of Health & Human Services and the Institute of Medicine in 2011 and 2012. He was a member of the TEDMED Advisory Board. Dr. Foster was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008.

Dr. Foster received his BS, MS, and PhD from Yale University in Engineering and Applied Science.