How named chairs help LBS recruit and retain elite faculty and strengthen academic reputation

Chairs reflect the calibre of LBS’s distinguished faculty and the generous, visionary donors who fund them. They are prestigious positions, created in perpetuity for a faculty member whose research and scholarship shape business and the world for the better, and widely recognised as one of the most valuable gifts that can be made to a university. Chairs also mentor students and junior faculty, fostering a vibrant intellectual community.

While primarily established to recognise academic distinction, the endowment supporting the chair also provides stable funding for research. This enables the chairholder to pursue ambitious, long-term projects, bringing further distinction to the School and to the donors whose generosity created the named chair. LBS currently holds 14 such positions, 12 of which are endowed. The most recent was established in June 2026 following a landmark £15 million gift from alumni Anjuli Rao MiFFT1999 and Raj Rao MiFFT1998.

There are benefits for the School, chairholder and benefactor. For the School, named chairs act as a powerful tool to attract, recruit and retain world-class faculty, and elevate the institution’s global academic reputation. For the faculty member awarded this position, it is the highest academic honour a university can bestow, guaranteeing financial stability and reliable funding, and freeing up time to focus on complex research, innovation and teaching. For the donor, it creates a lasting legacy and permanently links their name to academic excellence and is a significant investment in research and scholarship which will drive forward activities for decades to come.

Dr Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, has been the Adecco Chair at London Business School since 2011. In that time, she has been able to expand her research into the way relationships influence career outcomes – particularly in hiring, job transitions and career advancement. She has also been able to study gender diversity in the executive labourmarket, examining the organisational and social barriers that prevent women’s access to positions of leadership, with a recent research paper evidencing how women’s ideas are missing from the future of innovation. As she rightly concludes:

Other notable endowed chair positions include the Dawson Chair in Strategy and Entrepreneurship, established in 2025 by alumnus John Dawson MiFPT1995 and his wife Sam, and the Alexander Knaster Chair in Economics, held by globally recognised economist Professor Elias Papaioannou. Endowed gifts are an opportunity to create lasting impact at LBS, helping to build the School’s reputation and prestige and strengthen its financial foundations. The aim in the coming year is to continue to increase endowed support and strengthen the School’s financial foundation for the long term.

Fran Sponsler, Executive Director, Proposition Development and Campaign, explains the value of named chairs: “Donor funding such as this has a huge impact on our ability to plan in the longer term. From a recruitment perspective, endowments attract high-calibre faculty and students and raise LBS’s profile as one of the world’s leading business schools, with an academic reputation to match.”