Our Team

Professor Mitch Weiss is a pioneering voice in public innovation, entrepreneurial leadership, and the future of technology-enhanced governance. As the Richard L. Menschel Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School and an Emma Bloomberg Professor, he has shaped global thinking on how public leaders and private innovators can collaboratively build solutions that transform society. At The Standard School of Machine Learning (TheSSML), he contributes deep expertise in public entrepreneurship, AI-driven decision systems, and innovation leadership for large, mission-driven institutions.

Professor Weiss created Harvard Business School’s groundbreaking Public Entrepreneurship course—focused on how bold leaders and inventive teams solve public problems with entrepreneurial methods. He has served as faculty chair for the first year of the MBA program and taught the renowned course The Entrepreneurial Manager for many years. He also leads Harvard Business Publishing’s influential seminar “Teaching with AI,” helping educators worldwide integrate artificial intelligence into pedagogy with insight and responsibility.

A highly decorated teacher, he is a two-time recipient of the Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching and has been honored with the Greenhill Award for outstanding contributions to the Harvard Business School community. His leadership extends beyond the classroom: he helped build the Young American Leaders Program at HBS and is a senior advisor to the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, supporting mayors and city executives in applying innovation to civic challenges.

Professor Weiss’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Politico, and other major outlets. He is the author of We the Possibility (Harvard Business Review Press, 2021), a widely acclaimed book exploring how governments can move from a mindset of probability to one of possibility through entrepreneurial thinking. He also writes the popular “Chief of Stuff” newsletter on AI, management, and public innovation. Recognized for his impact, he has been named among the 100 most influential academics in government.

At TheSSML, Professor Weiss brings a vital perspective on how machine learning, public systems, and entrepreneurial strategy intersect. His work guides students to understand how AI can power better public services, strengthen democratic institutions, and generate innovative, ethical solutions for society’s most complex challenges.