New Cabot Masters Strive to Motivate

As Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana and Tobin Project Acting Executive Director Stephanie R. Khurana chat on the patio alongside the Cabot dining hall, their three children play catch in the Quad.

Repeated and vigorous throws by Jai—the couple’s 7-year-old son—constantly elude his two sisters’ grasps. Later, he makes his way to the ramp leading up to the residences at Cabot. Energetically jumping over the banister, he accidentally bites his tongue, and Nalini and Sonia—Jai’s 11-year-old and 13-year-old sisters, respectively—escort him to their parents.

For all intents and purposes, the Khuranas already seem at home.

But the incoming Cabot House Masters say they seek to make this home even better. Guided by their entrepreneurial spirit, the couple strives to create what Rakesh Khurana calls a “generative community,” one that allows people to develop as individuals while remaining part of a broader group of undergraduates, alumni, and Harvard affiliates in the House.

VISION FOR CABOT

The HBS professor and his wife, both of whom have helped establish a range of companies, have already brought business acumen to their new leadership roles in Cabot, as they rattle off phrases like “growth opportunities,” “win-win situation,” and “potential possibilities” to describe their vision for Cabot House. But entrepreneurial skills are only one of many traits the couple say they will bring to the helm of Cabot House.

Their goal, forming a “generative community,” stems from Rakesh Khurana’s training as a sociologist and his research on leadership in business.

“We’re going to spend a lot of time listening to the students and understanding what their hopes and goals and potential possibilities are, and support them as best as we can,” Rakesh Khurana says.

The Khuranas say their backgrounds will allow them to address challenges in innovative ways. A co-founder of companies in industries ranging from technology to health care, Stephanie Khurana says she is always “trying to create something new.”

“There’s always a lot of potential with any new situation,” Stephanie Khurana says. “The excitement comes from what could be or what should be, and then making it happen.”

Speaking in the abstract, Stephanie Khurana says the transformation from potential to reality is reflected strongly in the college experience—where undergraduates enter with aspirations and leave with a diploma and a sense of their place in the world, she adds.

And the two say they believe that the Houses are the place to make that happen.

“That’s what I think the college experience is about,” Rakesh Khurana says. “Part of it is in the classroom—a really important part—but part of it is outside of what happens in the classroom, and I think a lot of that happens at the House level.”

IVY LEAGUERS FOR LIFE

“I love being surrounded by people smarter than we are,” says Rakesh Khurana about living in Cabot.

Born in India but raised in Queens, Rakesh Khurana majored in economics and industrial labor relations at Cornell University, graduating in 1990. A studious undergraduate who spent many nights in the library, Rakesh Khurana says he found an outlet in photography and in running.

His wife, Stephanie Khurana, also studied at Cornell, where she graduated in 1989 after a childhood in Ohio and Maryland. She spent much of her time working with Cornell’s Panhellenic Council to initiate new programs, an activity that foreshadowed her later career as an entrepreneur.

But the two did not meet until after graduation when they both worked with the same startup, Cambridge Technology Partners. After three or four years as close friends and running buddies, the two started dating before they both pursued multiple graduate degrees at Harvard. By the end of their education, Rakesh Khurana had earned an A.M. in sociology and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior, while his wife had an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School and an M.B.A. from the Business School.

And though the two came from different cultural backgrounds and religious upbringings, Rakesh Khurana says such “surface-level differences” mattered much less than their shared values. This, he says, is integral to the modern college experience, where many people from various backgrounds have the opportunity to connect.

A DECISION FOR THE FAMILY

Recalling the House Master selection process, the Khuranas say that several people were involved in their decision to pursue the Cabot House Mastership.

During the process, the Khurana family not only met with students, tutors, and House staff, but they also had lengthy, candid conversations with the three sets of outgoing Masters—Sandra F. Naddaff ’75 and Leigh G. Hafrey ’73 of Mather, Lino Pertile and Anna Bensted of Eliot, and Jay M. Harris and Cheryl L. Harris of Cabot, all of whom announced their retirements from House Mastership last semester. The Khuranas add that each pair helped elucidate what the position entailed.

“They were very open, shared everything down to sometimes even their schedule books,” Rakesh Khurana says.

But the couple also sought input from their three children: Sonia, Nalini, and Jai.

“It was a family decision, not a mom-and-dad decision,” Rakesh Khurana says.

The Khuranas say they had been interested in House Master positions for some time but were waiting for an appropriate time for their family to undertake the role. Now, the children have hit the right age—they’re young enough to benefit from the House environment, but old enough that “they have a sense of self and who they are,” Stephanie Khurana adds.

That sense of togetherness, reflected in their decision-making process, is part of what Rakesh and Stephanie Khurana say they hope to bring to Cabot. They say they plan to work with Cabot’s staff, students, and House Committee to develop and improve community in the House they will call home come the end of this academic year.

“What we do together is infinitely better than what any of us can do alone,” Rakesh Khurana says.

—Staff writer Danielle J. Kolin can be reached at dkolin@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: April 6, 2010

An earlier version of the April 6 news article "New Cabot Masters Strive to Motivate" incorrectly stated that Rakesh Khurana earned a Ph.D. in sociology. In fact, he received his Ph.D. in organizational behavior.