Joel M. Podolny

Joel Marc Podolny is an American sociologist. Formerly the dean of the Yale School of Management, he is currently an executive at Apple Inc. where he is the Dean of Apple University (the in-house corporate training center for apple employees) and as a vice president of the firm. Previously, he was Vice President for human resources.

Podolny is a 1982 graduate of St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati. He earned his A.B. (magna cum laude), A.M., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University.

Podolny served on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business for 11 years. He held the position of Senior Associate Dean during the latter part of his Stanford tenure. He was later a professor and Director of Research at Harvard Business School, where he taught courses in business strategy, organizational behavior, and global management.

Podolny arrived at the Yale School of Management in 2005. The next year, Podolny led a major restructuring of the Yale MBA curriculum in response to the increasingly complex and cross-functional global environment in which businesses and their executives operate.

On November 1, 2008, Podolny stepped down as dean to be replaced by Sharon Oster, and in early 2009 assumed the position of Senior Vice President of Human Resources, and Dean of Apple Inc.'s new venture, Apple University. Subsequently, Podolny stopped down from his position in charge of human resources but continues as Dean of Apple University and as a vice president at the firm.

Podolny has developed a sociological theory of market competition based on status dynamics. In order to do so, he has examined a variety of industries including venture capital, semiconductors, and investment banking. Podolny has also conducted research on the role of social networks in mobility and information transfer within organizations. He is the author of Status Signals: A Sociological Study of Market Competition and co-author (with Garth Saloner and Andrea Shepard) of the textbook Strategic Management.