Markus Baer, vice dean of executive education and professor of organizational behavior at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, has been installed as the Knight Family Professor. A ceremony took place Feb. 18 at the Charles F. Knight Center.
Baer told the audience that being installed as the Knight Family Professor was not simply a professional milestone, but also a personal one.
“As the son of a father who was displaced by World War II and a Romanian mother, I arrived in the United States with only two suitcases, a couple of boxes and a cheese grater, 26 years ago,” Baer said. “Since then, I’ve carried with me a profound gratitude for the opportunities that education and the Olin Business School provided me.”
Joanne Knight and her late husband, Charles “Chuck” Knight, have been steadfast supporters of Olin and WashU for decades.
“Chuck Knight’s legacy is defined by the prepared mind — the belief that through rigorous planning, systematic experimentation and strategic embrace of creative destruction, an organization can navigate technological change and remain competitive,” Baer said. “That philosophy deeply resonates with my own work. My research has shown that creativity is not the result of a stroke of luck, but a product of relentless preparation, rigorous idea development and ultimately sustained commitment to the creative process.”
At the ceremony, Dean Mike Mazzeo offered an introduction, followed by remarks from Dean Emeritus Robert L. Virgil, MBA ’60, DBA ’67, and a medal presentation by Provost Mark D. West.
“In his current role as the inaugural vice dean for executive education, Markus is committed to enhancing Olin’s executive programs and spreading our reach and impact all over the world, continuously seeking new opportunities to disseminate knowledge,” said Mazzeo, who also holds a separate Knight Family Professorship, in addition to the Judy and Jerry Kent Deanship.
The endowed position is just the most recent in an extensive list of named gifts the family has made to the school and the university spanning academics, research, health care and facilities, including the Charles F. Knight Executive Education and Conference Center, the Joanne Knight Breast Health Center and Breast Cancer Program, the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Knight Hall.
The Knights’ daughter, Anne Knight Davidson, accepted the medallion on her family’s behalf. Charles Knight championed master’s in business administration education and enjoyed sharing his expertise with graduate students.
About Baer
Baer was born in Dillenburg, Germany, and grew up outside of Giessen, a midsized town that is home to the Justus-Liebig University, where he graduated with a master’s in psychology in 2000.
Baer completed doctoral studies in organizational behavior at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2006, joining Olin that fall.
Throughout his career, Baer has studied the social-contextual factors shaping creativity, problem formulation and how people evaluate and choose new ideas. His current research focus is on innovation and its related activities. Baer’s research has been published extensively in a wide range of leading academic journals, including those focused on applied psychology, general management and strategic management. Reflecting Baer’s broad interests, he has held editorial responsibilities at the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal.
Moreover, Baer is passionate about sharing his field’s research in the classroom. He has been honored with consecutive teaching awards and was named one of the world’s top 40 business professors under 40 by Poets & Quants.
Baer enjoys hiking with his wife, Alyssa, in inaccessible places around the world such as Kashmir.
About the Knights
The Knight family is among St. Louis’ most committed and generous philanthropic partners. The Knights’ involvement extends across the city, helping organizations devoted to higher education, health care and youth empowerment.
The late Chuck Knight was CEO at Emerson Electric Co. from 1973 to 2000. As a member of WashU’s Board of Trustees from 1977 to 1990, he was instrumental in shaping the university of today.
Though not an alumnus of Olin Business School, Knight adopted it as his own, committed to its success as an important talent pipeline for the St. Louis business community. He helped found and subsequently served as chair of the Olin Business School National Council, which steered Olin’s national rise as a premier destination for business education.
Joanne Knight has been especially engaged in the work of the Alzheimer’s Association of St. Louis, for which she has served in several volunteer and advisory positions, including a term as president. She also has worked with the Central Institute for the Deaf, including as a member of its board of directors. Her service to WashU includes charter membership on the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center Community Advisory Board and serving as a member of the School of Art National Council.
The Knights’ generosity and support of the university have been recognized with numerous honors. Both received an honorary doctor of science degree from WashU in 1996, and in 2010, the university awarded Joanne a doctor of humanities degree. Chuck received the university’s Robert S. Brookings Award in 1999 and the Eliot Society Search Award in 2007. In 2012, the couple was recognized by Olin Business School with the Dean’s Medal.
