Bruce Harreld

Harreld was born and raised in Gallipolis, Ohio. His father, James Sr., grew up on an 80-acre farm in Marion, Indiana, and spent the bulk of his career building power plants across the Midwest for the United States Atomic Energy Commission. His mother, Ann, was from Indianapolis. Her parents had emigrated from Romania and managed a grocery store that suffered during the Great Depression. Ann later earned a master's degree in education and became a teacher.[4]

Harreld graduated from Purdue University in 1972 with a degree in industrial engineering, followed by a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School in 1975.

Following his graduation from Harvard, Harreld participated on consulting teams at Boston Consulting Group and aided in opening additional offices in Chicago and Munich, eventually serving as vice president and board member until 1983. He then worked as senior vice president and division president at Kraft Foods until 1993, overseeing the frozen food unit.

From 1993 to 1994, Harreld was an adjunct professor at Northwestern University. He was also president and board member at Boston Market from 1993 to 1995, a time of massive expansion for the company. Harreld later served as senior vice president at IBM from 1995 to 2008, overseeing strategic restructuring of the organization.

From 2008 to 2014, Harreld was an adjunct professor at Harvard Business School in both the entrepreneurial and strategy units. He then briefly pursued freelance business consulting under Executing Strategy, LLC. In September 2015, the Iowa Board of Regents offered him the role of president at the University of Iowa. His term began November 2, 2015. Harreld later said he will retire in 2020, when his contract ends.