The Citizen Profile: Malcolm Sparrow
by Jason Elliott on October 3, 2007 in The Citizen Profile
He finished a PhD in nine months, and he can destroy you in just about any sport that involves a racket, or as he would say, racquet.
Meet Malcolm Sparrow, Faculty Chair of the MPP Program, KSG professor since 1988 and, as he likes to remind you, ex-cop. He’s thrice been MPP director, has taught a variety of classes in statistics, management and finance and chairs numerous executive programs.
But this seemingly career academic spent a lifetime in a field far away from the comforts of his second floor Littauer office. The man who challenged the entire school to a game of table tennis—and made good on his word of installing a table for student use in the Taubman Rotunda—used to work as a Detective Chief Inspector with the British Police Services, where he commanded a SWAT unit and investigated fraud, among other duties. In essence, he spent his early career honing the skill of being able to look at someone and discern whether a hidden agenda lurks beneath the surface. Does he ever wield this ability in the classroom? “I’ve called on a few students at special moments,” Sparrow jokes.
Born in Somerset, England, Sparrow first experienced the Kennedy School as a Mid-Career student on a Harkness Fellowship in the mid-1980s, taking a break from police work to study fingerprint technology. After graduating, he returned home to collect his PhD, despite offers from KSG to remain in the United States as a member of the faculty. It wasn’t until a few years later that Graham Allison, then dean of the School, persuaded Sparrow to return to Cambridge for a professorship.
In fact, Sparrow’s only demand upon accepting the offer had nothing to do with the usual accoutrements upon which professors insist—tenure, salary, title. All he wanted, he explains, was an office in Littauer because he wanted to be seen as part of the core faculty. Sparrow’s strategy of integrating himself into the Harvard culture paid off, and today his resume as a KSG employee is longer than almost anyone’s. However, under all of the titles and chairmanships, it is clear that Sparrow still relishes the classroom experience. For instance, he always wears a shirt and tie to class because he wants to show respect for his students and respect for the institution of teaching.
This year, Sparrow is teaching two spring courses, STM-112, Strategic Management of Regulatory and Enforcement Agencies and STM-400, Financial Control in Nonprofit and Public Organizations, in addition to his Executive Program and MPP Chair duties.
After so many years on the beat and in the classroom, he must have learned a few tricks about how to interact with people. Sparrow, who by his own admission is terrible at recalling faces but great with names, explains that his time in policing helped him learn to read people. “I developed an instinct for picking out people who were trying not to be noticed.”
But apparently KSG students are better actors than the criminals he used to arrest.
“There’s a blank stare that students give which only means one of two things. First, you’re going incredibly slowly and this is boring. Second, you have totally lost me and please don’t call on me,” Sparrow said. “It’s the same glazed look, and I still can’t tell the difference.”
Despite his penchant for dry humor, however, Sparrow’s passion for training future public servants is piercing. His esteem for his student shines through when he talks about the hypothetical perfect student. “I want someone that’s motivated by the job they think they might do rather than by the grade they think they might get,” Sparrow said. “Come to class hungry for what they can take away and will be useful in a career.”
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