Mihir A. Desai is the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He received his Ph.D. in political economy from Harvard University; his MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School; and a bachelors degree in history and economics from Brown University. In 1994, he was a Fulbright Scholar to India.

Professor Desais areas of expertise include tax policy, international finance, and corporate finance. He is a Research Associate in the National Bureau of Economic Researchs Public Economics and Corporate Finance Programs, and served as the co-director of the NBERs India program. He has testified several times to Congressional bodies on various tax policy questions.

Professor Desai has taught extensively as an award-winning teacher at HBS and at Harvard University. He has taught public economics and entrepreneurship to undergraduates, finance and international finance to MBA students and executives, and tax law and policy to law students. Recently, Professor Desai created an online finance course through the HBX platform titled Leading with Finance. His books include The Wisdom of Finance: Discovering Humanity in the World of Risk and Return, published in May 2017, and How Finance Works, published in 2019.

His professional experiences include working at CS First Boston, McKinsey & Co., and advising a number of firms and governmental organizations.