Robert L. Joss is an American educator and business executive. Long prominent in global banking, he was Dean of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, and is currently a director of Citigroup.
Joss received his BA degree in economics from the University of Washington in 1965. A Sloan Fellow at Stanford in 1965-1966, he received his MBA degree there in 1967 and his PhD degree in 1970. After service as a White House Fellow and then as Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, he began his banking career with Wells Fargo Bank in 1971, rising to the post of vice chairman in 1986.
In 1993 he left Wells Fargo to accept the position of chief executive officer and managing director of Westpac Banking Corporation, one of Australia's largest banks. His six years with Westpac in Sydney were highly successful in modernizing and streamlining operations and refocusing the bank's business culture to emphasize teamwork, open lines of communication, customer focus and community support. It has grown to become Australia's second-largest bank.
He returned to the United States in 1999 to become Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, where he remained until 2009.[1] He is currently a member of the school's faculty, as an Emeritus Professor.
Joss formerly served on the boards of Westpac, Wells Fargo & Company, Agilent Technologies, Inc., BEA Systems, E.piphany, Inc., Makena Capital, and Shanghai Commercial Bank, Ltd. of Hong Kong. In addition to Citigroup, he currently is a director of Bechtel Group, Inc., Makena Capital Management, and C.M. Capital.
Long active in promoting American-Australian relations, Joss serves as Co-chair of the Advisory Council for the U.S. Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.