Poets&Quants, the leading independent media platform covering graduate business education, has announced a new leadership team to guide its next phase of growth and innovation as founder John A. Byrne retires from his leadership role. The transition marks the culmination of Byrne's distinguished career, during which he built the publication into one of the most trusted and influential voices in business education since its founding in 2010. Under his leadership, Poets&Quants has served millions of readers worldwide, providing authoritative coverage, data-driven insights, and in-depth analysis for prospective students, business schools, and industry leaders.
The new leadership team consists of Sat Sharma as Managing Director, Marc Ethier as Editor-in-Chief, and newly hired Pola Lem as Executive Editor. Ethier, a journalist with decades of reporting experience who has served as managing editor for the past ten years, will oversee all editorial operations. He is currently working on a book examining the impact of artificial intelligence on elite business school classrooms. Sharma, a higher-education veteran with over 15 years of involvement with Poets&Quants, will lead strategic growth, partnerships, revenue generation, and global market expansion. Sharma holds a B.S. in Marketing from Northeastern University and a Master's in Technology Management from Pepperdine University.
Lem joins from The Grocer, the UK's leading magazine covering the retail sector, where she served as trends editor leading weekly data-driven features. Prior to that, she worked at Times Higher Education, first as Asia reporter and later overseeing editorial content for THE's global rankings. In her new role, she will lead market-facing editorial initiatives, multimedia storytelling, and audience engagement strategies. Lem earned a B.A. in Russian language with honors from Haverford College and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.
Together, the leadership team will guide Poets&Quants into its next chapter with a focus on expanding multimedia and video storytelling, enhancing global coverage and audience reach, developing innovative data and AI-driven insights, and strengthening partnerships with business schools and industry organizations. The platform will continue its mission to provide independent, authoritative coverage that helps prospective students make informed decisions and enables business schools to showcase innovation and impact. As part of Times Higher Education, Poets&Quants features multiple tools and authoritative content, including consolidated business school rankings, news and in-depth features, videos, podcasts, two searchable directories, and events.
