Remembering Professor Steven Kahl D’91

Steve was born in Arlington Heights, Ill. and grew up in various places including Pittsburgh, Pa., Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., and Potomac, Md. In 1987, he moved to the Upper Valley to attend Dartmouth College. He was a member of the Phi Delta Alpha fraternity and spent his last year as a Senior Fellow, writing a research paper titled “Beginning Beginnings,” which is available in Baker Library. He loved his time at Dartmouth, made lifelong friends, and graduated magna cum laude in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.

After graduating from Dartmouth, Steve worked as a technology consultant at Arthur Anderson in Washington D.C. and then earned a master’s degree in philosophy at the University of Minnesota, where he met his wife, Suzie Rubin, who today is the senior advisor at the Center for Health Care at Tuck. Steve worked in Minneapolis for Deloitte Consulting and Piper Jaffray and then he and Suzie relocated to Boston, where Steve worked in equity research for Goldman Sachs. Just weeks after relocating, Steve and Suzie became parents; their children Henry and Hattie were born two years apart. Feeling the pull back to academia, Steve enrolled in the PhD program at the MIT Sloan School of Management, earning his doctorate in Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Steve’s first job as a professor was at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he taught technology strategy and conducted research on innovation.

In 2012, Steve joined the Strategy and Management group at Tuck and had an immense impact from the very beginning. Steve was instrumental in the Tuck curriculum, teaching the Leading Organizations core course for many years and introducing the Leading Entrepreneurial Organizations elective.  He also taught the Building Entrepreneurial Ventures class, which later became the Tuck Startup Incubator. 

Steve’s colleague on the faculty, Ron Adner, the Nathaniel D’1906 and Martha E. Leverone Memorial Professor of Business Administration, fondly recalls spending hours with Steve sketching ideas on the whiteboard for research papers and class design. Steve published widely in journals such as Management Science and The Strategic Management Journal on a range of topics related to innovation and the emergence of new markets and technologies. “His generosity, enthusiasm and curiosity shone through every interaction, and also his sense of humor,” Adner says. “Part of what made him so special was his genuine delight in not just his own ideas, but those of others.”

Entrepreneurship was a key interest of Steve’s, and he was the inaugural faculty director of Tuck’s Center for Entrepreneurship. In that role, Steve worked closely with Daniella Reichstetter T’07, who served as the founding executive director of the Center. Before she was hired, Reichstetter was told that Steve would be an ally, a mentor and a sounding board for her. “And he was all those things and more,” she recalls. “He brought his whole self to all his relationships. And that included his colleagues at all levels and the students.” Steve had tremendous loyalty to the Dartmouth community and was very generous with his time outside of class. “No one ever got a ‘No’ from Steve if they had any Dartmouth affiliation,” Reichstetter says, “including prospective students, alumni, faculty, and staff.”

In 2022, the Tuck Center for Entrepreneurship received a generous endowed gift to establish the Steve Kahl D’91 Entrepreneurship Award: $10,000 awarded annually to an individual or team that is starting or building a new venture at Tuck while embracing the spirit of the Tuck Center for Entrepreneurship.

Steve was involved in creating the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) club, where he worked with the two founding students (T’20s Ryan Turk and Jim Prial) to organize a speaker series that teaches would-be entrepreneurs at Tuck about innovative paths to company ownership. Over the years, the program has expanded to include an elective course taught by Professor Mark Anderegg. Eileen O’Toole, the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, worked with Steve on these and other projects, and can’t help but smile when she thinks of him today. “Steve’s warmth and humor were infectious,” she says, “and he was always supportive of everyone he collaborated with. He was the epitome of the kindness of the Tuck community.”

Experiential learning was another passion of Steve’s, and he served as the faculty director of TuckGO during the 2020-2021 academic year.  In addition, he served as the faculty advisor on leadership, helping create the Personal Leadership Coaching Program and helping with Tuck Launch. 

Steve was also an active contributor to Tuck Executive Education. He worked with Emmanuel Ajavon, an associate director of business leadership programs, to create the Diversity Entrepreneurship Collaboration Workshop, which is now a practicum taught by Reichstetter and Caroline Cannon T’98.

Steve was deeply involved with undergraduate activities on campus, as well, including teaching in the Tuck Business Bridge Program and co-developing TuckLAB, the liberal arts and business program for Dartmouth undergraduates. “Steve’s bright smile was always a welcome sight to students in those programs,” says Lisa Tedeschi, the executive director of undergraduate programs and select initiatives. “Steve was always willing to spend additional time with anyone who asked, and many did because of his uncanny ability to redirect students in a way that resulted in their learning and growth. His creative mind and collaborative presence made working with him fulfilling and fun. As one TuckLAB student wrote: ‘I wouldn’t want to learn from anyone else but Prof. Kahl.’”

Steve is survived by his wife, Suzie Rubin; their two children, Henry and Hattie; and Steve’s parents, siblings and extended family. Please visit his obituary, which has further details on his life and how to make donations to a cause important to him. A Celebration of Life will be held at the Hanover Inn on Saturday, August 10 at 1:30 p.m.

In Our Own Words: Remembering Professor Steve Kahl

“I came to Tuck with the idea of starting or buying a business in the Upper Valley. At the time, the entrepreneurship curriculum was focused on Venture and PE investing and I felt at times lost and isolated when navigating how my career path fit into the Tuck curriculum and organization. Meeting Steve changed all that. He was a tireless champion, always smiling and full of positivity and energy, reminding me that I was on the right path and had all the support I could dream of in the Tuck network. He signed up to mentor our FYP team, advocated for my Maynard internship, introduced me to countless local alums, and always went out of his way to ask about my family and get to know me on a personal level. When I was questioning this path and wondering if I should take the ‘easy’ way out and opt for a more traditional career path, it was Steve who reminded me how much fun I had working on new business ideas, and that I should follow my joy and trust that it would work out in the end. He became a friend and mentor in addition to a professor, and I'll be forever grateful for his support and positivity. I hope his legacy lives on through current and future faculty embodying his best traits: encouraging those students with entrepreneurial ideas to keep going, trust their gut, know they are supported, and stay positive.”
—Jay Boren T’16

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“Steve was always a joy to speak with, and I'm thankful I got the opportunity to receive his advice often as I was working through how to start Unifi. He had a specific demeanor about him—he had this unique combination of soft-spoken forcefulness—I'm not sure how else to describe it. I had lots of folks tell me starting a health insurance company would be too complex, too hard, etc., and to start with something simpler. I recall Steve being different though. I remember sitting in his office where he was acknowledging that what I was trying to do was going to be very hard, but in a ‘screw it, work your ass off and it'll work out’ attitude delivered with this friendliness and genuine excitement that helped accelerate me toward breaking through those brick walls ahead of me. I was very appreciative of that encouragement.

It was always obvious how much he loved the upper valley. I had him for Managing Organizations as well and I (unsuccessfully) tried to experience every UV recommendation he put in his different class slides. It was also clear how much he loved Suzie—he’s one of the few people where I think I could literally see a twinkle in his eye when she was around.”
—Ross Klosterman T’20

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“Steve's care, accessibility, and personalized support played an important role in shaping my Tuck experience and post-MBA path. He cared deeply about students and was always there to share helpful guidance or a lighthearted smile.”
—Mark Noble T’21

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“Professor Kahl made sure every student in his classroom internalized that entrepreneurship is available to us all, a too-fancy and hard-to-spell word that really just means seeing a problem in the world and doing something about it. He taught with levity and joy, reminding us all the learning done best, is fun. 

Faced with the devastating diagnosis that would take his life, Professor Kahl never lost his lighthearted and joy filled spirit. In the years since sitting in his classroom, he’s continued to teach me that while we can’t control what happens to us, we can control the energy we bring to impossible situations. Be it solving seemingly intractable problems with ambitious ventures or maintaining joy through loss, thank you Professor Kahl for all you’ve taught me.” 
—Sophia Cornew Gregory T’19

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“I was so deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Professor Kahl.  The world has truly lost a shining light. During my time at Tuck, Prof. Kahl was a beacon of positivity and support in my life. His door was always open, whether I needed to talk about leadership reflections, vent about the demands of motherhood, or simply laugh or cry about a hectic situation. He was always encouraging, and his wisdom and warm smile always left me feeling uplifted. There was always such genuine kindness and encouragement in his face, and even without words, you just knew he was in your corner. I remember when it became clear that he was not feeling well but he remained so dedicated to coming in and tirelessly mentoring us and supporting the work we were doing with the diverse business programs. His passion for his work was evident and inspiring. I will deeply miss him, his bright smile and his profound wisdom. Tuck and the world have lost a true hero.” 
—Linda Magara Horner T’20

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“The most striking memory I have of Steve is the feeling of being warmly welcomed. The Tuck Incubator is where we spent time together. Steve’s joy was contagious: he was always glad to see you, and it made you glad to be there. Besides offering his great advice, thoughtful insights, and incisive questions, Steve made me feel like I was a part of the Incubator, that I was in the right place, and that I was his friend. I’m forever grateful for that. And for him. Truly, what a guy.”
—Austin Pittman T’21

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“Without Steve Kahl I can safely say that I wouldn't have pursued my entrepreneurial journey.  When you have an idea for a business, the people around you typically fall into one of two camps.  They are either quick to point out every little flaw—real or imagined—deflating your dream before you even set out or they raucously cheer you on, flattering you but failing to point out obvious pitfalls.  Steve was different, he would listen to your idea with rapt attention and with kindness, curiosity, and a sparkle in his eye he would ask questions and coach you to test and improve your idea.  He was patient and non-judgmental in a way that nurtured both ideas and entrepreneurs.  I'll forever be grateful.

Funny enough, one of my most vivid memories of Steve has little to do with entrepreneurship at all.  Rather, it came from a lesson in Leading Organizations when we had to learn how to fire an employee.  As bleak as it sounds, it was one of the most valuable lessons I learned at Tuck.  Not because it equipped me for human resources challenges (which it did), but because it helped me learn how to make gut-wrenching decisions without losing my humanity.  I can't think of a better teacher for that lesson than Steve Kahl.”
—George Cook T’17

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“I have many memories of sitting in Steve's office and being on Zooms until late in the evening exploring new entrepreneurial ventures and interesting ways to test their validity together. I very much remember how exciting the beginning of Tuck felt - building something new with the support of the Dartmouth community felt fully supported and possible - Steve was an enormous part of that experience.”
—Madeleine Livingston T’21