Harvard's current president is Alan Garber, who took office on January 2, 2024, following the resignation of Claudine Gay.

Each names a faculty's dean (and, since the foundation of the office in 1994, the university's provost), and grants tenure to recommended professors.

Recently, however, the job has become increasingly administrative, especially as fund-raising campaigns have taken on central importance in large institutions such as Harvard.

Charles W. Eliot, for example, originated America's familiar system of a smorgasbord of elective courses available to each student; James B. Conant worked to introduce standardized testing; Derek Bok and Neil L. Rudenstine argued for the continued importance of diversity in higher education.

Since Harvard was founded for the training of Puritan clergy, and even though its mission was soon broadened, nearly all presidents through the end of the 18th century were in holy orders.