Warren Bennis

Warren BennisWarren Bennis is University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and Founding Chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California. He also serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and is the Thomas S. Murphy Distinguished Research Fellow at the Harvard Business School. He is Visiting Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter (UK) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (UK).

He has written or edited 26 books, including the best selling Leaders and On Becoming A Leader, both translated into 21 languages. The Financial Times recently names Leaders as one of the top 50 business books of all time. In 1993 Addison-Wesley published a book of his essays An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 1998, Jossey-Bass republished his 1968 path-breaking book, The Temporary Society, co-authored with Philip Slater. His recent books, Organizing Genius, 1997, Co-Leaders, 1999, and Managing the Dream, 2000, summarize Bennis’s major interests: Leadership, Change, Great Groups and Powerful Partnerships. Bennis’s latest book, Geeks & Geezers, 2002, examines the differences and similarities between leaders 30 years and younger and leaders 70 years and older.

Bennis has served on the faculty of MIT’s Sloan School of Management where he was Chairman of the Organizational Studies Department. He is a former faculty member of Harvard and Boston University, former provost and Executive Vice President of State University of New York at Buffalo and President of the University of Cincinnati from 1971-1978. He has received 11 honorary degrees and has served on numerous boards of advisers, including Claremont University, American Leadership Forum, the American Chamber of Commerce and the Salk Institute. He has served on 4 US Presidential Advisory Boards and has consulted for many Fortune 500 companies, including G.E., Ford, and Starbucks. The Wall Street Journal named him as one of the top ten speakers on management in 1993 and in 1996, Forbes magazine referred to him as the “Dean of Leadership Gurus.”

Bennis is proud of the 4 years he served in the U.S. Army, 1943-1947; he was one of the youngest infantry commanders and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.