Jeffrey Sonnenfeld

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is the Senior Associate Dean for Executive Programs at Yale University's School of Management and The Lester Crown Professor of Management Practice as well as the Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of The Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. This institute is the world's first CEO College and is dedicated to the advancement of top leadership education through scholarly research and peer-driven educational forums for prominent CEOs. Previously, he was a professor at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University. There he founded the Center for Leadership & Career Studies, which he ran for eight years. Prior to this, Sonnenfeld spent ten years as a professor at the Harvard Business School. His research, publications and consulting address issues of top leadership development, executive succession, and board governance.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld received his AB, MBA, and DBA from Harvard University. He has been the recipient of: the Irwin Award for Social Research in Industry; AT&T's Hawthorne Fellowship for Social Research in Industry; the John P. Whitehead Faculty Fellowship; and, on two occasions, Emory's "Outstanding Educator Award." He was awarded the "Outstanding Educator Award" in 1996 from the American Society for Training and Development, the nation's professional association for corporate educators. His recent journal article "Good Governance and Bad Metrics" won the 2005 Best Paper Award for the Academy of Management Executive.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld has published five books and numerous articles in the areas of: chief executive leadership; corporate governance; CEO succession; executive careers; and the management of corporate social performance. His articles have appeared in, Administrative Sciences Quarterly; the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, American Psychologist, Social Forces, Organizational Dynamics, Human Resource Management, The Journal of Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business Review, and Human Relations. He has served on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Organizational Dynamics. He has served as a member of the board of governors of the Academy of Management, and chaired The Blue Ribbon Commission on CEO Succession for the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld presently serves on the board of directors of: Lennar; Gevity HR, The Street.com; Sacred Heart University; and the President's Advisory Board of The American Cancer Society. Previously, he served on the boards of Norwegian Cruise Lines; US Franchising; Hanover Direct; Moseley Securities Corporation; The Academy of Management; the AARP; US Franchising; National Council on the Aging; Transmedia-CBS Inc; and the Hyatt Executive Travel Council.

A frequent speaker before executive audiences, his consulting work and research activities reflect a continued interest in chief executive succession and board governance along with corporate culture and strategic change. A regular commentator on PBS's Nightly Business Report, NPR's Marketplace, and CNBC; Sonnenfeld also appears frequently on CNN, FoxNews, ABC, NBC, and CBS, as well as in such publications as: The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal; Business Week; Fortune; US News & World Report; Newsweek; The Financial Times; and The Economist.

His clients have included: Accenture; American Airlines; AIG; Bankcorp South; JPMorgan Chase; BellSouth; Booz-Allen Hamilton; Business Week; Cabot Advertising; Caremark; Cendant; CFC American Electric Cooperatives; Chittenden Bank; Chubb; CIGNA; Deloitte; Digital Equipment; Dominick's Finer Foods; the Financial Services Roundtable; Frost Bank; General Electric; GTE; Hartmarx, Home Insurance Company; Hyatt; IBM; infoUSA; James River Corp; KPMG; Marriott, Mercer

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld's bestseller book, The Hero's Farewell: What Happens When CEOs Retire (Oxford University Press) was designated as "the standout new management book of the year" in 1988 by Business Week and it earned the executive search community's Golden Baton Award. His latest book, Leadership & Governance from the Inside Out was endorsed by General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt; Goldman Sach CEO Henry Paulson; Pfizer's Hank McKinnell; and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.