Speakers Bios & Abstracts

Gianpiero Petriglieri @gpetriglieri is Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD. He directs the Management Acceleration Programme, the school’s flagship executive programme for emerging leaders, and the INSEAD initiative for Learning Innovation and Teaching Excellence.

Gianpiero’s interests bridge the domains of leadership, identity, adult development and experiential learning. His research explores how and where people develop and sustain the personal foundations and professional abilities to exercise leadership mindfully, effectively and responsibly. He is particularly concerned with the development of leadership in a day and age in which authenticity and mobility have replaced loyalty and advancement as hallmarks of virtue and success.

In this context, he contends, a narrow focus on the acquisition of new knowledge and skills is inadequate—if not detrimental—to develop competent and trustworthy leaders. His research casts a light on the psychological, social and cultural functions of management learning and leadership development, and his innovative teaching methods provide an example of how to perform those functions purposefully for the benefit of individuals, organizations and society at large.

Gianpiero’ recent research on the personal foundations of leaders’ development received the GMAC Award for the most significant contribution to graduate management education and the Outstanding Article Award from the Academy of Management Learning & Education Journal. His work has been featured in a range of media including the BBC, Financial Times, The Economist, Businessweek and Forbes. He writes regularly on the Harvard Business Review blog and is a member of the Wall Street Journal panel of leadership experts. He chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on new models of leadership and was shortlisted for the “Future Thinker” award by Thinkers50, the ranking of the most influential management thinkers in the world.

Building on insights from his research, Gianpiero has contributed to refining a unique approach to experiential leadership development that aims to deepen and accelerate the development of individual leaders as well as to broaden and strengthen leadership communities within and across organisations. Alongside the Management Acceleration Programme, he directs customized leadership development programmes for multinationals in a variety of industries.
He teaches in several other INSEAD executive programmes, including The Leadership Transition and Consulting and Coaching for Change. He also consults and speaks widely on how to develop and exercise leadership in fast-changing, uncertain and diverse workplaces.

Gianpiero taught the "Leading People and Groups" core course in the INSEAD MBA for five years, receiving the students' Outstanding Teacher Award and the Dean's Commendation for Teaching Excellence. He has held Visiting Professor positions at the Harvard Business School, and at Copenhagen Business School where he received teaching awards in the MBA and Executive MBA. Prior to joining INSEAD, he contributed regularly to executive education programs and to the MBA at IMD in Switzerland.

Gianpiero holds a Medical Doctorate and a specialization in Psychiatry from the University of Catania Medical School, Italy, and a diploma in Advanced Organizational Consultation from the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London. He has practiced as a psychotherapist and often serves on the staff of group relations conferences in Europe and the United States. He is past President of the International Transactional Analysis Association and a member of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems.