Printable Biography of Manfred Kets de Vries

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For the First Time in Australia

The Financial Times, Le Capital and The Economist have all named Manfred Kets de Vries one of Europe's leading management thinkers.

Bringing a different view to the much-studied subjects of leadership and the dynamics of individual and organisational change, Kets de Vries specialises in the areas of leadership, career dynamics, executive stress, succession planning, cross-cultural management, team building, emotional intelligence, coaching and the dynamics of corporate transformation and change.

A clinical professor of leadership development, Kets de Vries holds the Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chair of Leadership Development at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. Kets de Vries is the author, co-author, or editor of 20 books and he has published over 180 scientific papers as chapters in books and as articles in journals. He also consults on organisational design/transformation and strategic human resource management to leading U.S., Canadian, European, African and Asian companies.

Professor Kets de Vries is a dynamic speaker who uses extensive examples from his work with major corporations to make his speeches enjoyable, tangible and easy for you to apply these lessons in the workplace.

MANFRED F. R. KETS DE VRIES brings a different view to the much-studied subjects of leadership and the dynamics of individual and organizational change. Bringing to bear his knowledge and experience of economics (Econ. Drs., University of Amsterdam), management (ITP, MBA, and DBA, Harvard Business School), and psychoanalysis (Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association), Kets de Vries scrutinizes the interface between international management, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and dynamic psychiatry. His specific areas of interest are leadership, career dynamics, executive stress, entrepreneurship, family business, succession planning, cross-cultural management, team building, coaching, and the dynamics of corporate transformation and change. A clinical professor of leadership development, he holds the Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chair of Leadership Development at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. He is the Director of INSEAD's Global Leadership Centre. He is program director of INSEAD's top management seminar, "The Challenge of Leadership: Creating Reflective Leaders" and the program Consulting and Coaching for Change, and has five times received INSEAD's distinguished teacher award. He has also held professorships at McGill University, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, and the Harvard Business School, and he has lectured at management institutions around the world. He is a founding member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. The Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, and The Economist have judged Manfred Kets de Vries one of world's leading thinkers on leadership.

Kets de Vries is the author, co-author, or editor of more than twenty books, including Power and the Corporate Mind (1975, new edition 1985), Organizational Paradoxes: Clinical Approaches to Management (1980, new edition 1994), The Irrational Executive: Psychoanalytic Explorations in Management (1984, editor), The Neurotic Organization: Diagnosing and Changing Counter-Productive Styles of Management (1984, new edition 1990), Unstable at the Top (1988), Prisoners of Leadership (1989), Handbook of Character Studies (1991), Organizations on the Couch (1991), Leaders, Fools and Impostors (1993, 2003), the prize-winning Life and Death in the Executive Fast Lane: Essays on Irrational Organizations and their Leaders (1995) (the Critics' Choice Award 1995-96), Family Business: Human Dilemmas in the Family Firm (1996), The New Global Leaders: Percy Barnevik, Richard Branson, and David Simon (1999), Struggling with the Demon: Perspectives on Individual and Organizational Irrationality (2001), The Leadership Mystique (2001), The Happiness Equation (2002), The Global Executive Leadership Inventory (2004). The New Russian Business Leaders (2004), Are Leaders Born or Are They Made: The Case of Alexander the Great (2004) and Lessons on Leadership by Terror: Finding Shaka Zulu in the Attic (2004). A Personality Test called The Personality Audit is close to publication. In addition, Kets de Vries has published over two hundred scientific papers as chapters in books and as articles in such journals as Behavioral Science, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Administration & Society, Organizational Dynamics, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Forecasting, California Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Executive, Psychoanalytic Review, Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, European Management Journal, International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Harper's and Psychology Today. He has also written over one hundred case studies, including seven that received the Best Case of the Year award award from the ECCH (European Case Clearing House). He is a regular writer for a number of magazines. His work has been featured in such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Business Week, The Economist, The Financial Times, and The International Herald Tribune. His books and articles have been translated into eighteen languages. He is a member of seventeen editorial boards. He has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Management.

Kets de Vries is a consultant on organizational design/transformation and strategic human resource management to leading U.S., Canadian, European, African, and Asian companies. As a global consultant in executive development his clients have included ABB, Aegon, Air Liquide, Alcan, Alcatel, Accenture, Bain Consulting, Bang & Olufsen, Bonnier, BP, Ericsson, GE Capital, Goldman Sachs, Heineken, HypoVereinsbank, Investec, KPMG, Lego, Lufthansa, Lundbeck, Novartis, Nokia, NovoNordisk, Rank Xerox, Shell, SHV, Standard Bank of South Africa, Unilever and Volvo Car Corporation. As an educator and consultant he has worked in more than thirty countries. The Dutch government has made him an Officer in the Order of Oranje Nassau. He was the first fly fisherman in Outer Mongolia and is a member of New York's Explorers Club. In his spare time he can be found in the rainforests or savannas of Central Africa, the Siberian taiga, the Pamir Mountains, or the barren wastelands of the Arctic.