Biography of Barry Z. Posner

Barry Posner is Dean of the Leavey School of Business as well as a Professor of Leadership at Santa Clara University, located in the heart of Silicon Valley. He joined the faculty in 1976 and served previously as Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Managing Partner of the Executive Development Center before being named Dean in 1997.

Barry, along with his co-author Jim Kouzes, received the International Management Council’s award in 2001 as the nation’s top management and leadership educators (previous recipients have included Peter Drucker, Ken Blanchard, Steve Covey, Norman Vincent Peale, Edward Deming, Tom Peters, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter). He was recently listed among the top 50 Leadership Coaches in America.

He is the co-author of the award-winning and best-selling leadership book: The Leadership Challenge. Described as a groundbreaking research study, The Leadership Challenge combines keen insights with practical applications and captures both why and how leadership is everyone’s business. Now in its third edition, with over 1.3 million copies in print, this book has been the featured selection of several book clubs, named book-of-the-year by the American Council of Health Care Executives, received the Critic’s Choice Award from the nation’s book review editors, and translated into over 15 foreign languages.

The Leadership Practices Inventory has been called “the most reliable, up-to-date leadership instrument available today.” Barry has also co-authored several other award-winning, inspiring and practical books on leadership: Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It; Encouraging the Heart: A Leaders Guide to Recognizing and Rewarding Others; The Academic Administrator’s Guide to Exemplary Leadership, The Leadership Challenge Workbook, and Christian Reflections on The Leadership Challenge.

An internationally-renowned scholar, Barry has published more than 80 research and practitioner-oriented articles in such journals as: Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Relations, Personnel Psychology, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, among others. He is currently on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Business Ethics and Leadership Review.

Barry currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the San Jose Repertory Theatre and on the Board of Directors for Advanced Energy (NASDAQ: AEIS), chairing the Compensation Committee. He has previously served as a Public Director for the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and on the boards of Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley and Monterrey Bay, Public Allies (Silicon Valley), Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Clara County, the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits, Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, in addition to several start-up company advisory councils.

Barry received his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a master’s degree from the Ohio State University in public administration, and his Ph.D. in organizational behavior and administrative theory from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

At Santa Clara he has received the Dean’s Award for Exemplary Service, the President’s Distinguished Faculty Award, several Extra-Ordinary Faculty Awards, and other teaching and leadership honors.

He is a warm and engaging conference speaker and dynamic workshop facilitator, having worked with such organizations as: Alcoa, Applied Materials, Arco, Charles Schwab, Conference Board of Canada, Hewlett-Packard, Kaiser Permanente Health Care, L.L. Bean, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Mervyn’s, Network Appliance, Northrop Grumman, Nursing Leadership Institute, Trader Joe’s, and the U.S. Postal Service, among others. He has made presentations and conducted workshops across the U.S., and around the globe, from Canada, Mexico and Europe to the Far East, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.