Steve Garcia

Steve Garcia, Ed.D., is a leadership author, organizational design expert, and co-founder and managing partner of Contemporary Leadership Advisors. At Contemporary Leadership Advisors, Garcia works with clients to build and lead faster, higher-impact, and more adaptive organizations in complex business environments. His interest in how leaders drive organizational performance began during his tenure at Nortel Networks, where he observed the company's rapid growth and subsequent collapse. This experience shaped his ongoing focus on leadership in volatile and complex conditions.

Before co-founding Contemporary Leadership Advisors, Garcia worked on Capitol Hill for the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, managed product marketing for Nortel Networks' digital switching, optical Ethernet, and voice-over-IP portfolios, and led human capital consulting for Philosophy IB, which was later acquired by Heidrick & Struggles. At Philosophy IB, he developed SYNAPP, an HR platform that analyzed employees' informal relationships and was accepted into DreamIt Venture's Accelerator Program. Garcia also served on the senior leadership team at AlixPartners' Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness practice, building expertise in both technology and human capital strategy.

Garcia is a co-founder of the Institute for Contemporary Leadership, which brings together senior leaders to explore innovative approaches to leadership. He specializes in the intersection of technology, leadership, and organizational design, using a systems-thinking approach that highlights the importance of informal networks and adaptive structures. Garcia has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters and is a frequent presenter at professional conferences. His consulting work has received several awards, including the Brandon Hall Gold Award in Executive Education.

In the book "The End of Leadership as We Know It," Garcia and co-author Dan Fisher analyze common leadership errors in addressing disruption and provide strategies for effective leadership in fast-paced business environments. The book combines business and psychology expertise to outline what leaders should stop and start doing to navigate complexity. It has received positive feedback from business executives, including Google's former CIO.

Garcia holds an M.B.A. from The University of Virginia and an Ed.D. in adult learning from N.C. State University, where he researched the impact of organizational networks on learning, change, and innovation. He is certified in executive and team coaching and serves on the board of Youth INC and the advisory board of the Organization Design Forum. Through Contemporary Leadership Advisors, Garcia supports companies in building adaptive organizations and is recognized as a voice on the future of leadership, organizational design, and human capital strategy.