William Ury

William Ury co-founded Harvard's Program on Negotiation and serves as a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Harvard Negotiation Project. Ury is the author of "The Power of a Positive No" and co-author, with Roger Fisher and Bruce Patton, of "Getting to Yes," a negotiation bestseller translated into more than 30 languages. He is also the author of "Getting Past No" and "Getting to Peace," released in paperback as "The Third Side."

Ury has worked as a negotiation adviser and mediator in a range of conflicts, including corporate mergers, labor disputes, and ethnic wars in the Middle East, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union. He co-founded the International Negotiation Network with former President Jimmy Carter, an organization focused on resolving civil wars globally. Ury contributed to the creation of nuclear crisis centers between the United States and Soviet governments and served as a consultant to the Crisis Management Center at the White House. He has acted as a third party in efforts to end civil war in Aceh, Indonesia, and to prevent conflict in Venezuela.

Ury has taught negotiation to corporate executives, labor leaders, diplomats, and military officers worldwide. He assists organizations in reaching mutually beneficial agreements with customers, suppliers, unions, and joint-venture partners, emphasizing conflict resolution and negotiation strategy.

Ury is also co-founder of e-Parliament, an Internet-based forum for members of congress and parliament worldwide to address global issues such as climate change and energy efficiency. Time Magazine described e-Parliament as a "Google for global politics."

Ury leads the Abraham Path Initiative, which aims to foster intercultural and interfaith understanding by establishing a walking trail and cultural route in the Middle East that follows the path of Abraham and his family. ABC's Christiane Amanpour described the initiative as an effort to break down barriers and encourage communication in a divided region.

Ury has received the Whitney North Seymour Award from the American Arbitration Association and the Distinguished Service Medal from the Russian Parliament. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Financial Times, CNN, and BBC. His TED talk, "The Walk from No to Yes," has reached a global audience and is frequently referenced in negotiation and leadership programs. Ury has advised on high-stakes international negotiations and has been a featured keynote speaker at major global forums, including the World Economic Forum and the United Nations, where he addresses the evolving challenges of conflict resolution in a rapidly changing world.

Trained as a social anthropologist, with a bachelor's degree from Yale and a doctorate from Harvard, Ury has conducted negotiation research in diverse settings, including among the Bushmen of the Kalahari and the clan warriors of New Guinea. He remains active in public speaking and advisory roles, contributing thought leadership on negotiation, peacebuilding, and dialogue at leading academic institutions and international conferences.