Bob Thomas Biography

Robert J. Thomas is the worldwide managing director of the Accenture Institute for High Performance and a leadership professor at Brandeis University's International Business School, where he also heads the Perlmutter Institute for Global Leadership's advisory council. He speaks, writes, educates, and advises on leadership and transformative change. His 2008 book, Crucibles of Leadership: How to Learn from Experience and Be a Great Leader, was praised by Harvard's Rosabeth Kanter as "a handbook for aspiring leaders in all areas of life" and Wharton's Mike Useem as "an organizational blueprint for changing managers into leaders." In 2002, he co-wrote Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders with Warren Bennis, a book that examined the motives and goals of leaders aged 35 to 70. It was a best-seller in BusinessWeek and has now been translated into 11 languages. The Harvard Business Review recently honored Thomas and Bennis by launching a new column dedicated to stories about how men and women have learnt to lead via crucible experiences. Thomas has also written about leadership and change for the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Businessweek.com, Economic Times of India, and Sloan Management Review. He co-wrote The Talent Powered Organization with Peter Cheese and Elizabeth Craig, which was one of the first systematic efforts to outline a strategy for talent management in multinational businesses. He is the co-author, with Rob Cross, of Driving Results Through Social Networks (Jossey-Bass, 2009) and the Organizational Networks Fieldbook, a collection of case studies (2010). His first major work, What Machines Can't Do: Politics and Technology in the Industrial Enterprise, received the Society for the Study of Social Problems' C. Wright Mills Award in 1994. Thomas has spoken at a number of corporate and non-profit events, including those hosted by BusinessWeek, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan School, Conference Board, Society for Human Resource Management, PBS, McGraw-Hill corporate learning, the Young Presidents Organization, the Treasury Executive Institute, and NASA. Thomas is the executive director of Accenture Institute for High Performance, the firm's worldwide "think and act tank" with professional researchers in Boston, Beijing, Chicago, London, and Mumbai. The Institute delivers unique research and actionable insights on the global political economy and the most recent changes in business practice to Accenture. In addition to developing exclusive insights, Institute researchers publish their ideas in Tier 1 media on a regular basis and act as subject matter experts in some of Accenture's largest and most significant consulting engagements. Thomas has worked with top executive groups in Fortune 100 and Global 100 businesses as a senior executive at Accenture to assist them become more effective as leadership teams. He has created and conducted Crucibles of Leadership-based leader development programs in companies ranging from a worldwide software developer to a national electrical utility, a major research institution, and a multinational media firm. Thomas teaches courses on the personal and organizational dimensions of leadership to mid-career executives from all over the world, as well as from business, government, the armed forces, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in his role as a professor at Brandeis University's International Business School. He also stays connected to MIT by participating in the Sloan Fellows, Leaders for Manufacturing, and Greater Boston Executive programs. He also lectures in executive sessions for the Harvard Business Review, the Center for Management Research, and the International Consortium for Executive Development Research on a regular basis. He resides in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife Rosanna, head of the Women's Studies Department at Wellesley College, and their daughter Alyssa. He is an Eagle Scout whose childhood in Central California gave him a lifelong enthusiasm for fast vehicles and fresh veggies.

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