Thomas Kolditz Biography

The Ann and John Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University, the largest, most complete, and scientifically supported university-wide leader development program in the world, was founded by Tom Kolditz. The Association of Leadership Educators named The Doerr Institute in 2019 as the best university leader development program. Prior to joining Rice, he worked as the director of the Yale School of Management's Leadership Development Program and a professor of practice in leadership and management. Tom, a retired brigadier general, served as the department head at the West Point School of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership for 12 years. After retiring, he was given the title Professor Emeritus and was still in charge of West Point's management, leader development science, psychology, and sociology teaching, research, and outreach initiatives. General Kolditz is a highly skilled international leader with more than 35 years of experience in executive positions across four continents. His professional interests have been either in studying leadership and leadership policies across industries or in personally directing organizations. He was the founding director of the West Point Leadership Center and worked for the Pentagon for two years as a leadership and human resources policy analyst. He also spent a year working there as a concept developer. He is the managing member of Saxon Castle LLC, a leadership development consultancy, and played a key role in the conception and establishment of the Thayer Leader Development Group. The Distinguished Service Medal, the Army's highest honor for service, was given to General Kolditz. He has been recognized as a Top Leader Development Professional by Leadership Excellence and as a Leadership Thought Leader by the Leader to Leader Institute. He received the renowned Warren Bennis Award for Excellence in Leadership in 2017, which was also given to Benazir Bhutto, Howard Schultz, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Tom Peters. According to Global Gurus, an independent study and professional rating company, he was the sixth-ranked coach in the world in 2018. He was one of eight global finalists in 2019 for Coaching and Mentoring by Thinkers50, a UK management rating company. In addition to serving on the editorial and advisory boards of numerous academic publications, Dr. Kolditz has written more than 60 papers in a variety of academic and leadership trade magazines. He won the APEX Publishing Award for best magazine or journal in the United States in 2006 for co-editing and serving as the main author of a special edition of the Leader to Leader journal. He belongs to the Academy of Management and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He was a founding member of the Board of Advisors for the University of Missouri's Department of Psychology. He also sits on the boards of Linkage, Inc. and BoardBench Companies and the Future of Executive Development Forum's Council of Senior Advisors. More than 300 audiences from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors throughout the world have heard Professor Kolditz speak on leadership topics. He has served as a professor at numerous universities, including Babson, Wellesley, and Olin Colleges, Duke, Columbia, Yale, Yale CEO College, Rice, Vanderbilt, the University of Missouri, the Military Psychology Center of the Israel Defense Forces, Renmin University, Peking University, the Beijing International MBA program, Harvard Law School, Harvard's Center for Public Leadership, the World Economic Forum, and Harvard. Kolditz has been interviewed by journalists from the New York Times, the Associated Press, Time, Discovery, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Washington Post, La Razon, and more than a dozen domestic and foreign news organizations. He has also appeared on Bloomberg TV, 60 Minutes Sports, ABC World News, ABC 20-20, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, CBS, NPR, Calgary Today, Morning Ireland, and more. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology. He also holds three Master's degrees and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Missouri.

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