Warren Bennis is University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Business
Administration at the Marshall School and Founding Chairman of The Leadership
Institute at the University of Southern California. He is also Visiting
Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter and a Fellow of the Royal
Society of the Arts (UK).
He has written 27 books, including the best-selling
Leaders and On Becoming a Leader, both translated into 21 languages. The
Financial Times recently names Leaders as one of the top 50 business
books of all time. In 1993 Addison-Wesley published a book of his essays, An
Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change, which was nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize, and Jossey-Bass just republished an updated version of his 1968
path-breaking book, The Temporary Society, co-authored with Phil Slater.
Bennis has not only studied and reflected on leadership, he has also done it,
first as the youngest infantry commander fighting in Germany at age 20,
decorated with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart and then as President of the
University of Cincinnati from 1971-97. He has served on the faculty of MIT’s
Sloan School of Management where he was Chairman of the Organizational Studies
Department. He is a former faculty member of Harvard and Boston University,
former provost and Executive Vice President of State University of New York at
Buffalo. He has served on the boards of The American Chamber of Commerce,
Claremont University Center and currently serves on the board of the Salk
Institute. Bennis has consulted for many Fortune 500 companies and has advised
four U.S. presidents. The Wall Street Journal named him as one of the top
ten speakers on management in 1993 and in 1996, FORBES magazine referred to him
as the "Dean of Leadership Gurus."
Watch a video of the induction event
Warren Bennis' induction event at ILA 2008 Los Angeles
2008 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
