Herminia ibarra biography
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Her Harvard Business Review article “The Leader as Coach” won the Warren Bennis Prize for best leadership article.
Known for her engaging style and evidence‑based insights, Ibarra speaks to global audiences about the mind‑set and behaviour shifts leaders need to drive digital transformation, build inclusive cultures and stay “reinvention‑ready” in turbulent times.
Prior to joining LBS, she served on the INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculties.
An authority on leadership and career development, Thinkers 50 ranks Herminia among the top management thinkers in the world. She chaired the Harvard Business School Visiting Committee, which reports to the university’s board of overseers, from 2012 to 2016, having been a member since 2009, and served on the INSEAD board of directors.
A native of Cuba, Herminia received her MA and PhD from Yale University, where she was a National Science Fellow.
A native of Cuba, Herminia received her MA and PhD from Yale University, where she was a National Science Fellow.
Herminia Ibarra
Herminia Ibarra is the Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School.
Drawing on decades of research, real‑world case studies and interactive exercises, she equips executives to experiment with new ways of working, expand their networks and cultivate the sponsorship relationships that accelerate success.
Whether advising a Fortune 500 board or inspiring an audience of emerging leaders, Herminia Ibarra challenges people to “act first, then think” – turning insight into immediate, high‑impact action.
Herminia Ibarra
Today, people at all stages of their careers are asking themselves profound questions about the kind of work they do, how much of it they want to do, and the place it occupies in their lives.
Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader offers a practical blueprint for stepping up to bigger roles, while the newly updated Working Identity provides unconventional strategies for navigating bold career moves at any stage of life. Prior to joining LBS, she served on the INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculties.
An authority on leadership and career development, Thinkers 50 ranks Herminia among the top management thinkers in the world.
She is a Fellow of the British Academy, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, and a judge for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award.
Ibarra’s books have become modern classics. She is the Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, where her research explores how managers reinvent themselves and their organisations amid constant change.
There’s a lot that’s beneficial and necessary about this shift, but no matter how often you change careers, you’re likely to experience the transition as an emotionally fraught process — one that involves loss, insecurity, and struggle.
In this session, I explain what makes career change hard, outline a three-part process of exploring a diversity of ‘possible selves’ and describe the three levers for change that we all have at our disposal: experimenting with new professional activities, connecting to new networks and working and re-working the story of who we are.
“The paradox of change is that the only way to alter the way we think is by doing the very things our habitual thinking keeps us from doing.”
Herminia Ibarra is the Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School.
She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, a judge for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, a Fellow of the British Academy, and the 2018 recipient of the Academy of Management’s Scholar-Practitioner Award for her research’s contribution to management practice.
Herminia is a member of the London Business School governing body.
Leadership speaker Herminia Ibarra is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on leadership and career transition. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, a judge for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, a Fellow of the British Academy, and the 2018 recipient of the Academy of Management’s Scholar-Practitioner Award for her research’s contribution to management practice.
Herminia is a member of the London Business School governing body.
Prior to joining LBS, she served on the faculties of INSEAD and Harvard Business School.
An award‑winning scholar, speaker Herminia Ibarra has twice been ranked among the top business thinkers in the Thinkers50 list and received its coveted Leadership Award. In part, we’re asking ourselves these questions because fewer and fewer of us conceive of life as having the three ‘traditional’ stages: a short early stage devoted to learning, a long middle stage devoted to work, and a final retirement stage.
Instead, with growing frequency, we’re alternating between changing jobs and careers, pursuing opportunities for education, and making time for periods of rest and restoration.