Jeffrey Sonnenfeld served as full tenured professor at Emory's Goizueta Business School for a decade and a professor at the Harvard Business School for a decade, and is currently the senior associate dean of leadership programs as well as the Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management for the Yale School of Management, as well as founder and president of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute, a nonprofit educational and research institute focused on CEO leadership and corporate governance- the world’s first school for incumbent CEOs.

Professor Sonnenfeld's related research has been published in 100 scholarly articles which appeared in the leading academic journals in management such as Administrative Sciences Quarterly, the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Social Forces, Human Relations, and Human Resource Management. He has also authored eight books, including The Hero's Farewell, an award-winning study of CEO succession, and another best seller, Firing Back, a study on leadership resilience in the face of adversity.” He earned the 2018 Ellis Island award from the US Ellis Island Honor Society and is the first John Whitehead Facutly Fellow from the Harvard Business School.  He has won outstanding educator awards from Yale, Emory, and the American Society for Training and Development. Business Week listed Sonnenfeld as one of the world’s 10 most influential business school professors and among the National Association of Corporate Directors 100 most influential figures in corporate governance.  He is a commentator for CNBC as well as a columnist for FORTURE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, and Corporate Board Member magazines as well as a frequent contributor to the New York Times; The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and POLITICO.