Carol Sanford

Carol Sanford is a consistently recognized thought leader working side by side with Fortune 500 and new economy executives in designing and leading systemic business change and design. Through her university and in-house educational offerings, global speaking platforms, multi-award winning books, and human development work, Carol works with executive leaders who see the possibility to change the nature of work through developing people and work systems that ignite motivation everywhere. For four decades, Carol has worked with great leaders of successful businesses such as Google, DuPont, Intel, P&G, and Seventh Generation, educating them to develop their people and ensure a continuous stream of innovation that continually deliver extraordinary results.

Carol’s work is deeply rooted in the belief that people can grow and develop beyond what their leaders or anyone sees possible: to be increasingly entrepreneurial, innovative, and responsible in their business and personal actions. She approaches her work as an ecosystem with stakeholders to the business in order to create the organizational conditions and human capability for people to innovate and contribute. Through a Socratic and contrarian approach, backed by research and stories, Carol challenges leaders to rethink everything they currently know about leadership, management, and work design. In the end, she guides people to find their individual and collective “promise beyond able-ness,” embedding enormous possibilities into an organization.

Carol is the author of The Responsible Entrepreneur; Four Game-Changing Archetypes for Founders, Leaders, and Impact Investors, The Responsible Business: Reimagining Sustainability and Success, and most recently, The Regenerative Business: Redesign Work, Cultivate Human Potential, Achieve Extraordinary Outcomes. Her books are required reading at leading business schools including Harvard, Stanford, Haas Berkeley and MIT. Carol also partners with producing Executive Education through Babson College, Kaospilot in Denmark and University of Washington, Bothell, The Lewis Institute at Babson.

Among her many recognitions, Carol was recently named Executive in Residence and Senior Fellow in Social Innovation at Babson College, was honored with Thought Leader Lifetime Achievement Award from Trust Across America-Trust Around the World, and received the Athena Award for Excellence in Business, Mentorship and Community Service. Carol is often called a visionary who offers revolutionary new ideas. But most importantly, Carol offers a pathway to extraordinary results for businesses, and their stakeholders.