Claudio Fernandez-Araoz

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz is a senior adviser of the leading executive search firm Egon Zehnder and was a member of its global executive committee for more than ten years. He founded the firm’s management appraisal practice and served as global leader of its professional development, people processes, and intellectual capital development.

He is also an Executive Fellow for Executive Education at Harvard Business School, where he is a frequent lecturer at the comprehensive leadership programs.

Claudio is a top global expert on talent and leadership. He has been repeatedly ranked by Bloomberg as one of the most influential executive search consultants in the world and selected by Thinkers50 as one of the world’s leading thinkers on talent.

He is a frequent keynote speaker at business gatherings in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. His personal advice has been sought by the CEOs of major global companies, as well as by many progressive governments.

His latest book, It's Not the How or the What but the Who, was selected as one of the Best Business Books in the US and the winner of the Axiom Gold Award for the best HR book in English in the whole world. He is also the author of Great People Decisions, with 15 international editions.

Claudio has also published several bestselling articles on leadership and talent, including the Harvard Business Review articles “Hiring Without Firing”, “The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad”, “How to Hang On to Your High Potentials”, “21st Century Talent Spotting”, “Leadership Lessons from Great family Businesses”, and the November/December 2017 cover “Turning Potential into Success: The Missing Link in Leadership Development”.

Before joining Egon Zehnder in 1986 he worked at McKinsey & Company in Europe.

Claudio earned a Masters in Science in Industrial Engineering from the Argentine Catholic University (Gold Medal, highest GPA ever in that university) and an MBA from Stanford University, where he also graduated with honors as an Arjay Miller Scholar.