Otto Scharmer

Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer in Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Scharmer is the founding chair of ELIAS (Emerging Leaders for Innovation Across Sectors), an initiative focused on developing profound system innovations for a more sustainable world. ELIAS links 20 leading global institutions across the three sectors of business, government, and civil society. He also is a visiting professor at the Center for Innovation and Knowledge Research, Helsinki School of Economics, and the founding chair of the Presencing Institute, a research initiative on developing and advancing social technologies for leading innovation and change.

Scharmer has consulted with global companies, international institutions, and cross-sector change initiatives in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has co-designed and delivered award-winning leadership programs for client organizations, including DaimlerChrysler, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Fujitsu. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges (2007) and Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society (2005), co-authored with Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers.

Scharmer holds an MS and a PhD in economics and management from Witten-Herdecke University, Germany.