Valerie Gauthier

Valérie Gauthier is a Visiting Associate Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Drawing from her expertise in linguistics and poetic translation as well as leadership and cross-cultural relationships, Gauthier has built relational communication and leadership development programs under the concept of savoir-relier™ or the capacity and will to build sensible and positive relationships between entities (people, ideas, fields, jobs, cultures, generations…) that are inherently different, opposite or antagonistic, hence encouraging diversity and developing a spirit of innovation.

Gauthier was Associate Dean of the HEC MBA Program from 2002 to 2010. She re-designed the MBA curriculum and re-structured the program with a view towards future societal and educational shifts. She developed and implemented a business plan to increase international HEC visibility and selectivity of the MBA program to potential corporate partners and potential students, and improved the HEC International MBA ranking from 67 in 2002 to 18 in 2011(Financial Times) and from 44 in 2006 to 9 in 2010 (The Economist).

From 2007 to 2009 she was in charge of the Apple Chair “Management of Technology” to enhance pedagogical means toward the theme: “Learning without Borders.” Through an innovative partnership with L’Oreal, Alcatel-Lucent, and MSD China, in 2008 Gauthier created the HEC Paris Leadership Center, which promotes interaction between the classroom and the corporate community to develop responsible and ethical leaders. In 2009 she launched the Entrepreneurship Track Program, partnering with the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management in Beijing to support the training of underserved women entrepreneurs in China under the sponsorship of Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Women Initiative.

Elected best HEC Professor of the year in 2001, she received the HEC Vernimmen award. In 2010 she was decorated as Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor and that same year was selected as one of eight Fortune Global Forum Visionaries.

Gauthier taught relational leadership and business communication courses at the NYU Stern School of Business in 2011. While on sabbatical writing her book, Sense Leadership, she is a visiting professor at MIT Sloan in 2012-2013.

Besides Gauthier’s book in progress, her research includes the following publications: Le Savoir-Relier, chapter in Les Sept Clés du Leadership, Edition L’Archipel, 2010."Repenser l’éducation des futurs leaders" in La Tribune, September 2009; "Pour un apprentissage du leadership" in Les Echos, May 2008; “Intuitive intelligence and leadership” in L’art du management, 2008; "Le leadership, une construction de soi" in La Tribune, April 2007; "La lente mais irrésistible montée des femmes" in Les Echos, October 2005; "Le "savoir-relier" et son importance dans la formation au management" in Les Echos, September 2004.

Valérie Gauthier’s passions include poetry, painting, and sports (she won a Gold Medal in the French Ski Open Master 2 category in 2004 and fourth place in the US NAIA Tennis Championship in 1983).

She was educated in France and the United States, and holds a BS in psychology from the University of Paris V; a BA and an MA in modern literature from the University of Paris III; an MA in English from the University of Oklahoma, and a DEA in comparative literature from the University of Paris, III. She is an alumna of the Executive Program in Strategy and Organization at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.