Susan David

Travels from: United States

Internationally recognized thought leader on the topics of business and psychology

Categories: Change Management, Mindfulness & Mindset, Motivational Speakers

Full Presenter Profile & Bio

Susan David has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and a post-doctorate in emotions research from Yale. She is on faculty at Harvard Medical School and is co-founder and co-director of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. She has been awarded many prizes and scholarships for her academic work.

Named on the Thinkers50 global list of the top management thinkers, Susan has a passion for keynote speaking and management consulting, and is a renowned executive coach, who applies her knowledge of emotions, human motivation and change to individuals and organizations. She frequently works in the areas of personal leadership, culture, engagement, and people strategy. 

Susan has been an advisor to numerous leaders faced with difficult situations, including mergers and acquisitions, leadership transitions, and strategic revisions. She routinely consults at the most senior levels of Fortune 500 companies, and with other global organizations from industries as diverse as financial services, information technology, healthcare, utilities, pharmaceuticals, and mining. Her world-wide client list includes Ernst and Young Global, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Development Program, BHP Billiton, JP Morgan Chase, GlaxoSmithKline, and Nestlé, among many other multinational firms.

She edited the definitive Oxford Handbook of Happiness with a foreword by His Majesty the King of Bhutan – the first country to measure Gross National Happiness (Oxford University Press, 2013). She also edited Beyond Goals: Effective Strategies for Coaching and Mentoring (Gower, 2013). She is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review and her research has been featured in TIME, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, and Inc.com, among other major publications. Susan’s article Emotional Agility stayed on Harvard Business Review’s “Most Read” list for months. In a short time, nearly a quarter of a million people had downloaded it, and it was named by Harvard Business Review as an “Idea that Shaped Management” and was the winner of the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award. Its popularity was the impetus for her book by the same name, published by Penguin (Avery) which was named a #1 Wall Street Journal Best seller and has been translated into multiple languages. Susan’s TED Talk on the topic went viral with over 1 million views in its first week of release. She is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and guest on national radio and television.

In December 2016 she co-led the first all-female expedition to Antarctica – it’s aim being to increase the influence and impact of women in science. 

Speaker Topics

TESTIMONIALS

We had such an amazing experience! Thank you. I had a good feeling about her involvement from the beginning, and the outcome was better than I could have hoped for. She really reached our participants ‘in their hearts’.

McKinsey & Company

Susan was fantastic. She showed great empathy for the audience and guided our leaders on how to become more agile in face of our daily challenges. Her talk was the perfect blend of inspiring and practical, and the audience loved it!

HSM

usan reminded us of how critical it is to recognize our feelings and to be emotionally agile. Susan connected with the audience in a powerful way with her ideas and personal stories. It meaningful to us to know that so many others around the world will have an opportunity to be informed and to be inspired.

TEDWomen