Jeanne Liedtka

Jeanne M. Liedtka has been involved in the corporate strategy field for over 30 years, working in the area of design thinking for 10 years. The United Technologies Professor of Business at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia, she teaches both MBAs and executives on the topics of design thinking, strategy, innovation, and organic growth. Jeanne received her DBA in management policy from Boston University and her MBA from Harvard Business School. Jeanne has taught thousands of people, both students and practitioners, in her work at Darden and literally hundreds of thousands in her online coursework on the Coursera platform.

Beginning her career as a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group, she has served as Associate Dean of the MBA Program at Darden, Executive Director of the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation, and Chief Learning Officer at United Technologies Corporation.

Jeanne has written six books on the subject of innovation and design thinking, in both the private and the service sector, including The Catalyst, How You Can Lead Extraordinary Growth (winner of the Business Week best innovation books of 2009), Designing for Growth: A design thinking tool kit for managers (winner of the 1800 CEO READ best management book of 2011), The Physics of Business Growth, Solving Business Problems with Design Thinking: Ten Stories of What Works, The Designing for Growth Field Book: A Step-by-Step Project Guide, and Designing for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector.

Her current research interests focus on exploring the impact of design thinking in organizations and how it can be taught and scaled. Learn more about Jeanne’s work on her web page: www.jeanneliedtka.com or on Design@Darden.