Centre for Wisdom in Leadership (CWIL)

Monika Ardelt

Monika Ardelt is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida and the 2008 Colonel Allan R. and Margaret G. Crow Term Professor. She is a Founding Faculty Member and Member of the Advisory Committee of the University of Florida Center for Spirituality and Health. Dr. Ardelt received her Diploma (M.A.) in Sociology from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University of Frankfurt/Main in Germany and her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Aging Studies, Research in Human Development, Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences and as a deputy editor for the Journal of Family Issues. She is co-editor of the book Faith and Well-Being in Late Life: Linking Theories with Evidence in an Interdisciplinary Inquiry (2009).

Ardelt is the developer of the widely used Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS; Ardelt, 2003). In 1999, she was elected as a Brookdale National Fellow to study the similarities and differences between ageing and dying well. As a Positive Psychology Templeton Senior Fellow in 2005, she examined the association between spirituality and ageing well. In 2010, Dr. Ardelt was awarded Fellowship status by the Gerontological Society of America.

Ardelt has published numerous journal articles and book chapters in the area of successful human development across the life course with particular emphasis on the relations between wisdom, spirituality, ageing well, and dying well.

Monika Ardelt’s research focuses on successful human development across the life course with particular emphasis on the relations between wisdom, purpose and meaning in life, spirituality, ageing well, and dying well. Her overall goal is to identify factors that lead to both ageing and dying well and that might help families and institutions to facilitate well-being and psychological growth for the elderly until the very end of life under conditions that are more cost-effective and humane than customary practice.

Howard Nusbaum

Howard C. Nusbaum is currently the Director of the Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom and Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He has recently returned from serving as the Division Director for the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences in the Directorate of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation.

His research is on the psychology, neurobiology, and comparative biology of language use, the role of sleep-in learning, attention and working memory, and the neurobiology of economic decisions. He is the director of the APEX Lab (Attention, Perception, and Experience lab), where they study speech perception and music perception as auditory skills, perception as a cognitive system interconnected with other psychological systems, and how wiser decisions arise from experiences supporting the interaction of intellectual virtues such as epistemic humility, reflection, curiosity, and perseverance with moral virtues.

David Rooney

David Rooney is an Honorary Professor of Management and Organisation Studies at Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He has researched, taught, and published widely in the areas of wisdom, leadership, knowledge-based economy, and creative industries.

His books include Wisdom and Management in the Knowledge Economy, Public Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy, the Handbook on the Knowledge Economy, and Knowledge Policy: Challenges for the Twenty First Century.

Professor Rooney has published in major academic journals, including the Leadership Quarterly, Public Administration Review, Human Relations, Academy of Management Learning and Education, and the Journal of Business Ethics.

Snehal Shah

Snehal Shah is a Professor of Organisation & Leadership Studies and the Associate Dean, Academics & Research. Her research interests are in the field of Diversity and Inclusion, with a specific focus on corporate governance and career choices. Her emerging research interests include eastern wisdom traditions and the intersectionality of OB concepts in other management domains. Snehal has published papers in journals like the Journal of Management Information System, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organisation Behaviour and Journal of Management Development. She has also been invited to present papers at international conferences and to write book chapters. Snehal has been a reviewer for highly ranked academic journals in Organisation Behaviour.

Laurent Ledoux

Laurent Ledoux is the founder, partner and chairman of the Board of Phusis, a team of experienced managers specialising in collaborative governance.

Phusis Partners, who have typically implemented collaborative governance (teal, liberated, agile, sociocratic,…) in the organizations they have managed, now share their experiences with and accompany organisations which also want to implement collaborative governance.

Laurent Ledoux has a varied experience in the private and the public sector and specialises in restructuring and modernising business units and administrations.

He was previously Interim CEO for EurActiv; President of the Belgian Ministry for Mobility & Transports; Head of the Public Banking department and a member of the Executive Committee of Corporate & Public Banking for BNP Paribas Fortis; Chief of Staff of a Minister; Director for Personal & Administration of the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs; Partner for Arthur D. Little – a management consulting firm; Restructuration Project Manager in Eastern Europe for the European Commission; Merger & Acquisitions officer for ING and HR Director in Mozambique for Médecins Sans Frontières.

He holds a Master’s in Economics from the Universities of Namur, Bologna & Madrid and a Post-graduate in Business Administration from Solvay (Belgium). He lectures on Business Ethics, CSR and Leadership at various universities. He is also director, on a voluntary basis, of PhiloMa, of Face2faith, one of the founding members of Teach For Belgium and a member of the boards of various associations and social businesses. He has contributed articles on his own spiritual path in various books on spirituality & management.

S Padmanabhan

S Padmanabhan is the Executive Chairman of Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG) and the Head of Tata Sustainability and Ethics. He is a Director on the Board of Tata Chemicals Limited, Infiniti Retail Limited, Air Vistara and The Associated Building Company Limited. His career with Tata group companies began with Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) in 1982 and spans over 35 years. During his 26-year stint at TCS, he held roles such as Executive Director of Human Resources, Head of Application Development and Maintenance, Head of Airlines Practice and Country Manager of TCS Switzerland. He was also the Executive Director-Operations of Tata Power from 2008 to 2014 and was on the boards of the operating subsidiaries of the company.

Padmanabhan has a distinguished academic record in the technical and management domain from reputable institutions. He is a Glaxo Marketing Scholar Medallist, a Distinguished Alumnus from IIM Bangalore, a Gold Medallist and a Distinguished Alumnus from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. He has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He is also a life member of CSI, Senior Member of IEEE.

Nitin Seth

Nitin Seth is a highly accomplished technology industry leader with a unique combination of experiences as a Global Manager, Innovative Entrepreneur, Management Consultant, and Best Selling Author. He is passionate about building and transforming businesses, driving innovation, coaching leaders, and building high-performance teams.

He is the Chief Executive Officer of Incedo Inc, a high-growth technology services firm focused on Digital, Data and Analytics. Prior to Incedo, Nitin held top management positions at globally recognised enterprises. He was Chief Operating Officer of Flipkart, India’s largest ECommerce company; Managing Director and Country Head for Fidelity International in India; and Director of McKinsey’s Global Knowledge Centre in India. Nitin has been elected twice to the NASSCOM Executive Council, was a Founder and Chairperson of NASSCOM’s GCC Council, and was the Chairperson of the NASSCOM Regional Council (NRC) in Haryana, India. He recently authored the book “Winning In The Digital Age,” a Penguin Random House published National Bestseller.

Nitin is passionate about mentoring and nurturing current and future leaders. He is a Co-Founder of Plaksha University – India’s largest collective philanthropy effort to build a new model of engineering education and research. He is deeply influenced by India’s Spiritual philosophy and traditions and believes they can provide the inspiration for a social and cultural renaissance not just of India, but the world. As an avid speaker in the areas of leadership, entrepreneurship, business transformation, and spirituality, he regularly speaks at industry conferences and colleges, and writes a blog called “Nitin’s Fundas”.

Nitin holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, where he was awarded Chairman’s Gold Medal for standing first in the MBA program and a degree in engineering (B. Tech) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Varun Nagaraj

Varun Nagaraj is Dean and Professor of Information Management & Analytics at SPJIMR. He holds a Ph.D. in Management: Designing Sustainable Systems from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. He also holds an MBA from Boston University, an MS in Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University, and a BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Bombay.

He has held senior leadership roles, including C-level responsibilities for venture-funded start-ups as well as public companies in the US. His research interests encompass the impacts of digital innovation on teams, organisations, and society at large. Specific interest areas include Team Learning, Product Management, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship and Venturing, and Digital Ecosystems and Platforms.

His research contributions have been presented in prominent journals, renowned international conferences, and popular periodicals. He has previously taught at the University of Notre Dame, Pepperdine University, and Boston University.