Robert Bontempo
Robert Bontempo is a social psychologist and Faculty Director of Columbia Business School’s executive programs in persuasion and negotiation. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Illinois, where his doctoral research was supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
His work draws on the science of human judgment, decision-making, and social influence to help executives understand how people think, why they resist change, and how to negotiate and persuade more effectively. His teaching combines decades of research in social psychology with practical strategies that executives can immediately apply to challenging business situations.
He has been named by Businessweek as one of the top business school professors in the United States, and his observations on leadership have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and The New York Times.
He has advised senior leaders of Fortune 100 companies, the U.S. Department of State, and the United Nations. His forthcoming book, The Point of Persuasion: The Science of Changing Minds at Work, Home, and Everywhere That Matters, will be published by Harper Business in July 2027.