Columbia Business School is proud to announce the appointment of Todd Jick as the Reuben Mark Faculty Director of Organizational Character and Leadership. A renowned expert in leadership and organizational change, Todd steps into the role during a time when businesses are focusing on how to sustain a unified, motivated, and engaged company culture in the digital and post-pandemic era—a challenge that is acute today and will remain relevant for decades to come. The Directorship was established with a gift from Reuben Mark, former chairman and chief executive officer of the Colgate-Palmolive Company, as part of the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership.
Housed in the Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics, the Initiative brings together Columbia’s Business and Law Schools to teach the leadership skills and strategies necessary to create an optimal organizational culture across the disciplines. In this role, Jick will be responsible for the overall thought leadership of the Initiative at Columbia Business School including curriculum development, research promotion, and external engagement. Jick will work alongside the Director of the Reuben Mark Initiative at Columbia Business School, Olivia Haynes, and counterparts at the Law School to bring our students together to understand the dynamic relationship between the business and legal functions of an organization as it relates to culture and human capital management.
A longtime Senior Lecturer in Discipline in Business at Columbia Business School and a seasoned advisor to Fortune 500 executives, Jick has built two popular courses at the School, Organizational Change and Advanced Organizational Change. He is widely published, and his textbook, "Managing Change," has been the leading publication in the field for the last 15 years. Jick’s breadth of knowledge and personal approach to teaching has twice earned him the Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom as selected by the graduating class, most recently in 2019.
"As companies and organizations increasingly recognize the link between their success and fostering a positive, inclusive corporate culture, the need to prepare our next generation of business leaders to create exemplary workplaces will be ever-more important," said Costis Maglaras, Dean and David and Lyn Silfen Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. "I am pleased to have Todd lead this critical work."
Jick holds a BA from Wesleyan University and both an MS and PhD in Organizational Behavior from Cornell University. In addition to teaching at CBS, he has also taught at Harvard Business School, INSEAD and London Business School. Currently, he is President of Global Leadership Services, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in organizational and cultural change.
"I have spent my career admiring and studying healthy corporate cultures, taking the time to truly unpack and understand the processes and strong leadership involved in creating and sustaining these organizations," Jick said. "I’m excited to bring this passion to the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership and look forward to better preparing our students to lead with culture and character top of mind."
