Professor Sydney Finkelstein teaches leadership and strategy in both the MBA and executive programs at the Tuck School. He also has worked with executives at Northwestern University, the Wharton School, Duke University, Bocconi School of Management, London Business School, Australian Graduate School of Management, Melbourne Business School, Hanoi School of Business, Chalmers School (Sweden) and Helsinki School of Economics. He holds degrees from Concordia University and London School of Economics, and a PhD from Columbia University.

Professor Finkelstein has published 11 books, including the #1 bestseller in the U.S. and Japan, Why Smart Executives Fail. Based on a six-year study of 51 companies and 200 interviews of business leaders, the book identifies the fundamental reasons why major mistakes happen, points out early warning signals critical for investors and managers alike, and offers ideas on how organizations can develop a capability of learning from corporate mistakes. On Fortune’s list of Best Business Books, it has also been featured in the Financial Times, BusinessWeek, The Times of London, Toronto Globe and Mail, Fast Company, Across the Board, and Entrepreneurship, and has been translated into 11 languages. In Professor Finkelstein’s follow-up book, Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You (Harvard Business Press, 2009), he turns to such major strategic decisions as the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and numerous business cases to explain why decision-makers sometimes think they’re right when they are really wrong. The book takes up recent research in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and management not only to document why things go wrong, but also to offer solutions that reduce our vulnerability to falling into the traps that lead to bad decisions.

Professor Finkelstein has conducted extensive research on strategic leadership and corporate governance, and has published over 60 articles in the major journals in his field. He is an expert on mergers and acquisitions, executive decision-making, executive compensation, and boards of directors. His book, Strategic Leadership: Top Executives and Their Effects on Organizations, was a finalist for the Academy of Management’s Terry Book Award in 1998. His article on power dynamics within top management teams was ranked as the number one publication by academicians in strategic leadership in the first half of the 1990s.  His work has also been recognized by the Academy of Management, McKinsey & Company, A.T. Kearney, and ANBAR, the world’s leading guide to management journal literature. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management., and currently serves on the editorial review boards of the Administrative Science Quarterly and Strategic Organization.

Professor Finkelstein has participated in numerous CEO forums and been interviewed or had his work appear in leading media outlets. He has served as a consultant and speaker for major companies around the world, including Acciona, Aetna, American Express, Avaya, Bank of Montreal, Barclays, BASF, Boeing, Bose, Cerberus, Chevron, Constellation, Daikin, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, Entergy, Flagstone Reinsurance, GE, Glaxo, Hasbro, ING, ITT, JP Morgan Chase, Korn-Ferry, Lafarge, McGraw-Hill, McKinsey, Mayo Clinic, MedImmune, Mentor, Monsanto, Morgan Stanley, Novartis, Omax de Mexico, PharMerica, Prudential, PwC, Raytheon, Roche, Russell Reynolds, The Hartford, UBS, and Wyeth.