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Thomas A. Kolditz
Leadership Keynote Speaker, retired Brigadier General, Author, and Executive Director of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders
Tom Kolditz is the founding Executive Director of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. He designed and directed the core Leader Development Program at the Yale School of Management, served as the chairman of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point, and was the founding director of the West Point Leadership Center.
A highly experienced leader, Brigadier General (retired) Kolditz has more than 26 years of P&L-level supervisory experience, serving on four continents during his 34 years of military service. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a member of the Academy of Management. He also serves as a senior advisor to the Future of Executive Development Forum. His most recent book, In Extremis Leadership: Leading as if Your Life Depended on It, is based on more than 175 interviews conducted on the ground in Iraq during combat operations. General Kolditz has been recognized as a leadership Thought Leader by the Leader to Leader Institute and as a Top Leader Development Professional by Leadership Excellence. He holds a BA from Vanderbilt University, three master’s degrees, and a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Missouri. In 2009, he was appointed to the Council of Senior Advisors for the Future of Executive Development Forum.
A skydiving instructor since 1980, General Kolditz also served as the senior instructor for the West Point Sport Parachute Team. He integrates his personal experiences as a soldier, skydiver, and scholar into the study and practice of leadership in extreme circumstances—in extremis leadership—and how such leadership principles can inform the practice of leading in more ordinary settings.
General Kolditz has presented leadership content to more than 150 audiences across governmental, corporate, and social sectors worldwide. As a professor, he has led seminars or delivered lectures at Babson College, Wellesley College, Olin College, the University of Missouri, Columbia University, Duke University, Yale University, the Military Psychology Center of the Israel Defense Forces, Peking University, the Beijing International MBA Program, Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, seven national and international service academies, and more than ten major metropolitan law enforcement, firefighting, and public service academies.
He has appeared on ABC World News, ABC 20/20, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, CBS, NPR, Calgary Today, Morning Ireland, and has conducted interviews with The New York Times, the Associated Press, Time, Discovery, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Washington Post, La Razón, and more than a dozen national and international news agencies.
General Kolditz holds numerous degrees, including a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Sociology from Vanderbilt University, as well as master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Social Psychology, a Master of Military Arts and Science, and a Master’s in Strategic Studies.

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