Doug Guthrie is a dynamic speaker and respected thinker and executive coach in the areas of China-US business leadership and geopolitics, and leadership in complex organizations. In addition, as an academic administrator, he has also worked extensively on the transformation of higher education. He brings notable experience and success as a senior executive and leadership consultant in the corporate, academic and public sectors across the United States and globally.
He thrives in opportunities that stimulate dialogue on important public issues of the day, including the global ambitions of China, the importance of technology in the long-term health and vitality of the global economy, and the critical role of organizational leadership in galvanizing the United States' innovative and sustainable economy.
Doug is a Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management and Executive Director of its China Initiatives. He also is co-founder of On Global Leadership, a thought leadership, China advisory and executive education provider that serves individuals and organizations worldwide. Doug also teaches leadership at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, where he was the academic director from 2008 until 2011. He has served as an executive coach both within academia and in corporate settings.
Doug is dedicated to working with leaders and organizations to make communities better places for everyone to work and live. His record of scholarship and academic and corporate leadership gives him a unique view of contemporary geopolitical movements and events and the changing role of complex organizations in today’s climate. He is often called on to speak in the United States and around the globe about the intersections of China, technology, academia and organizational leadership.
Doug has spent his career researching, writing, teaching and advising companies about two topics: organizational development, where he has focused on issues of leadership, organizational culture and corporate social responsibility; and the Chinese economic reforms, where he has delved into the intersection of economic and political forces that lead to successful economic development models.
From 1997 to 2010, Doug held faculty positions at NYU’s Stern School of Business, where he was Professor of Management and Director of Custom Executive Education, and NYU’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, where he was Professor of Sociology and the Founding Director of the university’s Office of Global Education. He has held visiting professorships at several business schools, including Kellogg, Harvard, INSEAD, Stanford, Columbia and Emory. He served as director of the Business Institutions
Initiative at the Social Science Research Council (1999 to 2003). His research has been recognized by numerous grants and awards.
From 2010 to 2014, Doug was Dean of the George Washington School of Business, Vice President for University China Operations, and Professor of International Business at The George Washington University. From 2014 to 2019, Doug was based in Shanghai, China, as a Senior Director at Apple, Inc., where he led Apple University efforts on leadership and organizational development. He joined the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University as Professor of Global Leadership and Executive Director of China Initiatives in 2019. He is also a member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches.
Doug received an AB in East Asian languages (Chinese literature) from the University of Chicago and MA & PhD degrees in organizational sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Doug studied in Taipei, Taiwan, during his undergraduate years and conducted PhD research in Shanghai, China. He has authored and edited numerous books, academic articles, popular articles, and reports on Chinese economic reform, leadership and corporate social responsibility, the transformation of higher education and economic development in American cities.