Expertise

Leadership, Ethics, Corporate Culture

Biography At-a-Glance

James O'Toole is the first Daniels Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics at the Daniels College of Business.  He received his doctorate in social anthropology from Oxford  University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He served as a Special Assistant to Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Elliot Richardson, as chairman of the Secretary's Task Force on Work in America, and as director of field investigations for President Nixon's Commission on Campus Unrest. He won a Mitchell Prize for a paper on economic growth policy, has served on the prestigious board of editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and was editor of The American Oxonian magazine.

At USC he has held the University Associates' Chair of Management and served as executive director of the Leadership Institute. He has been editor of New Management magazine and director of the Twenty-Year Forecast Project (where he interpreted social, political, and economic change for the top management of thirty of the largest US corporations). From 1994-1997 O'Toole was executive vice president of the Aspen Institute. He also has served recently as managing director of the Booz Allen & Hamilton Strategic Leadership Center, and chair of the Center's academic Board of Advisors. In 2007 he was named one of the "100 most influential people in business ethics" by the editors of Ethisphere, and one of "the top 100 thought leaders on leadership" by Leadership Excellence magazine. 

A prolific author, his internationally best-selling books include Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor (2008), an international bestseller with translations in over a dozen foreign languages (coauthored with Warren Bennis, and Daniel Goleman), Creating the Good Life: Applying Aristotle's Wisdom to Find Meaning and Happiness (2005), The New American Workplace (2006), America at Work (2006), Leadership A-Z (1999), Leading Change (1996) and The Executive Compass (1993).

When working with the media, O'Toole can address issues of values-based leadership and executive responsibility, organizational transparency and leadership, the future of work in American, organizational ethics and speaking to truth for leaders.   As one of the international experts in leadership, his government, academic and corporate experience enable him to discuss issues from both a practical and high-level perspective.

 

Education

• Ph.D., Social Anthropology, Oxford University
• Graduate Fellowship, Rhodes Scholarship
• BA, Humanities, University of Southern California

Academic Positions Held

• Daniels Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics
• Research Professor, Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business, U.C.L.A.
• Professor of Management, Graduate School of Business, University of Southern California
• Holder of the University Associates' Chair
  • Executive Director, The Leadership Institute
  • Editor, New Management magazine
  • Director, Twenty-Year Forecast Project