Mohanbir Sawhney
AI & Innovation Authority | Kellogg Professor & Author of Return on AI | Pioneer in AI Executive Education | 35,000+ Executives Trained
Linda Hill
Wallace Brett Donham Professor, Harvard Business School | Author, Genius at Scale & Collective Genius | Top Thinkers50 Management Thinker | Leadership & Innovation Expert
Wallace Brett Donham Professor at Harvard Business School, ranked among the world's most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50. Speaker Linda Hill helps senior leaders move from sparking ideas to scaling innovation across complex organizations and ecosystems. Drawing on her bestselling Genius at Scale and Collective Genius, she gives C-suite audiences a research-backed playbook for leading the next era of innovation.
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Linda Hill biography
Leadership speaker Linda Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Chair of the school’s Leadership Initiative. Thinkers50 has consistently ranked her among the world’s most influential management thinkers, and she has won the Thinkers50 Innovation Award for her work on collective creativity. Across three decades on the HBS faculty, Hill has built her reputation on a single, urgent question: how do leaders unlock the genius inside their organizations and turn it into impact at scale?
Hill is the author of the influential books Becoming a Manager, Being the Boss, and Collective Genius, and her latest work, Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation, published by Harvard Business Review Press with co-authors Emily Tedards and Jason Wild. Drawing on a decade of global research, the book identifies the three roles—architect, bridger, and catalyst—that allow leaders to move beyond generating ideas to actually scaling them across complex enterprises and ecosystems. It features case studies from Mastercard, Delta Air Lines, Procter & Gamble, and Pfizer.
From classroom to boardroom
Beyond her writing and teaching, Hill has chaired several Harvard Executive Education programs, including The High Potentials Leadership Program and Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation. She serves on the board of Relay Therapeutics and ArtCenter College of Design, sits on the Team8 Fintech Strategic Committee, and advises organizations such as the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing and the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program. Her academic credentials include a Ph.D. in Behavioral Sciences from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in Educational Psychology, and a B.A. summa cum laude in psychology from Bryn Mawr College.
As a speaker, Linda Hill brings rigor, warmth, and a rare ability to translate decades of field research into tools senior leaders can use on Monday morning. Boards, executive teams, and global leadership academies hire her to rethink how innovation actually happens, build cultures where diverse minds collide productively, and design organizations capable of sustained reinvention.
Linda Hill Speaking Videos
Linda Hill - How to manage for collective creativity
Linda Hill - Why diversity and conflict are key to leading innovation
Linda Hill Keynote Topics
Most organizations can generate new ideas. Far fewer can actually scale them. Drawing on a decade of global research with leaders at Mastercard, Delta Air Lines, Procter & Gamble, Pfizer, and beyond, Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill reveals what separates companies that consistently turn breakthroughs into enterprise-wide impact from those whose pilots quietly stall. In this keynote, based on her book Genius at Scale, Hill introduces the three essential roles every innovation organization needs—architect, bridger, and catalyst—and shows how senior leaders can build the cocreation muscle required to scale ideas across teams, partners, and ecosystems.
Without a diverse mix of minds, organizations go stale—missing audiences, overlooking ideas, and quietly losing relevance. According to Linda Hill, long-term growth depends on diversity of thought built into the way the company actually works. In this talk, drawing on principles from her award-winning book Collective Genius, Hill teaches senior leaders how to design inclusive cultures that amplify ideas across disciplines, backgrounds, and geographies. The result: deeper DEI, stronger cultural competence, and innovation that compounds rather than burns out.
Everyone has a slice of genius, says Linda Hill—and when leaders bring those slices together with intent, breakthroughs become repeatable, not lucky. In this signature keynote, Hill shows leaders at every level how to fuel innovation by unleashing the diverse thinking already inside their organization. Using stories from companies including Volkswagen, Google, eBay, and Pfizer alongside global non-profits and government agencies, she equips audiences with a practical model for building environments where people are willing—and able—to do the hard, creative work that real innovation demands.
How and why you lead correlates directly with how effective you become, says Linda Hill. The best managers are not in it to serve their egos; their role is to help others accomplish something worthwhile, and they treat formal authority as a two-way street. Based on her acclaimed book Being the Boss, co-authored with Ken Lineback, Hill teaches the three imperatives of becoming a great leader and gives audiences a toolkit for building productive, innovative, less-burned-out organizations. Useful for first-time managers and C-suite executives alike.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Linda Hill
Why Linda Hill?
Linda Hill is one of the very few keynote speakers who can stand in front of a Fortune 500 board and translate three decades of Harvard Business School field research into clear, actionable moves leaders can make on Monday morning. As the Wallace Brett Donham Professor at HBS, Chair of the Leadership Initiative, and a top-ranked Thinkers50 management thinker, she is the definitive voice on innovation that scales—not just innovation that sparks. Audiences leave her keynotes with a sharper diagnosis of why their organizations get stuck, the architect–bridger–catalyst roles needed to move ideas through complex systems, and the cultural conditions that turn collective genius into sustained competitive advantage. Book Linda Hill through Aurum Speakers Bureau to bring this rare blend of academic rigor, board-level credibility, and practical clarity to your next leadership summit.
What is Linda Hill best known for?
Linda Hill is best known for her research on leadership, innovation, and the conditions that allow organizations to consistently produce breakthrough ideas. She is the author of the bestsellers Becoming a Manager, Being the Boss, Collective Genius, and Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation. Her work on diverse, inclusive innovation cultures—and the architect, bridger, and catalyst roles required to scale them—has made her one of the most cited voices in modern leadership thinking, recognized by Thinkers50, Harvard Business Review, and global executive education programs.
What is collective genius and why does it matter for innovation?
Collective genius is Linda Hill's term for what happens when an organization stops relying on a single visionary leader and instead builds the capacity for many people, with different perspectives, to co-create ideas together. It matters because most innovation today is too complex for any one mind: it needs friction, abrasion, and integration across disciplines. Hill's research shows that leaders who design for collective genius—willing diverse thinkers to engage, debate, and refine ideas—produce innovation that is more original, more durable, and more strategically aligned than top-down approaches.
What can audiences expect from a Linda Hill keynote?
Audiences can expect a precise, story-rich keynote that pairs hard research evidence with case studies from companies like Mastercard, Delta, Pfizer, and Procter & Gamble. Linda Hill is known for an unusually warm, conversational style that still pushes senior leaders—she will challenge assumptions about how innovation actually happens, surface the cultural barriers blocking it, and leave the room with a shared language for what to do next. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to bring Linda Hill to your stage and equip your leadership team with a playbook for scaling innovation across the enterprise.
How to book Linda Hill as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Linda Hill as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Linda Hill's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Linda Hill or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Linda Hill speaking fee?
Linda Hill speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Linda Hill to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Linda Hill.
How can I contact Linda Hill?
We only work with Linda Hill on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Linda Hill and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Linda Hill speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Linda Hill for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Linda Hill for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Linda Hill is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Linda Hill for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
