Biography
Heidi K. Gardner, PhD, is the author of the best-selling book Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos. A Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School, she was previously a professor at Harvard Business School and a consultant at McKinsey & Co. With Ivan Matviak, she co-founded the research and advisory firm Gardner & Collaborators.
Named by Thinkers 50 as a Next Generation Business Guru, Dr. Gardner is a sought-after advisor, keynote speaker, and facilitator for organizations across a wide range of industries globally. Altogether, she has authored (or co-authored) more than 80 books, chapters, case studies, and articles. Her research received the Academy of Management’s prize for Outstanding Practical Implications for Management, and has been selected multiple times for Harvard Business Review’s “best of” collections. Her research has been featured in major media outlets around the globe.
Dr. Gardner has lived and worked on four continents. She was a Fulbright Fellow and started her career at Procter & Gamble. She earned her BA in Japanese from the University of Pennsylvania (Phi Beta Kappa, Summa cum Laude), a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics, and a second Master’s and PhD from London Business School.