Dr. Nancy Tennant is a consultant, professor, and best-selling author in innovation and leadership. She is one of the world’s leading pioneer/practitioners/teachers in transforming businesses to achieve innovation from everyone and everywhere.
Businessweek named Dr. Tennant one of the 25 Innovation Champions in the world. She is an Adjunct Faculty of Leadership at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, co-founding the innovative Leadership Studio. She is also an instructor at The University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business, where she is a co-founding member of the Innovation Academy. She is a frequent public speaker to “C” level audiences around the world.
She is the Chief Innovation Officer Emeritus for Whirlpool Corporation, where she reported to two Chairmen/CEOs for over 17 years, transforming Whirlpool into an innovation powerhouse resulting in acclaim from publications such as Fast Company and Fortune while creating billions in new revenue from innovation. Dr. Tennant was also responsible for Leadership Development. She co-founded Whirlpool University, with an enrollment of over 17,000 leaders per year from 170 countries.
She is the co-author of numerous articles, including The 5 Requirements of a Truly Innovative Company (Hamel & Tennant). She co-authored three best-selling books: Unleashing Innovation, Mastering Virtual Teams, and Strategic Innovation. Her latest book is a practitioner-to-practitioner, company-focused innovation guide: Transform Your Company for the Innovation Universe: FRAME | GENERATE | EMBED | LEAD. She published the visual e-learning series: Innovation Universe Master Class, https://innovation-universe-series.thinkific.com. She has a website and blog at www.innovationuniverse.com
Dr. Tennant holds a doctorate from The George Washington University. She is the President Emeritus of The First Tee of Benton Harbor, a not-for-profit organization that offers life skills to at-risk youth. She is an artist, writer, poet, and swimmer.