William Klepper

Dr. Klepper joined Columbia Business School in 1996 after over thirty years as a general manager in higher education. He is a management professor who teaches Executive Leadership in the EMBA program and serves as the Faculty Director of the partnership with the Financial Times/Outstanding Directors Exchange on corporate governance. His teaching and research interest are in the areas of Executive Learning, Strategic Leadership and Corporate Governance. His most recent book, The CEO’s Boss: Tough Love in the Boardroom (2010, 2018) Columbia University Press was ranked as one of the Top Five Books by The Wall Street Journal’s livemint.com in December, 2010. The 2nd edition which includes his Columbia CaseWorks governance case studies published in 2018.

Columbia CaseWorks published his case studies on Executive Leadership and Governance: BP (2012), P&G (2014). Wounded Warrior Project (2014 and 2016), Demoulas Market Basket (2015) and Wells Fargo & Company (2017). BBVA published his Governance and Managing Change in the 21st Century (2014). Tough Love in the Boardroom was published in the Effective Executive, Icfai University Press (August, 2010). His article on What CEOs Have Yet To Learn was featured in Columbia Business School’s Alumni E-Newsletter and was published in the Effective Executive, Icfai University Press (January, 2009). The Klepper Leadership Model was first featured in Key Account Management and Planning (2001).

He serves as faculty director and teaches in Columbia’s ExecOnline Leading Strategic Growth course launched in the spring 2014 and Building and Leading Effective Teams launched in 2015. He is the faculty director and teaches in Executive Education’s Developing and Leading High Performance Teams, and teaches the Executive Leadership course in Columbia’s EMBA program. Dr. Klepper received his Ph.D. from St. Louis University in 1975.

He has worked with a number of corporations in custom programs including Aegion, AT&T, BankBoston, Bausch & Lomb, Bell Canada, BOC Gases, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Chase Manhattan Bank, Altria, Aviva, Deloitte, DuPont, Ericsson, Finmecannica, General Electric, GKN, Grand Metropolitan, Johnson & Johnson, Keysight, KONE, M&T Bank, Nabisco, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, SAP, Sony, StorageTek, Sun Microsystems and White Eagle Industries (Poland).

In his home community, he has served as President of the School Board, Mayor of the Township and President of the County Legislature.