Expertise & Practice
I operate at the boundary between academic research and executive advisory, publishing findings in peer-reviewed journals and then walking into boardrooms to apply them. The work is grounded in data, but it is built for decisions.
The Premise
Boards evaluate strategy, financials, and market position with extraordinary rigor. They evaluate the psychology of the person making the calls with almost none. This asymmetry is the single largest blind spot in corporate governance. My research quantifies it, and my advisory work closes the gap.
Most strategy consulting treats the CEO as a rational actor, an optimizer of inputs and outputs. My research tells a different story. Whether a leader is narcissistic or humble, Machiavellian or agreeable, fearless or anxious, these traits systematically predict the strategic choices they make, the teams they build, the risks they take, and the outcomes their organizations produce.
The personality of the person at the top is not noise in the system. It is the system.
From Research to Practice
Peer-reviewed studies establish what is true. Advisory engagements establish what to do about it. A CEO scoring in the 90th percentile on narcissism is not inherently a liability, but it predicts specific decision patterns, risk exposures, and team dynamics that the board should understand before they surface as crises. That is the translation I provide.
When I tell a CEO that their combination of narcissistic admiration and low agreeableness creates a specific governance risk, that is not a hunch. It is a claim backed by data from thousands of executives published in journals that took two years to peer-review. When I advise a founder that their personality profile predicts a specific pattern of investor conflict, I am drawing on studies I have published in the Journal of Business Venturing and Organization Science.
This precision changes the conversation. It moves the discussion from "How do you feel about your leadership?" to "Here is what the evidence says about leaders with your specific profile, and here is what it predicts."
Research Program
My research program examines how the measurable psychological traits of CEOs and senior executives systematically predict the decisions they make and the results those decisions produce.
My most-cited work demonstrates that CEO narcissism drives corporate social responsibility spending, not out of altruism, but as a vehicle for self-enhancement. This has implications for how boards evaluate CSR commitments and how investors interpret "purpose-driven" leadership. More recent work extends to the full Dark Triad, examining CEO psychopathy and its effects on downsizing decisions, and how "moral elasticity" among dark-trait executives enables simultaneous CSR and corporate irresponsibility.
In counterpoint to the narcissism research, I have studied how CEO humility creates market outperformance. The mechanism is counterintuitive: humble CEOs set lower expectations with analysts and stakeholders, then consistently exceed them. This "expectations management" effect compounds over time and produces superior risk-adjusted returns. This work was featured in Harvard Business Review.
Machiavellian CEOs are skilled bargainers who extract favorable terms from suppliers, partners, and even their own boards. My work in the Strategic Management Journal shows this produces measurable cost advantages, but the long-term consequences for trust and organizational culture are more complex. Related work in the Journal of Applied Psychology examines how Machiavellianism shapes executive pay outcomes.
My work on entrepreneurship examines the adversarial dynamics between founders and investors, a relationship that is far more psychologically complex than standard agency models suggest. Recent publications explore how personality drives funding outcomes, how power struggles unfold over venture control, and why entrepreneurship is psychologically perilous.
A meta-analysis published in The Leadership Quarterly (nominated for Best Paper, 2022) synthesized the evidence on agreeableness and leadership outcomes. Ongoing work examines the curvilinear effects of CEO agreeableness and why being "too nice" can be as problematic as being too aggressive.
A central challenge in studying CEO psychology is measurement. You cannot ask a Fortune 500 CEO to sit for a personality test. I have pioneered videometric methods that assess personality traits from observable behavior in public settings (earnings calls, media appearances, conference presentations), enabling research on executives who would otherwise be inaccessible.
Full publication list and CV available on request.
Advisory Practice
I do not operate as a traditional consultant. I am a researcher who works directly with the people I study. The science informs the practice; the practice informs the science.
Many consultants follow the expert or "doctor-patient" model: diagnose, prescribe, move on. That approach implies something is broken and often leaves recommendations gathering dust. I am invited in for a different reason: when complexity has outpaced clarity, when assumptions inside the system go unchallenged, when the stakes are too high for gut instincts alone.
I do not fix what is wrong. I refine what is right. My approach is grounded in process consultation. I help you see the patterns you cannot see from inside them. The difference is that my lens is built from fifteen years of peer-reviewed research on exactly these dynamics.
This is not consulting to fix what is wrong. It is coaching to make what is right more resilient. I help you build psychological muscles you can use anywhere. Clear thinking under pressure, disciplined decision routines, and the ability to align your psychology with strategy are skills you carry into any role, any organization, or even a cause you care about. My goal is not to make you depend on me. It is to strengthen what is right so you become your own best advisor.
Map the pressures, personalities, and dynamics affecting your decisions.
Research-grade personality profiling using the same tools published in peer-reviewed studies with over 316,000 subjects.
Apply peer-reviewed research to your specific situation, not generic frameworks.
Design decision processes that account for how you actually think, not how you wish you thought.
Review outcomes and refine your approach so the tools outlast the engagement.
Each engagement begins with validated personality assessment. Results are never shared with participants directly. Instead, I deliver findings in a private, one-on-one debrief session designed to make the data personally meaningful and immediately actionable. The conversation is confidential. The insights are lasting.
Diagnostic Instruments
The assessments below are the same tools used in peer-reviewed studies, not pop-psychology quizzes. They measure stable personality traits with documented predictive validity for leadership behavior, decision-making style, and organizational outcomes.
Six fundamental dimensions of personality including Honesty-Humility, the single strongest predictor of ethical leadership and self-serving decision-making. 100 items, benchmarked against 100,000+ adults.
Learn more and begin →Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Three traits that operate below the surface of professional composure. 27 items mapped against published population norms.
Learn more and begin →Who This Serves
Surface the psychological dynamics shaping your boardroom, the ones governance structures alone do not capture. Design decision frameworks calibrated to your actual personality profile and cognitive tendencies. Sharpen judgment under scrutiny by understanding how your traits create predictable blind spots.
Evaluate CEO-board alignment using the same behavioral science frameworks published in the top strategy journals. Understand how personality shapes CEO compensation negotiations, risk appetite, and strategic change. Available as a select outside advisor with deep expertise in executive psychology.
Navigate investor dynamics with evidence-based insight into the adversarial psychology of funding relationships. Understand how your personality affects your pitch, your team, and your scaling decisions. Build leadership capacity that evolves with your venture, not personality-dependent habits that break at scale.
Research collaboration, speaking engagements, or commentary on CEO psychology and corporate governance. Full publication list and CV available on request.
Resources
Whether you are a CEO examining your own leadership, a board evaluating dynamics, or a founder navigating investors, the science applies. Start with a conversation or go straight to the assessment.