Thinkers50 Ranking
For over 20 years, Thinkers50 has been identifying, ranking, and sharing the very best ideas and thought leaders in management and business. The Thinkers50 Ranking is published every two years and unveiled at the Thinkers50 Awards Gala – the “Oscars of management thinking” – Financial Times.
Highlighting the important work of 50 thinkers whose work provides practical, compelling insights with real-world impact, the Thinkers50 Ranking is the original and pre-eminent global ranking of its kind.
The methodology is organised by two broad concepts: Viability – the quality and relevance of ideas; and Visibility – the influence and impact of ideas in the world. These concepts are quantified using 10 criteria.
VIABILITY (THE 4RS):
VISIBILITY (IMPACT):
Nominations are accepted between 1 May and 30 June in odd-numbered years.
Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Awards
Founded in 2011, the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Awards are presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in a particular field of management thinking. These categories are listed below.
Nominations are accepted throughout May and June and the shortlists are announced every Monday starting in August. The final recipients are invited onto the stage at the Thinkers50 Awards Gala to be presented with their “Oscar” of management thinking.
Nominations for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Category Awards are open from May to July in Thinkers50 Awards Gala years (odd-numbered years), and shortlists are announced in late summer. Awards are conferred in November at the biennial Thinkers50 Awards Gala event.
All nominations for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Awards are considered by the Thinkers50 Panel of Advisors.
Public participation is an important part of the Awards process. In Thinkers50 Awards years (odd-numbered years) all interested parties are invited to participate in the nomination process by submitting online the names and qualifications of thinkers they wish to put forward for consideration. Nominations from across the globe are accepted – and encouraged.
for the 2025 Thinkers50 Ranking and Distinguished Achievement Awards
Nominations open from 1 May to 30 June 2025.
Nominations are now closed.
Nomination fee: £50.00 (incl. VAT)
Each Gala year, we receive thousands of highly valued nominations for the Thinkers50 Ranking and Distinguished Achievement Awards. The administrative process involved in properly researching and weighing all nominations — to ensure the quality and independence Thinkers50 is renowned for — is a job we take very seriously.
To cover a portion of the costs involved in this work, all nominations incur a non-refundable processing fee.
From Taylorism to The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, new ideas have redefined our understanding and practice of business and management. The Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award celebrates an innovative thinker whose groundbreaking insights have the power to revolutionise management thinking. Who will be the next game-changer?
Great leaders rarely develop in isolation. Since ancient times, the impact of advisors has been profound. Today’s executive coaches serve as both wisdom-bearers and cross-pollinators of best practices, transferring innovative ideas between thought leaders and practitioners. The Thinkers50 Coaching and Mentoring Award honours the influential work of those behind the scenes.
The acceleration of technological advancement – particularly AI – is rapidly and fundamentally reshaping the business landscape. The Thinkers50 Digital Thinking Award applauds a visionary whose work illuminates the complex implications of our evolving digital reality. It celebrates thought leaders who translate the technological revolution into practical management frameworks.
In an era where global disruptions have exposed vulnerabilities in critical systems, the ability to anticipate and prepare for both challenges and opportunities ahead has become paramount. The Future Readiness Award recognises thought leadership that helps organisations develop the agility, talent, and infrastructure needed to thrive amid uncertainty and change.
While necessity is the spark for invention, innovation translates possibility into reality. The Thinkers50 Innovation Award celebrates the thought leader whose recent contributions have most significantly advanced our understanding of innovation – offering frameworks and approaches that help transform creative thinking into tangible progress and meaningful change.
Across teams, companies, and organisations of every kind, effective leadership is a key ingredient for success. However, the concept of leadership – and the expectations placed upon leaders – continues to evolve in response to changing contexts and challenges. The Thinkers50 Leadership Award honours individuals who offer compelling, original insights for leading in the modern world.
Drawn from the Radar Classes of the previous two years, the Thinkers50 Radar Award throws the spotlight on a rising star in management thinking – an exciting new voice with the potential to impact businesses and organisations in the years to come. With so many complex challenges facing leaders today, the need for fresh, new thinking and practical ideas has never been greater.
Regenerative business is the future of business. A regenerative business moves beyond sustainability by seeking to restore, renew, and enhance the natural and social systems it depends upon. The Thinkers50 Regenerative Business Award salutes the work of those helping organisations take the step from net zero to net positive outcomes for the environment, society, and the economy.
Strategy lies at the core of effective leadership and organisational success – charting direction, aligning resources, and guiding decision-making. The Thinkers50 Strategy Award highlights a thinker providing outstanding insight, clarity, and impact in the field of strategic thinking. It honours those whose ideas leaders turn to when determining where to go – and how best to get there.
The challenge of attracting, developing, and retaining top talent has never been greater. In today’s global economy, talent is one of the most vital and sought-after assets. As workplaces evolve and new generations reshape expectations around work, the Thinkers50 Talent Award recognises a thinker who has advanced our understanding of the fast-evolving talent landscape.
Recognising an outstanding body of work over an entire lifetime
The Thinkers50 Lifetime Achievement Award is given to someone who has had a long-term impact on the way people think about and practice management. The first-ever award in this category was given to Charles Handy in 2011. Recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award gain automatic entry into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame.
See the complete list of Lifetime Achievement Award recipients
For an individual who has paved the way for thought leadership to flourish
The Thinkers50 Founders’ Award, introduced in 2019, recognises individuals in the world of business ideas who provide industry leadership and inspiration. It acknowledges the invaluable contribution of the architects who lay the foundations for ideas to flourish. The first Thinkers50 Founders’ Award recipient was Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño, President of IE University.
The public is invited to participate in the online nomination process for both the Ranking and the Distinguished Achievement Awards by submitting the names and qualifications of thinkers they wish to put forward for consideration. Nominations are accepted and encouraged from individuals and organisations across the globe.
2025 shortlists are being announced every Monday between 4 August and 6 October.
The new Ranking and Award recipients will be announced at the
While necessity is the spark for invention, innovation translates possibility into reality. The Thinkers50 Innovation Award celebrates the thought leader whose recent contributions have most significantly advanced our understanding of innovation, offering frameworks and approaches that help transform creative thinking into tangible progress and meaningful change.
A leading voice on innovation, strategy, and growth, Scott D. Anthony is a professor at the Tuck School of Business Dartmouth College, where his research and teaching focuses on the adaptive challenges of disruptive change. He is also Managing Partner Emeritus and advisor at Innosight, a growth strategy consultancy founded by Clayton Christensen. Scott’s previous books include Eat, Sleep, Innovate (with Paul Cobban, Natalie Painchaud and Andy Parker, HBR Press, 2020); and Dual Transformation (with Clark G. Gilbert and Mark W. Johnson, HBR Press, 2017).
for Epic Disruptions: 11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World (HBR Press, 2025)
Dean Carignan is Chief of Staff in Microsoft’s Office of the Chief Scientist. He is also Chief of Staff for Microsoft’s Aether initiative, driving research and innovation in responsible AI across the company and in the broader technology industry. Lifelong entrepreneur, JoAnn Garbin led Microsoft’s Datacenter of the Future program before co-founding her new venture, Regenerous Labs. Previously, she was Chief Innovation Officer at Aircuity and founded knowledge engineering firm, KnowE.
for The Insider’s Guide to Innovation at Microsoft (Post Hill Press, 2025)
Jeff Dyer holds the Horace Beesley Distinguished Professorship in Strategy at Brigham Young University. Nathan Furr is a professor of strategy at INSEAD, where he teaches innovation and technology strategy. Curtis Lefrandt serves as co-founder and CEO of consulting firm, Innovator’s DNA, and Taeya Howell is an assistant professor of organisational behaviour and human resources management at Brigham Young. Jeff and Nathan co-authored The Innovator’s Method (HBR Press, 2014) and, along with Curtis, Innovation Capital (HBR Press, 2019).
for Why Innovation Depends on Intellectual Honesty (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2023)
The Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Linda A. Hill is also chair of the Leadership Initiative, co-founder of Paradox Strategies, and co-creator of the Innovation Quotient. Emily Tedards is a doctoral student at Harvard Business School and a doctoral fellow for the Reimagining the Economy Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School. Jason Wild is a growth and strategy advisor and previously global VP and CEO of Co-Innovation and Customer Engagement at Microsoft and senior VP of Transformation and Innovation at Salesforce.
for Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation (HBR Press, 2026)
Former refugee and serial entrepreneur, Diana Kander is an innovation consultant, keynote speaker, and author. Her previous books include The Curiosity Muscle (with Andy Fromm, Truefolio, 2018) and All In Startup (Wiley, 2014). Tucker Trotter is the CEO of Dimensional Innovations (DI), an experience design, fabrication and tech company. He serves on the board for the Kansas City Sports Commission, is VC of the Dean’s Advisory Board for the School of Architecture and Design, and is a founding donor to the Center for Design Research at the University of Kansas.
for Go Big or Go Home: 5 Ways to Create a Customer Experience That Will Close the Deal (Houndstooth Press, 2023)
Former Ireland international and professional rugby union player, Aidan McCullen is the author of Undisruptable: A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organisations and Life (Wiley, 2021). A change consultant and executive coach, Aidan is the host and founder of The Innovation Show, a weekly podcast that goes beyond technological innovation to focus on the fundamental need for business, management, leadership, and education to innovate and adapt to a new world order.
for creating and hosting The Innovation Show podcast
Chief science advocate and corporate scientist at 3M, Jayshree Seth — a prolific inventor, award-winning innovator and thought leader — studies the public perception of science and advocates for STEM innovation and the culture and ecosystem to support it. She serves on Board of FIRST, a global robotics nonprofit, and the Science Museum of Minnesota. She is on advisory councils for committees at International Space Station National Lab, American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Aspen Institute, Clarkson University, and The Conference Board as Innovation Fellow.
for The Heart of Science trilogy (Society of Women Engineers, 2020, 2022, 2024)
An expert on platform strategy, transformation, digital and business model innovation, Feng Zhu is the MBA Class of 1958 Professor of business Administration at Harvard Business School. He also leads the Platform Lab within the Digital, Data, and Design Institute. Former Bloomberg journalist Bonnie Yining Cao is a doctoral student at Harvard Business School. In Smart Rivals, they draw on their research to show how companies can compete in the age of AI – on their own terms – with the tech giants.
for Smart Rivals: How Innovative Companies Play Games That Tech Giants Can’t Win (HBR Press, 2024)
From Taylorism to The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, new ideas have redefined our understanding and practice of business and management. Dedicated to the legacy of C.K. Prahalad, the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award celebrates an innovative thinker whose ground-breaking insights have the power to revolutionise management thinking. Who will be the next game-changer?
Entrepreneur and founder of New Zealand’s largest corporate trustee firm, Perpetual Guardian, Andrew Barnes is the pioneer behind the global 4 Day Week movement. Driven to find ways to raise productivity in the workplace while also contributing to the wellbeing of his employees, he trialled a 4 day week with staff receiving an extra day off, on full pay, each week. The success of this trial has since been replicated in thousands of organisations around the world. His book The 4 Day Week serves as a guide for companies to re-design their workweek and improve performance.
for the 4 Day Week
The chief talent scientist at Manpower Group, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is also co-founder of Deeper Signals and Metaprofiling and a professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia University. His new book Don’t Be Yourself argues that the popular advice to “be authentic” is scientifically flawed and demonstrates that the most effective people adapt their behaviour to situational demands and how others perceive them. Tomas’ previous books include I, Human, Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? and The Talent Delusion.
for Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity is Overrated (and What to Do About It) (HBR Press, 2025)
A professor at ESCP Business School, Isaac Getz is also a senior advisor specialising in leadership and organisational transformation and has been instrumental in the modern corporation liberation movement. Laurent Marbacher is a senior adviser to business leaders. Isaac and Laurent are also co-authors of L’Entreprise Altruiste. Their new book The Caring Company argues that companies can prioritise serving the common good while also achieving business success by building unconditionally caring relationships with customers, suppliers, and communities rather than merely transacting with them.
for The Caring Company: How to Shift Business and the Economy for Good (Wiley, 2025)
Kaihan Krippendorff is the founder and CEO of Outthinker Networks, a global think tank comprising corporate strategists, innovators, and intrapreneurs. He is the author of Driving Innovation From Within and Outthink the Competition. Robert C. Wolcott is co-founder and chair of The World Innovation Network (TWIN Global). His books include Grow from Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation (with Michael J. Lippitz). In Proximity, Kaihan and Rob provide a strategic guide for leaders to navigate the revolutionary shift towards just-in-time, on-demand products and solutions, enabled by new digital technologies.
for Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-in-Time Transform Business, Society, and Daily Life (Columbia Business School Publishing, 2024)
Assistant professor at Aalto University, Helsinki, Frank is also co-founder of Filosofian Akatemia Oy, a company that measures engagement, motivation, and meaningfulness at work. He is the author of Stop Chasing Happiness and A Wonderful Life. In his 2023 article for the Harvard Business Review, Frank sets out how CEOs can shift from hierarchical to minimalist leadership – empowering employees, replacing control with trust, and building a more innovative business. By daring to make this change, Frank contends, leaders will realise the less employees need them, the more they have succeeded.
Siobhán McHale began her career as a management consultant at PricewaterHouse Coopers and Accenture before leading a seven-year change project at the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), which became the subject of a case study by John Kotter at Harvard Business School. In The Hive Mind, Siobhán explores her theory of Group Intelligence (GQ), which goes beyond traditional approaches to change management, drawing on lessons from bee colonies such as hard work, teamwork, role clarity, and resilience. Siobhán is also author of The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change.
for The Hive Mind at Work: Harnessing the Power of Group Intelligence to Create Meaningful and Lasting Change (HarperCollins Leadership, 2024)
The authors of Speak Out, Listen Up: How to have conversations that matter (FT Publishing, 2024) and Speak Up: Say what needs to be said and hear what needs to be heard (FT Publishing, 2019), Megan Reitz and John Higgins latest research focuses on the concept of Spaciousness: how to shift from the “doing mode” of box-ticking to the “spacious mode” of creative thinking, wellbeing, and satisfaction. Their recent articles include The Best Leaders Encourage “Spacious Thinking” (Harvard Business Review, 2025), How to Give Yourself More Space to Think (Harvard Business Review, 2025) and A pause is not just for Christmas (HR Magazine, 2025).
for Spaciousness
Former business executive and consultant, Kate Vitasek leads the University of Tennessee research on strategic partnerships, a role which has resulted in the development of her methodology, Vested. Based on a framework of five rules and ten elements, The Vested Way transforms organisations from a “What’s in for Me” culture to a ‘What’s in it for We” culture, by co-creating a shared vision and statement of intentions. If followed properly, the parties create a win-win Vested Agreement to achieve mutually defined desired outcomes.
for the Vested business model
In an era where global disruptions have exposed vulnerabilities in critical systems, the ability to anticipate and prepare for both challenges and opportunities ahead has become paramount. The Future Readiness Award recognises thought leadership that helps organisations develop the agility, talent, and infrastructure needed to thrive amid uncertainty and change.
Erik Brynjolfsson is the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), and director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Andrew McAfee is the co-founder and co-director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy and a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Their books include Race Against the Machine (2012), The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (2014), and Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future (2017).
for their books exploring how digital technologies are transforming the economy, workforce, and society
Ian Khan is the creator of the Future Readiness Score, a tool to evaluate and enhance organisational adaptability, enabling organisations to strategize for the future. In his new book, Undisrupted, he provides practical insights into the seven pillars of future readiness and strategies to not only withstand negative events but also harness positive opportunities. He is also the author of The Quick Guide to Prompt Engineering. A keynote speaker, Ian’s talks include The Future Together – 2025 Future Readiness; On becoming future ready; and The Art of Future Readiness.
Jane McGonigal is the creator of award-winning games that challenge players to tackle global problems such as poverty and climate change through planetary-scale collaboration. She is the director of games research and development at the Institute for the Future and New York Times bestselling author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully. Her TED talks How gaming can make a better world and The game that can give you 10 extra years of life have more than 15 million views. Jane teaches a course “How to Think Like a Futurist” at Stanford University.
for Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Be Ready for Anything (Spiegel & Grau, 2022)
Professor at Columbia Business School and host of the Thought Sparks podcast, Rita McGrath is the founder of Valize, a platform designed to help companies build sustainable innovation. She is also the author of Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen; The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep our Strategy Moving As Fast As Your Business; and Discovery-Driven Growth (with Ian C. Macmillan). Rita’s research into disruptive inflection points – the “overnight shifts that disrupt a market” – reveals how smart leaders can learn to anticipate them.
for the Seeing Around Corners workshop and research
Professor of strategy at EDHEC Business School, René Rohrbeck is the director of the Chair for Foresight, Innovation, and Transformation and best known for his pioneering work on future preparedness of organisations. He developed the Future FITness Model, which measures the ability of organisations to use foresight to drive innovation and transformation and is co-founder of consultancy firm Rohrbeck Heger, which helps organisations build agile strategies, build foresight capabilities, professionalise trend management, and drive innovation in new markets.
Assistant professor at University College London’s School of Management, Vaughn Tan studies innovation and adaptability in the context of risk and uncertainty. He is the creator of the idk tool, a research-based training tool for building productive discomfort that helps people to excel when working in unfamiliar situations. His research behind the tool is published in The Uncertainty Mindset, which explores how embracing uncertainty – rather than denying it – makes people and teams more effective, innovative, and adaptable.
for The Uncertainty Mindset: Innovation Insights From The Frontiers of Food, (Columbia University Press, 2020) and the idk tool
Quantitative futurist and professor of strategic foresight at NYU Stern School of Business, Amy Webb is the founder and CEO of the Future Today Strategy Group, where she pioneered a unique quantitative modelling approach and data-driven foresight methodology that identifies early signals of change used to develop predictive scenarios and executable strategy. She is a visiting fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd School of Business and author of The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans & Their Thinking Machines Will Change Humanity and The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology.
LEGO professor of management and Innovation at IMD in Switzerland, Howard Yu is the director of IMD’s Center for Future Readiness, which produces the Future Readiness Indicator. This measures a company’s deep, long-term secular trends and consists of a composite of proven proxies to predict an organisation’s adaptability quotient, such as revenue generation or research and development spending. Howard is also the author of Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied. Prior to his academic career, Howard worked in the banking industry in Hong Kong.
The challenge of attracting, developing, and retaining top talent has never been greater. In today’s global economy, talent is one of the most vital and sought-after assets. As workplaces evolve and new generations reshape expectations around work, the Thinkers50 Talent Award recognises a thinker who has advanced our understanding of the fast-evolving talent landscape.
Emilio J. Castilla is the NTU Professor of Management and a professor of work and organisation studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also co-director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research. In The Meritocracy Paradox, Emilio examines how merit-based systems in organisations can paradoxically deepen inequality and reinforce bias, despite their promise of fairness. He provides research-based, cost-effective strategies to help organisations improve the intersection of merit, fairness, and equal opportunity in their talent management processes.
for The Meritocracy Paradox: Where Talent Management Strategies Go Wrong and How to Fix Them (Columbia University Press, 2025)
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve is a professor of economics and behavioural science at Saïd Business School and director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, where George Ward is a junior research fellow. In Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters they offer a fresh, data-driven perspective to definitions of workplace wellbeing and demonstrate through their research that improving wellbeing can boost productivity, aid in talent retention and recruitment, and ultimately improve financial performance. Jan-Emmanuel is an editor of the World Happiness Report.
Ravin Jesuthasan is the Global Leader of Transformation at Mercer. As well as The Skills-Powered Organization he is co-author (with John Boudreau) of Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot your Organization’s Work Operating System and Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach for Applying Automation to Work. Tanuj Kapilashrami is the Chief Strategy & Talent Officer at Standard Chartered, where she has successfully led the organisation’s transition to a skills-based model. She is often featured in global media including the BBC, The Economist, Financial Times, and Harvard Business Review.
for The Skills Powered Organization: The Journey to the Next Generation Enterprise (MIT Press, 2024)
Creativity strategist and CEO of Figure 8 Thinking, Natalie Nixon helps teams unlock their creative capacity to create sustainable innovation. In today’s changing world, she contends, creative capacity is your strategic and competitive advantage and in Move. Think. Rest she provides a practical, human-centred, and future-ready way to work. Natalie’s previous books include The Creative Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation and Intuition at Work. She is also the editor of Strategic Design Thinking: Innovation in Products, Services, Experiences and Beyond.
for Move. Think. Rest. Redefining Productivity & Our Relationship with Time (Balance, 2025)
Deborah Perry Piscione and Josh Drean are co-founders of the Work3 Institute. Deborah is also the author of The People Equation: Why Innovation Is People, Not Products; The Risk Factor: Why Every Organization Needs Big Bets, Bold Characters and the Occasional Spectacular Failure; and Secrets of Silicon Valley. Josh is a web3 advisor at Harvard Innovation Labs and co-founder of DreanMedia. Employment Is Dead explores how disruptive digital technologies are making traditional employment models obsolete and how leaders can navigate this transition to redefine the future of work.
for Employment is Dead: How Disruptive Technologies Are Revolutionizing the Way We Work (HBR Press, 2025)
An adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, Dan Pontefract is a leadership strategist and culture change expert. Work-Life Bloom critiques the outdated concept of work-life balance and provides an actionable framework to build a thriving professional and personal ecosystem. His other books include Lead. Care. Win. How to Become a Leader Who Matters; Open to Think: Slow Down, Think Creatively and Make Better Decisions and Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization.
for Work-Life Bloom: How to Nurture A Team That Flourishes (Figure 1 Publishing, 2023)
Professor and director of graduate industrial-organisational psychology at Vanguard University of Southern California, Ludmila Praslova’s research focuses on transforming toxic workplace cultures into thriving ones. Her 2024 book, The Canary Code, delivers a practical framework for leaders to unlock the human productivity of marginalised talent, including the neurodivergent and disabled. Ludmila is the first person to have written for the Harvard Business Review from an autistic perspective. She is also editor of Evidence-Based Organizational Practices for Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity.
for The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work (Berrett-Koehler, 2024)
Melissa Valentine is an associate professor of management science and engineering and a senior fellow at the Standford Institute for Human-Centred AI, where Michael Bernstein is a professor of computer science and also a senior fellow. Their book Flash Teams introduces a revolutionary approach to staffing, where organisations can instantly recruit global expertise on-demand, replacing traditional hiring methods. The authors explore how to leverage the new norm of remote work and the potential of AI to successfully transform industries through unprecedented organisational agility.
for Flash Teams: Leading the Future of AI-enhanced, On-demand work (MIT Press, 2025)
The challenge of attracting, developing, and retaining top talent has never been greater. In today’s global economy, talent is one of the most vital and sought-after assets. As workplaces evolve and new generations reshape expectations around work, the Thinkers50 Talent Award recognises a thinker who has advanced our understanding of the fast-evolving talent landscape.
Emilio J. Castilla is the NTU Professor of Management and a professor of work and organisation studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also co-director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research. In The Meritocracy Paradox, Emilio examines how merit-based systems in organisations can paradoxically deepen inequality and reinforce bias, despite their promise of fairness. He provides research-based, cost-effective strategies to help organisations improve the intersection of merit, fairness, and equal opportunity in their talent management processes.
for The Meritocracy Paradox: Where Talent Management Strategies Go Wrong and How to Fix Them (Columbia University Press, 2025)
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve is a professor of economics and behavioural science at Saïd Business School and director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, where George Ward is a junior research fellow. In Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters they offer a fresh, data-driven perspective to definitions of workplace wellbeing and demonstrate through their research that improving wellbeing can boost productivity, aid in talent retention and recruitment, and ultimately improve financial performance. Jan-Emmanuel is an editor of the World Happiness Report.
Ravin Jesuthasan is the Global Leader of Transformation at Mercer. As well as The Skills-Powered Organization he is co-author (with John Boudreau) of Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot your Organization’s Work Operating System and Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach for Applying Automation to Work. Tanuj Kapilashrami is the Chief Strategy & Talent Officer at Standard Chartered, where she has successfully led the organisation’s transition to a skills-based model. She is often featured in global media including the BBC, The Economist, Financial Times, and Harvard Business Review.
for The Skills Powered Organization: The Journey to the Next Generation Enterprise (MIT Press, 2024)
Creativity strategist and CEO of Figure 8 Thinking, Natalie Nixon helps teams unlock their creative capacity to create sustainable innovation. In today’s changing world, she contends, creative capacity is your strategic and competitive advantage and in Move. Think. Rest she provides a practical, human-centred, and future-ready way to work. Natalie’s previous books include The Creative Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation and Intuition at Work. She is also the editor of Strategic Design Thinking: Innovation in Products, Services, Experiences and Beyond.
for Move. Think. Rest. Redefining Productivity & Our Relationship with Time (Balance, 2025)
Deborah Perry Piscione and Josh Drean are co-founders of the Work3 Institute. Deborah is also the author of The People Equation: Why Innovation Is People, Not Products; The Risk Factor: Why Every Organization Needs Big Bets, Bold Characters and the Occasional Spectacular Failure; and Secrets of Silicon Valley. Josh is a web3 advisor at Harvard Innovation Labs and co-founder of DreanMedia. Employment Is Dead explores how disruptive digital technologies are making traditional employment models obsolete and how leaders can navigate this transition to redefine the future of work.
for Employment is Dead: How Disruptive Technologies Are Revolutionizing the Way We Work (HBR Press, 2025)
An adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, Dan Pontefract is a leadership strategist and culture change expert. Work-Life Bloom critiques the outdated concept of work-life balance and provides an actionable framework to build a thriving professional and personal ecosystem. His other books include Lead. Care. Win. How to Become a Leader Who Matters; Open to Think: Slow Down, Think Creatively and Make Better Decisions and Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization.
for Work-Life Bloom: How to Nurture A Team That Flourishes (Figure 1 Publishing, 2023)
Professor and director of graduate industrial-organisational psychology at Vanguard University of Southern California, Ludmila Praslova’s research focuses on transforming toxic workplace cultures into thriving ones. Her 2024 book, The Canary Code, delivers a practical framework for leaders to unlock the human productivity of marginalised talent, including the neurodivergent and disabled. Ludmila is the first person to have written for the Harvard Business Review from an autistic perspective. She is also editor of Evidence-Based Organizational Practices for Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity.
for The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work (Berrett-Koehler, 2024)
Melissa Valentine is an associate professor of management science and engineering and a senior fellow at the Standford Institute for Human-Centred AI, where Michael Bernstein is a professor of computer science and also a senior fellow. Their book Flash Teams introduces a revolutionary approach to staffing, where organisations can instantly recruit global expertise on-demand, replacing traditional hiring methods. The authors explore how to leverage the new norm of remote work and the potential of AI to successfully transform industries through unprecedented organisational agility.
for Flash Teams: Leading the Future of AI-enhanced, On-demand work (MIT Press, 2025)
Join us at the ‘Oscars of management thinking’, where we announce the recipients of the 2025 Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Awards.
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