Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: The Fall From Grace

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld was a Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. He was a “star” at Emory and was extremely popular with the students. He was also extremely successful at raising funds for Emory’s Center for Leadership and Career Studies. He had close relationships with some of the most powerful CEOs and business leaders in the country who regularly attended the Center for Leadership and Career Studies for conferences he led. It was common knowledge that Sonnenfeld had conflicts with the Dean of the business school and the Dean of the entire university. Sonnenfeld was caught on video cameras jumping up and down the business school hallways and potentially scraping the walls. The university fired him and interfered with his outstanding offer to head up Georgia Tech’s business school. Sonnenfeld’s reputation was ruined and he was out of his current job. Furthermore, his career was potentially ruined.