May 28, 2026
| by Anneke ColeWhether guiding a company or government, leaders are operating in a rapidly changing world with increasingly complex challenges — from AI disruptions to geopolitical volatilities and the viral spread of misinformation — as well as new opportunities.
Stanford Leadership Institute focus areas
At its outset, the Stanford Leadership Institute will focus on five key areas that reflect major forces reshaping business and society:
Science and technology: Informing how leaders can responsibly design, scale, and govern new scientific discoveries and innovations to improve people’s lives while mitigating negative impacts.
Environment and resources: Equipping leaders with new solutions to address fundamental sustainability challenges at a time of rapidly growing resource needs.
Markets and economies: Evaluating foundational drivers such as market structure, innovation, and competition, and economic policies to guide how business and government leaders shape our future prosperity.
Government and governance: Advancing work on corporate governance, politics, and policy to frame new approaches for institutional and organizational efficacy.
Society and culture: Empowering leaders to be agents of change through greater understanding of how movements, policies, and strategies can deliver enduring social benefit.
With significant donor support, Stanford is launching the Stanford Leadership Institute to prepare leaders for these major forces reshaping business and society. A foundational gift from Diane and Andreas Halvorsen, MBA ’90, is backing the institute, which will be an interdisciplinary hub for innovative research, teaching, and convenings. The institute is based at Stanford Graduate School of Business and will leverage expertise from across the university and beyond.
The goal is to equip leaders to address the critical issues of our time – enabling them to make a positive impact on organizations, institutions, and societies. The institute builds on the success of the Business, Government, and Society initiative, which Stanford President Jonathan Levin established in 2021 during his tenure as GSB dean.
“The Stanford Leadership Institute will build on the GSB’s excellence in leadership education and enhance Stanford’s ability to spark ideas and illuminate leadership challenges across sectors,” said Levin. “I am incredibly grateful to Diane and Andreas Halvorsen for their vision and generosity, and to GSB faculty, staff, and alumni who have been instrumental in this work, and in bringing the institute to fruition.”
Stanford GSB, under the leadership of Sarah A. Soule, the Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean, has broadened the work and focus of the initiative since its beginnings. To date, it has collaborated on research projects and convenings with schools and units across the university, including the Hoover Institution, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the Stanford Law School, the School of Medicine, and the School of Humanities and Sciences.
“Leaders today require new insights and strategies to move from reacting to change toward shaping it,” said Soule, who is also the Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior. “It’s about understanding the contextual forces transforming business and society, beyond interpersonal and managerial skills. We believe that by leveraging the GSB’s expertise and Stanford’s breadth and depth of excellence across disciplines, the Stanford Leadership Institute will be uniquely positioned to prepare current and future leaders to be a force for positive change.”
A Focus on Emerging Challenges
An important role of the Stanford Leadership Institute will be to convene thought leaders in business, nonprofit organizations, government, and academia. For instance, at the Stanford Leadership Forum, a biennial event that took place on April 15, more than 500 attendees heard from speakers including Rishi Sunak, MBA ’06, former prime minister of the United Kingdom; Daniel Lurie, mayor of San Francisco; Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel; and Patti Poppe, MS ’05, CEO of PG&E.
As the Stanford Leadership Institute takes shape, it will be organized into faculty-led initiatives as well as institute-led programming in research, teaching, and convening. A fundamental principle of the institute will be to create an environment where a wide range of ideas are welcome and disagreements are discussed respectfully.
“It can be incredibly powerful when motivated individuals with different experiences and expertise are brought together to focus their energies on solving complex challenges,” said Andreas Halvorsen, who is chair-elect of the Stanford GSB Advisory Council and serves on the institute’s advisory board. “Engaging academics, thinkers, and doers in tough conversations is critical. I believe the GSB’s convening powers, combined with the deep expertise found across the university’s campus, make Stanford the ideal place to prepare purposeful leaders for tomorrow.”
Halvorsen is CEO of Viking Global Investors, an investment firm he co-founded in 1999. He and his wife, Diane, are cotrustees of the Halvorsen Family Foundation, which supports education, environmental initiatives, and medicine.
At its outset, the Stanford Leadership Institute will focus on five key areas that are driving rapid changes in business and society: science and technology, environment and resources, markets and economies, government and governance, and society and culture. It will encourage collaborations across disciplines, the Stanford campus, and the world to foster new research in these areas – and evolve these areas of focus, as needed, to meet the moment.
“It will be crucial to engage experts from industry, technology, policy, and practice,” said Ken Shotts, who serves as the inaugural Vélez Reyes Director of the institute and is the David S. and Ann B. Barlow Professor of Political Economy. “We will be actively seeking out and exploring new ideas, especially when they reflect different perspectives and opinions, in order to generate productive solutions.”
Among the gifts fueling the new institute is Shotts’ endowed directorship, created by a gift from Mariel Reyes and David Vélez, ’05, MBA ’12, member of the Stanford GSB Advisory Council and Stanford Leadership Institute Advisory Board.
Vélez is the founder, board chair, and CEO of Nubank, a digital bank in Latin America. Together, he and his wife co-founded VélezReyes+, a philanthropic platform focused on supporting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged Latin American children and young adults.
“Effective leadership requires an understanding of the rapid forces of change facing businesses and society,” said Vélez. “These forces are not just at play here in the United States; they are affecting leaders worldwide. We are excited about the institute’s potential to reach leaders across the globe, providing them with the insights and abilities to not only anticipate changes, but to help solve the hardest problems in society.”
Since December 2022, a new research grants program has helped spur research between Stanford GSB and other parts of Stanford, engaging faculty and students across the university in projects that range from market design to sustainability, and from human behavioral incentives to AI algorithms. Overseen by Amit Seru, the Steven and Roberta Denning Professor of Finance, the research fund has awarded 117 grants, supported by a lead gift from Amman Mineral, an Indonesian company.
“We see immense potential in Stanford’s ability to confront the issues that are impacting leaders across the globe,” said President Director Arief Sidarto of Amman Mineral. “We believe the research that’s taking place will drive change, improve organizational cultures, make the best use of natural resources, and ultimately lead to more resilient economies worldwide.”
This article was originally published by Stanford Report.
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