Speakers and Chairs Bios

Platzhalter Speakers
Tamara J. Erickson
UK

Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour,
London Business School

Biography

Tamara Erickson is an Adjunct Professor, Organisational Behaviour, at London Business School, where she has designed and directs the school’s leadership programme for senior-most executives, Leading Businesses into the Future. Her teaching addresses approaches to enhancing engagement, collaboration and innovation in intelligent organizations.
 
Erickson is a recognized expert on the changing workplace and the future nature of work, with an emphasis on how organisations can adapt and individuals can succeed.  Her work has included in-depth research on the generations in over fifteen countries around the world, encompassing variations in preferences and perspectives by age and culture.  She has explored the motivations of women in different generations and the challenges each faces in today’s workplace. Her publications include a trilogy of books written for individuals in specific generations with advice on how to excel:  Retire Retirement, What’s Next, Gen X? and Plugged In.  She is working on a fourth book for the generation under 20 today.  
 
Erickson has authored or co-authored five books and numerous articles published in Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review. She won the prestigious McKinsey Award for the most significant article published in HBR in a given year and has four-times been named one of the 50 most influential living management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, the respected ranking of global business thinkers.  
 
For the first 25 years of her career, Erickson established a preeminent record of success as a woman in the professional services industry, advising senior executives around the world and successfully leading major consulting organisations of increasing complexity and size, developing a long-term track record of success in both growth businesses and turn-around situations.
 
She spent nineteen years at Arthur D. Little, Inc.  As Senior Vice President, Erickson had responsibility for the firm’s management consulting business in the United States and Canada, including consulting services in the areas of strategy, organization, information systems, and operations management.  In this role, she engineered a successful turn-around/restructuring of the business, from a net loss to the most profitable group in the company within two years.  The turnaround was based on the development of innovative programs to enhance client relationships, staff development and thought leadership.
 
Earlier in her career, Erickson built the firm’s business in pharmaceuticals and medical products from a small specialty capability to a global practice over a six year period.
 
Throughout her career, Erickson personally worked with senior executives on issues of strategy and organization, particularly with regard to enhancing research and product development. Her client relationships spanned international markets, in the U.S. and throughout Europe, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, and Saudi Arabia.  As a result of her outstanding track record as a consultant, Erickson was elected Vice President of Arthur D. Little at age 29, the youngest vice president in the firm’s 100 year history.
 
Erickson’s professional emphasis on organisational behavior was intensified when she lead Arthur D. Little’s acquisition of Innovation Associates, Inc., a firm founded by Peter Senge, based on Senge’s work with learning organisations.  Erickson was responsible for conceptualizing, negotiating, and helping to integrate this acquisition into Arthur D. Little’s worldwide business.
 
After leaving Arthur D. Little, Erickson joined The Concours Group, a small specialty firm, built around long-term, intimate advisory relationships with senior-most executives. As Chief Executive Officer, Global Consulting, and Director she was responsible for leading the growth of the firm’s international consulting business, all European activities, and major research initiatives, nearly quadrupling revenue in just two years.  
 
Erickson also has extensive experience at the board level, both as an advisor and as a board member. She served for ten years as a member of the Board of Directors of PerkinElmer, Inc., where she was a member of the Compensation and Benefits, Governance and Audit Committees. She served for six years as a member of the Board of Directors of Allergan, Inc.  There, as Chair of the Corporate Governance Committee, she served as Lead Director and was a member of the Organization and Compensation Committee.
 
Today, in addition to her work with London Business School, she is the CEO of Tammy Erickson Associates, a research-based firm dedicated to helping clients build intelligent organizations.  Much of her teaching is based on the original research conducted by her firm.
 
She holds a BA degree from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, where she was the recipient of the James Thomas Chirurg Fellowship.