Cass Professor shortlisted for ‘Oscars of Management Thinking’ Leadership Award

Cass Business School Professor of the Management of Professional Service Firms, Laura Empson has been shortlisted for one of the management sector’s most prestigious awards, the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award for Leadership.

The Thinkers50 – a global ranking of management thinkers – was created in 2001 and has, every two years since, published its rankings of the sector’s best minds.

In 2011 the organisation introduced its Distinguished Achievement Awards to recognise and celebrate business and management thinkers in fields including Digital Thinking, Innovation, Strategy and Leadership.

The Thinkers50 Awards are styled as “the Oscars of Management Thinking”, with an extravagant ceremony to announce the winners held in central London in November.

The Leadership Award, for which Professor Empson has been shortlisted, acknowledges managers, business minds and academics who impart new and insightful knowledge into the subject of Leadership.

Professor Empson’s work on developing the idea collective leadership and her 2019 HBR article “How to Lead Your Fellow Rainmakers” are both referenced in her shortlisting notes for the award.

Of her nomination for the prestigious award Professor Empson said it was humbling to receive such a level of recognition for her work.

“To get this far, to be considered in the same league as Tom Peters and Herminia Ibarra is tremendously pleasing,” Professor Empson said.

“It’s a great recognition of the time and effort I’ve put into my work researching the challenges of leadership and governance that professional services firms face.

“I look forward to celebrating with my contemporaries from around the world at the gala evening in November.”

Professor Empson is the Director of the Cass Centre for Professional Service Firms and is a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession.