Ellen R. Auster

Ellen R. Auster is Professor of Strategic Management at Schulich and Executive Director of York Change Leadership (YCL) at York University. She was previously the Founding Director of the Schulich Centre for Teaching Excellence. Prior to joining Schulich, she was on the faculty at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University and Visiting Faculty at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire. She earned her B.A. from Colgate University and her PhD from Cornell University.

Ellen has more than 25 years of experience as an academic and consultant specializing in Stragility® – the art of strategic transitions, transformations and turnarounds in the corporate, government and social sector. Working with executives and managers to successfully tackle a wide spectrum of strategic challenges, she creates a shared leadership, stakeholder inclusive, value creating approach that enables the firm to cultivate the short and long-run capabilities needed for continuous evolution and success.

A multiple research and teaching award winner, Ellen has been honored with the prestigious, global, lifetime achievement Academy of Management Distinguished Educator Award. She has also received research awards from the Academy of Management and Management Science, and she has been selected as a Kellogg/Schulich Executive MBA Professor of the Year twice as well as being honored with the Seymour Schulich Award for Teaching Excellence.

She has published widely in academic and practitioners journals including: The Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Sloan Management Review, The Journal of Business Ethics, Human Resource Management, Organization Studies, Research in Organizational Behavior, Research Policy, The Journal of International Management, The International Journal of Strategic Change Management, The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Sociological Inquiry, Advances in Strategic Management, The Journal of World Business, Business in the Contemporary World, Women in Management Review, Developing Leaders Quarterly and The Journal of Management Education.

She has two recent books: Stragility®:Excelling at Strategic Changes with former Harley Procter Director of Marketing at Procter and Gamble – Lisa Hillenbrand University of Toronto/Rotman Press, 2016, and Bridging the Values Gap: How Authentic Organizations Bring Values to Life with R. Edward Freeman, Elis and Signe Olsson Professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, 2015. Stragility was listed by Forbes as the one of the “16 Best Books for Creative Leaders”, and Top 3 books in Strategy for Entrepreneurs”. Ellen has written two prior books Strategic Organizational Change (Palgrave MacMillan, 2005) and Excellence in Business Teaching: A Quick Start Guide (McGraw-Hill Ryerson).

She has been quoted in the business press and appeared on radio and TV including: Business Week, Time, New York Newsday, Economic World, Executive Female, Talk 100 CFRB, WTN, TVO, The Toronto Star, HR Professional Magazine, Newsweek, The Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, Canadian Business, The National Post/Financial Post, Harvard Business Review- HBR.org and USA Today.