Willie Pietersen was raised in South Africa, and received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. After a period practicing law, he embarked on an international business career. Between 1974 and 1994 he served as the CEO of multibillion-dollar businesses such as Lever Foods, Seagram USA, Tropicana and Sterling Winthrop's Consumer Health Group.
In 1998, Willie was named Professor of the Practice of Management at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He specializes in strategy and the leadership of change, and his methods and ideas, especially Strategic Learning, are widely applied within Columbia's executive education programs, and also in numerous corporations.
He has served as a teacher, consultant and advisor to many global companies, including Sony, Aviva, Bausch & Lomb, Boeing, Chubb Corp., Deloitte & Touche, DePuy, Ericsson, ExxonMobil, Henry Schein, Inc., Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, Novartis Oncology, SAP, The Chubb Corporation, UGI and also the Girl Scouts of the USA. He is the Chairman of the Menlo Park-based think tank Institute for the future.
Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create & Sustain Breakthrough Performance