Margaret Wheatley is president of the Berkana Institute. She has been an organisational consultant and researcher since 1973 and a dedicated global citizen since her youth.

Margaret is an expert at helping organisations who are wrestling with a common dilemma-how to maintain their integrity and effectiveness as they cope with relentless pressures for speed and change in chaotic environments. She has a simple philosophy: A common human desire to live together more harmoniously, more humanely.

Her first work was as a public school teacher and urban education administrator in New York, and a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea. Dr. Wheatley received her doctorate from Harvard University's program in Administration, Planning and Social Policy. She holds an M.A. in Communications and Systems Thinking from New York University, and has also been a research associate at Yale University. She has been a fellow of the World Business Academy, and The Kings Fund, England, and an advisor to The Fetzer Institute's Fellows. She also has been Associate Professor of Management at the Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University, and Cambridge College, Massachusetts.

Margaret experiments with the new ideas, processes, and structures that represent the future of organising. She has actively explored, through dialogues, seminars, and consulting, how organisations can develop and sustain their capacity, clarity and resilience in these turbulent times. In 2000, she initiated 'From the Four Directions: People Everywhere Leading the Way', a global leadership initiative that organises on-going circles of leaders in local communities across the world, and then connects these local circles into a global community of life-affirming leaders.

Margaret's ground-breaking book, 'Leadership and the New Science' was first published in 1992. This book is credited with establishing a fundamentally new approach to how we think about organisations. It has been translated into twelve languages and won many awards, including 'Best Management book of 1992' in Industry Week, Top Ten Business Books of the 1990s in CIO Magazine, and Top Ten Business Books of all time by Xerox Corporation.

An outstanding communicator and stimulating speaker, Margaret addresses the most critical questions in an increasingly volatile environment and is in great demand with major organisations across the globe.