Biography

Michael Grojean joins the faculty of the Haslam College of Business as a Professor of Practice in Leadership for Executive Education and the Executive MBA programs, while also serving as Director of the Executive MBA in Strategic Leadership. In addition to this, he continues to engage organizational clients through Grojean Kirst Associates, LLC., a consultancy company specializing in the focus areas of Leadership, Strategy and Talent.

He has previously served on the faculty at Rice University as Professor in the Practice of Management and Executive Director, leading Executive Education as well as delivering programs in both ExecEd and the Professional/ Executive MBAs. Prior to joining Rice, Grojean was a member of the faculty at Aston Business School in the United Kingdom where he served as Associate Professor of Management, Head of Executive Education and Associate Dean for Corporate Activities and Partnerships.

Additionally, Grojean’s broad experience base includes 23 years of military service (enlisted and commissioned) culminating as member of the Leadership Faculty at West Point, the Chief of Human Resources for a 28,000 member organization, and finally as the Head of Leadership Policy for the U.S Army. Of note, as the Leadership Policy Officer, he was responsible for developing, coordinating and implementing leadership and leader development policy and doctrine for the 1.4 million person active and reserve force in the U.S. Army. In this role, he also authored the Army’s mentorship doctrine, critically changing the organizational paradigm of developmental relationships.

Grojean has worked with national and international organizations as they have undergone significant change. With the accession into the European Union creating challenges for the medical community, he was invited by the Minister of Health of Malta to facilitate transformation and change leadership for Hospital CEOs and National Health Directors. Grojean has also advised on strategy development designed to enhance the drug development pipeline for a leading international Pharmaceutical company. He served on the Archimedes team responsible for accrediting the Estonian National Defense College, as well as consulting for organizations such as NATO, the UK Ministry of Defense, U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Sandia National Laboratories, British Petroleum, Land Rover/ Jaguar, Jacobs Engineering, National Oilwell Varco, Eli Lilly, General Electric, Chicago Bridge & Iron, Baker Hughes International, LyondellBasell, Saudi Aramco and the City of Houston.

Grojean’s interests and expertise lie in the intersection between organizational change, strategy and leadership. His research has been published in British Journal of Management, The Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Human Performance, Leadership Quarterly, the Journal of Business Ethics and The Reader’s Guide to the Social Sciences, as well as numerous confidential internal organizational reports and publications. In addition to the publications noted above, Grojean has made media appearances in the Guardian, the Scotsman, The Pat Kenny Show, RTE Radio, the Birmingham Post, Newstalk Ireland and BBC Radio. He holds memberships in the American Psychological Society, Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology, British Academy of Management, Society of Human Resource Management, International Leadership Association and Center for Advancement of Research Methods Analysis.

Executive MBA

As Professor of Practice in Leadership, Mike Grojean helps seasoned leaders build the enterprise-level strategic thinking needed to navigate complex organizational change.

With 23 years of military service, including roles on the Leadership Faculty at West Point and as the Army’s Head of Leadership Policy, Grojean brings a practitioner’s depth to his study of organizational agility, strategy, and change. His consulting work spans national and international organizations, from NATO and the UK Ministry of Defense to global companies including Land Rover / Jaguar, General Electric, and AstraZeneca. His teaching is grounded in the real challenges today’s executives face, and he equips his students to lead their organizations through complex change with clarity and strategic judgment.