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Robert Wilkinson Photo
Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Leadership
Contact:
Assistant: Stacy Hannell
617-496-1477

Robert Wilkinson is a Senior Lecturer on Public Policy and Leadership, where he teaches courses on negotiation and leadership at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 2023, he won the Harvard Kennedy School Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching.  

Rob has more than 30 years of experience, in over 50 countries, across the public, private and not-profit sectors. He successfully supports numerous Fortune 500 companies, international agencies, and non-profit organizations, to help them build their negotiation, leadership and team management skills, and to increase their overall effectiveness.

Non-profit and public sector clients include the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), CDC, World Wildlife Fund, National Urban League, US Postal Service, CARE International, Ascentria Fostering Agency, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the White House, where he trained over 1,500 Presidential Appointees in negotiation, management and leadership.

Corporate clients include companies such as Deloitte, Moderna, IBM, Merck, Fidelity Investments, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Walmart and many others.

Previously, Rob worked overseas for 15 years, on a variety of international projects. This included spending three years in Rwanda working with Hutu and Tutsi communities, two years working with the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Angola, and 18 months in Laos, consulting on a variety of community development programs. Rob also led a 2-year Security Sector Reform project in Burundi, bringing together government and rebel forces to support the formation of a unified military and police force.  He began his overseas work in Nicaragua, in both Sandinista and Contra areas. 

Rob earned his Masters of Science (MS) from Stanford University, and Bachelors of Science (BS) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

His latest publications provide a new Leadership Development Framework, called the 4P Framework for Strategic Leadership: more details can be found here:   https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3689291https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/research-and-resources/keeping-your-eyes-on-the-horizon-the-four-ps-framework-for-strategic-leadership

Executive Education Programs

Transparent Engagement 

Harvard Kennedy School is proud of its energetic involvement in the world. To better understand how to solve public problems by improving policy and leadership, we engage directly with policymakers, public leaders, governments, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses whose activities affect those problems. However, we recognize that such engagement can raise questions about perceived and potential conflicts of interest, so we disclose publicly the key professional activities of our faculty outside the Kennedy School. The activities disclosed below are for the most recent reporting period, as defined by University policy. Some may be paid, some may be unpaid, and others may be in exchange for expense reimbursement only.

Outside Professional Activities For Robert Wilkinson

Organization Relationship
Lockheed Martin Corporation Speaking engagement, invited lecture, or presentation
Vantage Parters Consulting
LEADx Speaking engagement, invited lecture, or presentation
Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Speaking engagement, invited lecture, or presentation

Contact

Assistant: Stacy Hannell

Mailing Address

Harvard Kennedy School
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138