About
Bruce Kogut serves as the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School, where he teaches Governance, Business Strategies for Social Problems, and related courses. As Academic Director of BAID and a Hub Faculty member, he leads initiatives bridging business and societal challenges through executive education across the US, Europe, and China.
His academic foundation includes:
- BA from University of California, Berkeley (1975)
- MIA from Columbia University (1978)
- PhD from MIT Sloan School of Management (1983)
- Honorary doctorate from Stockholm School of Economics
Professor Kogut's research integrates Globalization, Leadership & Organizational Behavior, and Strategy with cutting-edge work in Corporate Governance and Social Capital Markets. He pioneers machine learning applications for social problem-solving, exemplified by studies on gender-mandated board quotas, microfinance productivity, and human-AI collaboration in autonomous systems. His influential books The Small Worlds of Corporate Governance (MIT Press, 2012) and Knowledge, Options, and Institutions (Oxford University Press, 2008) establish foundational frameworks in the field.
Recent scholarly output reveals three dominant trends: 1) Corporate governance reforms (gender quotas, executive compensation structures), 2) Organizational evolvability in complex systems (memory, Red Queen dynamics), and 3) Network analysis of venture capital syndication and policy diffusion. These intersect with his machine learning research to address social inequities through data-driven governance models.
His scientific recognition includes:
- Honorary Doctorate from Stockholm School of Economics
- Karl Deutsch Professorship at Science Center Berlin
- Fellowship at Berlin's Institute of Advanced Study (2012-2013)
Professor Kogut has directed Wharton's strategy research centers, founded INSEAD's social entrepreneurship program, and co-directed Cambridge University's Ariane de Rothschild Fellows Program fostering Jewish-Muslim dialogue. Current projects include IFMR Chennai's microfinance productivity study and NervTech/University of Ljubljana collaborations on autonomous vehicle simulators. He advises the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's chief economist and serves on academic boards for Institut Polytechnique de Paris and Columbia's Global Center in Paris.
His leadership extends to Columbia's Hub think tank tackling societal challenges, with ongoing work on machine-human learning video games and revolutionary governance models detailed in his forthcoming book Power and Governance in Revolutionary Times.
