Nancy Tennant

Dr. Nancy Tennant is an Adjunct Professor of Leadership at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an instructor at the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business. As CEO of Innovation Universe® and a best-selling author, she pioneers enterprise strategies for innovation and leadership transformation. Businessweek named her one of the world's 25 Innovation Champions, and she frequently addresses global audiences including NASA, Harvard University, and international innovation forums.

Her educational background includes:

• Bachelor of Sociology, West Virginia University
• Master of Industrial Relations, West Virginia University
• Doctorate in Organizational Behavior/Human Resource Development, George Washington University (Dissertation: "Global Integrating Mechanisms and Global Dominant Logic: Managers' Perceptions of Global Integration")

Tennant's research fundamentally reshapes how organizations embed innovation as a core competency. Her work bridges theoretical frameworks with practical implementation, emphasizing leadership agility during career transitions and the creation of enterprise-wide innovation ecosystems. She specializes in transforming corporate culture to enable "innovation from everywhere and everyone," with methodologies applicable across global and virtual team environments.

Her publication history reveals consistent focus on innovation strategy evolution over 25+ years, progressing from foundational virtual team management to comprehensive corporate transformation frameworks. Recent works analyze practical implementation of innovation universes within established organizations, while earlier research established critical links between global integration mechanisms and organizational learning in multinational contexts.

Her accolades include:

• Businessweek's 25 Innovation Champions

Through co-founding Notre Dame's Certified Innovation Mentor and I-Mentor Boot Camp Programs, Tennant has created structured pathways for developing innovation leadership capabilities. Her consulting engagements with Fortune 500 companies translate academic research into actionable business transformation strategies, particularly in organizational change management and cross-cultural innovation implementation.

As CEO of Innovation Universe®, she leads a global consultancy transforming corporate innovation capabilities, building on her two-decade tenure as Vice President Emerita of Innovation and Leadership at Whirlpool Corporation where she reported directly to multiple CEOs.