David Cooperrider, Ph.D.
Weatherhead School of Management
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH, USA
Email: david.cooperrider@case.edu
Websites:
www.davidcooperrider.com
Weatherhead School of Management Faculty page
David L. Cooperrider, Ph.D. is one of the co-founders of the Taos Institute, where the first Appreciative Inquiry workshops were given by him and Diana Whitney. He holds the title of “Distinguished University Professor” and is the Covia – David L. Cooperrider Professor of Appreciative Inquiry at Case Western Reserve University, where he is the faculty founder of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. He is Honorary Chairman of Champlain College’s David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at the Robert P. Stiller School of Business.
David is best known for his original theoretical articulation of “AI” or Appreciative Inquiry with his mentor Suresh Srivastva. Today AI’s approach to strengths-inspired, instead of problematizing change, is being practiced everywhere: the corporate world, the world of public service, of economics, of education, of faith, of philanthropy, and social science scholarship-it is affecting them all. Jane Nelson, at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Leadership recently wrote “David Cooperrider is one of the outstanding scholar-practitioners of our generation.”
David is past Chair of the National Academy of Management’s OD Division and has lectured and taught at Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Katholieke University in Belgium, MIT, University of Michigan, Cambridge and others. Dr. Cooperrider is founder and Chair of the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. The center’s core proposition is that sustainability is the business opportunity of the 21st century, indeed that every social and global issue of our day is an opportunity to ignite industry leading eco-innovation, social entrepreneurship, and new sources of value.
David has served as advisor to prominent leaders in business and society, including projects with five Presidents and/or Nobel Laureates such as William Jefferson Clinton, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan, and Jimmy Carter. David advises a wide variety of corporations including Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Keurig Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Verizon, Hunter Douglas, Cleveland Clinic, National Grid, Smuckers, Clarke, Fairmount Minerals, McKinsey, Parker, Dealer Tire, Webasto, and Wal-Mart as well as the Navy, Red Cross, United Way of America, USAID, United Nations, the UN Global Compact, and hundreds of international private voluntary organizations (the GEM project.) David is also a founding Board Member of the International Association of Positive Psychology, the Taos Institute, and a Fellow of the World Business Academy and International Academy of Management. Early in the growth of the UN’s Global Compact David was called upon by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to facilitate (using Appreciative Inquiry) the largest summit in history between business CEOs and leaders of government and civil society. It was one of the high point moments in David’s career and shifted the focus of his work to the discovery and design of positive institutions and a world of full-spectrum flourishing, that is “a world where businesses can excel, all people can thrive, and nature can flourish now and across the generations.”
David has published 25 books and authored over 100 articles and book chapters. He has served as editor of both the Journal of Corporate Citizenship with Ron Fry and the current academic research 4-volume series on Advances for Appreciative Inquiry, with Michel Avital. In 2010 David was honored with the Peter F. Drucker Distinguished Fellow award. David’s books include Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change (with Diana Whitney); The Organization Dimensions of Global Change (with Jane Dutton); Handbook of Transformative Cooperation (Stanford Press) Organizational Courage and Executive Wisdom (with Suresh Srivastva); and The Strengths-based Leadership Handbook (with Brun & Ejsing.) David’s work has received numerous awards including Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning by ASTD; the Porter Award for Best writing in the field of Organization Development and the Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award in the domain of Sustainable Development. In 2016 David was named as one of the nation’s top thought leaders by Trust Across America, and honored as one of “AACSB’s Most Influential Leaders in the Field of Management.” He was recently named Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University.
In perhaps the highest recognition of his thought leadership, Champlain College’s Stiller School of Business honored David’s impact with an academic center in his name. Opened in 2014 it is called the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry, and David serves as its Honorary Chair. For the center’s dedication Professor Marty Seligman, the father of the positive psychology movement wrote: “David Cooperrider is a giant: a giant of discovery, a giant of dissemination, and a giant of generosity.” Likewise, Jane Dutton, University of Michigan thought leader and former President of the Academy of Management said:
“David Cooperrider is changing the world with his ideas and who he is as a person. There are few who combine such insight, inspiration and energy.”
David is the founder of the Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit—it was launched in partnership with the UN Global Compact and with the Academy of Management. David’s latest book, co-authored with Audrey Selian and others, is called The Business of Building a Better World: The Leadership Revolution That is Changing Everything. His most recent appearance at a Taos Institute event was during a global opening session of the Taos 2022 Gathering for a conversation with Ken Gergen and Sheila McNamee: An Important Climate Conversation. For more information about Appreciative Inquiry, visit our Resources page.
David L. Cooperrider, Ph.D., Resources
Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry
Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
Appreciative Inquiry resources
Manuscripts:
- A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry
- Creating a Forum Where Leaders of the World’s Religions Can Gather in Mutual Respect and Dialogue
- Social Construction and Appreciative Inquiry: A Journey in Organizational Theory
- The Positive Arc of Systemic Strengths: How Appreciative Inquiry and Sustainable Designing Can Bring