Susan Annunzio has taught management and leadership courses at Chicago Booth since 1999. Her focus as an educator and President and CEO of The Center of High Performance, is to work with top-tier executive teams to increase collaboration and creativity on highly strategic, complex decisions inhibiting the company’s ability to be competitive.
Ms. Annunzio is a former adjunct professor at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she currently teaches one of the most popular Executive Education programs: High Performance Leadership. She has also been a guest lecturer at INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France, and has taught at General Electric’s Crotonville Corporate Training Center.
Previously, Susan ran the research-based high performance consulting subsidiary of Hudson Highland Group, Inc., a leading international professional staffing and talent management solutions company.
Under her direction, the Hudson Highland Group completed the most comprehensive global study of knowledge workers ever conducted on the factors that accelerate or stifle high performance. Susan has presented on this study internationally at such prestigious venues as the World Economic Forum, The International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change at the University of Greenwich, and Vacature’s 2004 “Talent Economy” launch event in Belgium.
She is also author of Contagious Success (Portfolio, 2004), a dynamic management book which revealed a global standard for high-performing workgroups that can be replicated in any organization. Contagious Success was voted Fast Company’s Readers’ Choice selection in January 2005.
Additionally, Susan authored two more prominent business books: Communicoding (Fine, 1990; Penguin USA, 1991) and Evolutionary Leadership (Simon & Schuster, 2001; Fireside, 2002). She has been a guest on numerous local and national television and radio news programs and has been quoted extensively in the business press, including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, BBC, USA Today, and Bloomberg.
As head of the global Change Management practice at Nextera, a specialized, niche-consulting firm, Susan and her team won numerous industry awards in recognition of the practice’s pioneering work with Fortune 100 companies crossing all industry sectors, including: BP, Pfizer, ABN AMRO, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Amazon.com. The awards included the Dalton Pen Award of Excellence, the CIPRA Award of Excellence, the Telly Award, and the Publicity Club of Chicago Silver Trumpet.
As a partner at the Marsten Institute of Chicago, Susan grew annual revenues by 200% in five years working with clients such as Amoco, Ernst & Young, and the John F. Kennedy Healthcare Foundation.
Susan is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, the University of Chicago Women’s Business Group, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Alumni Club. She is also an active volunteer and advisor at the Metropolitan YWCA of Chicago and The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii.
