Titles

• Senior Global Futures Scholar, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory
• Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Global Management, Thunderbird School of Global Management

Biography

Tom Hunsaker is among the faculty of the world’s leading global management school, Thunderbird School of Global Management (a unit of Arizona State University), where he has taught in the areas of competitive and global strategy, interpersonal management, organizational consulting, and performance leadership and is multiple recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award as top professor. As Thunderbird's Associate Dean for Innovation Tom works closely with Executive Education and Thunderbird for Good and leads select academic initiatives. As Academic Director for Applied Learning (including the Thunderbird Emerging Market Laboratory (TEMLab), (GCL) Global Consulting Laboratory, and Consulting Practicum) he has mentored strategic consulting engagements in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. To emphasize the benefits of well-executed applied learning, Tom coined the phrase “Social Proof of Mastery” which now permeates learning efforts globally.

Professor Hunsaker has authored prominent work in innovation management, behavioral strategy, performance leadership, and higher education. He is co-author of the Bridger™ model, originally published in Harvard Business Review, which highlights how people best scout and win adoption for innovative ideas. His other noted work includes Mindset Positioning™, which describes why similarly talented people get dramatically different results from the same activities - and what to do about it.

Hunsaker’s work has appeared in practitioner and scholarly outlets including Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, Business & Economy, Research in Higher Education, Learning in Higher Education, Thunderbird Case Series, BizEd and on Businessweek and Bloomberg, among others.

Tom enjoys extensive global experience. He has helped to influence strategy for enterprises (from Fortune 500 to start-up and the social and public sectors) operating in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. As a trainer and speaker he has addressed audiences on four continents in diverse sectors, including: consumer goods, energy, financial, healthcare, biotech, manufacturing, food systems, productivity tech, and telecom.

Education

• PhD, Sociology of Complex Organizations, University of New Mexico
• MBA, Business Administration, University of New Mexico
• MA, Latin American Studies, University of New Mexico
• BA, International Studies, Brigham Young University

Expertise

• emerging market development
• innovation and entrepreneurship
• applied learning
• Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure