Francis Flynn, PhD

Dr. Flynn is the Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational, Behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He teaches the core MBA course on leadership and directs custom executive education programs for companies like Colgate-Palmolive, Flex, Genentech, Ingram Micro, and PG&E. A winner of multiple teaching awards, Professor Flynn’s courses focus on developing both senior executives and high-potential managers. His research addresses the challenges that confront today’s leaders—fostering collaboration and leading teams to achieve outstanding results.

Professor Flynn received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the University of California, Berkeley. His scholarly work focuses on the topics of employee cooperation, work group dynamics, and leadership in organizations. Recent articles by Professor Flynn have appeared in Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Psychological Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, the discipline’s top research outlets.

Prior to his academic career, Professor Flynn worked for the Department of Commerce in the International Trade Administration, and the Institute for Business and Economic Development. In addition to his academic pursuits, he provides consulting and speaking services to firms that are interested in improving their employees’ leadership skills. His clients include Apple, AQR, Baidu, Bank of America, Barclays, Blackrock, BCG, Box, Capital, Caterpillar, Cisco, Colgate Palmolive, Credit Suisse, Dropbox, Facebook, Fanatics, Fidelity, Flextronics, Genentech, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, Hewlett-Packard, HSBC, Impossible Foods, Ingram Micro, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, JLL, Kaiser, Kaszek Ventures, LAM Research, LinkedIn, Logitech, McKinsey, Medtronic, Mercado Libre, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, MobileIron, Morgan Stanley, NFL, NHL, Oliver Wyman, Pacific Bell, Partner Fund, Pinterest, Postmates, Prudential, Roche, SanDisk, SK, Standard & Poor’s, State Farm, Symantec, Synopsys, Texas Pacific Group (TPG), Twitter, Two Sigma, Udacity, US Navy, YPO, Yammer, Yelp, and Yahoo!.

Professor Flynn teaches the core MBA Leadership course and two elective courses entitled Executive Leadership and Managerial Communication. These courses teach high potential managers how to lead others by relying on interpersonal influence and decision-making savvy. The programs he teaches in Executive Education focus on developing critical leadership skills at all organizational levels.

Frank is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He lives in Palo Alto with his wife, Christina, and his three sons, Colin, Jack, and Aiden.