Michael Grojean joins the faculty of the Haslam College of Business as an Adjunct in Strategic Leadership for Executive Education and the Executive MBA programs, while also serving as Director of the Executive MBA in Strategic Leadership. In addition, he continues to engage organizational clients through Grojean Kirst Associates, LLC., a consultancy company specializing in the focus areas of Leadership, Strategy and Talent.
He has previously served on the faculty at Rice University as Professor in the Practice of Management and Executive Director, leading Executive Education as well as delivering programs in both ExecEd and the Professional/Executive MBAs. Prior to joining Rice, Grojean was a member of the faculty at Aston Business School in the United Kingdom, where he served as Associate Professor of Management, Head of Executive Education, and Associate Dean for Corporate Activities and Partnerships.
Additionally, Grojean’s broad experience base includes 23 years of military service (enlisted and commissioned) culminating as a member of the Leadership Faculty at West Point, the Chief of Human Resources for a 28,000 member organization, and finally, as the Head of Leadership Policy for the U.S Army. As the Leadership Policy Officer, he was responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing leadership and leader development policy and doctrine for the 1.4 million person active and reserve force in the U.S. Army. In this role, he also authored the Army’s mentorship doctrine, critically changing the organizational paradigm of developmental relationships.
Grojean has worked with national and international organizations as they have undergone significant change. With the accession into the European Union creating challenges for the medical community, he was invited by the Minister of Health of Malta to facilitate transformation and change leadership for Hospital CEOs and National Health Directors. Grojean has also advised on strategy development designed to enhance the drug development pipeline for a leading international pharmaceutical company. He served on the Archimedes team responsible for accrediting the Estonian National Defense College, as well as consulting for organizations such as NATO, the UK Ministry of Defense, US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Sandia National Laboratories, British Petroleum, Land Rover/Jaguar, Jacobs Engineering, National Oilwell Varco, Eli Lilly, General Electric, Chicago Bridge & Iron, Baker Hughes International, LyondellBasell, Saudi Aramco and the City of Houston.
Grojean’s interests and expertise lie in the intersection between organizational change, strategy and leadership. His research has been published in British Journal of Management, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Human Performance, Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics and Reader’s Guide to the Social Sciences, as well as numerous confidential internal organizational reports and publications. In addition to the publications noted above, Grojean has made media appearances in the Guardian, the Scotsman, The Pat Kenny Show, RTE Radio, the Birmingham Post, Newstalk Ireland, and BBC Radio. He holds memberships in the American Psychological Society, Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology, British Academy of Management, Society of Human Resource Management, International Leadership Association, and Center for Advancement of Research Methods Analysis.