Dr. Aaron Shenhar
New Jersey, USA
Professor of Project and Technology Management, Chairman and Founder, Technological Leadership Institute, SPLWIN Group, Dr. Shenhar is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in project management, innovation, and leadership. He holds five academic degrees in engineering and management, including three degrees from Stanford University and two from the Technion in Israel.
He has been named, “Engineering Manager of the Year,” by the Engineering Management Society of IEEE. He was the first recipient of the Project Management Institute (PMI) Research Achievement Award as well as the recent International Project Management Association (IPMA) Research Achievement Award. Dr. Shenhar was also awarded a PMI Fellow Award and is a Fellow of the NASA Science Council of Project Management Research.
Dr. Shenhar is also an experienced manager and executive. He served in the Israeli Navy, before joining the defense industry, where he has been involved in managing projects, innovation, R&D, and high-tech businesses for almost 20 years. Working for Rafael, Advanced Defense Systems, he participated in all phases of engineering and management — from project manager up through the highest executive posts. As executive, he served as Corporate Vice President, Human Resources, and later, President of the Electronic Systems Division.
In his second career of over 20 years in academia, he was a tenured professor, serving at several universities where he founded new programs in Project and Technology Management, among them Stevens Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, University of Minnesota, and Tel-Aviv University. Dr. Shenhar’s research has focused on project and program management, technology and innovation management and leadership of professionals in technology-based organizations. Based on his extensive research, he developed the methods of Strategic Project Leadership(R) and the “Diamond of Innovation,” which teach corporations how to focus projects and innovations on business results and adapt their management processes to the specific goal and context.
With six books and over 150 publications, which were cited more than 5000 times and published in leading journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, Sloan Management Review, Research Policy, or IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, his writings have influenced project and technology management research and education around the world. His publications are highly regarded and used in the curriculum of a growing number of corporations and universities.
He served as consultant to major corporations such as 3M, Honeywell, AT&T, Trane, Dow Jones & Co., US Army, NASA, NSA, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Tata Industries, and Israel Aerospace Industry.
In 1993 he led a team of 30 researchers in an industry-wide study involving most defense development programs in Israel, and resulting in recommendations to the defense department on how to overhaul the industry and the department’s acquisition and program management processes. In 2005 he led a large NASA study building a NASA-specific program management framework. Dr. Shenhar has also developed the framework used by the Aerospace Industry Program Excellence Award and is member of Aviation Week’s annual evaluation team. Now in his third career, Dr. Shenhar is the founder of TLI, and SPLWIN, education and consulting groups, dedicated to aligning projects and innovation with business.
He is co-author of the recent book, Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach to Successful Growth and Innovation, Harvard Business School Press. The book was selected among the top five best business books of the year.
Profile created 7 November 2020
