BERNIE BANKS
Executive Director

About Bernie Banks
Bernie Banks is a noted expert on leadership and organizational change, a sought-after speaker and an Army veteran. Banks comes to Rice from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he serves as associate dean for leadership development and inclusion and clinical professor of management and organizations. He is accountable for leader development integration across the school’s global portfolio of programs and for its community experience initiatives.

Banks retired from the Army as a brigadier general in 2016 after leading the U.S. Military Academy at West Point’s Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. While at West Point, Banks also directed its Eisenhower Leaders Development Program, which offers officers — primarily captains and majors who have been commanders in military organizations around the globe — the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in social-organizational psychology through Columbia University.

He serves as an independent director for several public and private companies. He is also a member of the original cohort of world-renowned executive coach Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches project. Furthermore, Banks is a member of the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Organization Development Network, among other professional affiliations.

Banks earned his Ph.D. and Master of Philosophy in social-organizational psychology from Columbia University. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and York University’s Schulich School of Business, an executive diploma from Harvard Business School, a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University, a Master of Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, and a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

About The Doerr Institute for New Leaders
The Doerr Institute for New Leaders is a large-scale and globally recognized leader development enterprise at Rice University. The mission of the Institute is to elevate the leadership capacity of Rice students across the university and to improve the practice of leadership education and development in higher education. 

For more information, please see The Doerr Institute's press release.