James K. Sebenius | |
|---|---|
 1990 | |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Economist, academic |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Vanderbilt University (B.A.) Stanford University (M.E.) Harvard University (Ph.D.) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
James K. Sebenius is an American economist,currently the Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School as well as co-founder and partner of Lax Sebenius LLC,specializes in analyzing and advising corporations and governments worldwide on their most complex and challenging negotiations. [1]
Formerly on the faculty of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government,Sebenius also currently serves as vice-chair and as a member of the executive committee of the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School. [2] At PON,he chairs the university's annual Great Negotiator Award program,which has recognized negotiators such as Richard Holbrooke,Lakdhar Brahimi,George Mitchell,and Bruce Wasserstein. He also co-directs a project to extensively interview all former U.S. Secretaries of State—including James Baker,George Shultz,Henry Kissinger,Madeleine Albright,Colin Powell,Condoleezza Rice,and John Kerry—about their most challenging negotiations. [3]
Sebenius is the author or co-author or editor of five books including 3D Negotiation (Harvard Business School Press),The Manager as Negotiator (Free Press),Negotiating the Law of the Sea:Lessons in the Art and Science of Reaching Agreement (Harvard University Press,and recognized with the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award [4] ),and,most recently,Kissinger the Negotiator:Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level (HarperCollins). Together with these books,his published output includes more than 250 items including articles,case studies,and negotiation simulations. [5]
Most recently,his academic work has centered on the role of social media in shaping the theory and practice of negotiation. [6] In May 2020,he co-chaired a Program on Negotiation conference on AI,Technology,and Negotiation,where he presented a panel discussion on "The Potentially Critical Roles of Social Media in Negotiation." [7] In 2021,Sebenius published an article in the Negotiation Journal on "Dealmaking Disrupted:The Unexplored Power of Social Media in Negotiation", [8] and along with co-authors Ben Cook,David Lax and Paul Levy he published a Harvard Business Review article outlining a "Playbook for Negotiators in the Social Media Era." [9]
He holds a B.A.,summa cum laude,from Vanderbilt in mathematics,an M.S. from Stanford's Engineering School,and a Ph.D. in business economics from Harvard. He is married to Nancy Buck;their children are Zander,Alyza,and Isaac.
