Anthony Mayo

Thomas S. Murphy Senior Lecturer of Business Administration and C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator
Harvard Business School

Tony Mayo is the Thomas S. Murphy Senior Lecturer of Business Administration and C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator in the Organizational Behavior Unit of Harvard Business School (HBS).  He currently teaches Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LEAD) and Authentic Leader Development in the MBA Program.  He also serves as the course head for LEAD.  Tony recently co-created two HBS Online courses, Leadership Principles, which helps new and aspiring leaders unleash the potential in themselves and others, and Organizational Leadership, which equips experienced team leaders and aspiring executives with the skills, strategies, and tools to rise to expanded leadership responsibilities and guide their organizations effectively. Previously, he was the course head of FIELD, Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development, an experiential, field-based course focused on leadership, globalization, and integration.  Prior to his work on FIELD, he co-created and taught the elective course, “Great Business Leaders:  The Importance of Contextual Intelligence.”  In addition, Tony teaches extensively in leadership-based executive education programs.

He is a co-editor of the edited volume, Race, Work, and Leadership:  New Perspectives on the Black Experience (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019) for which he also co-authored three chapters including “Pathways to Leadership:  Black Graduates of Harvard Business School” (see www.raceworkleadership.com).   Race, Work and Leadership received the Gold Medal Award for the best book on Women and Minorities in Business by Axiom in 2020.  In addition, Tony co-authored the textbook Management, which features a new approach for teaching the core principles of management course to undergraduate students based on the integration and dynamic interaction of strategic management, organizational design, and individual leadership.  His previous co-authored works include In Their Time:  The Greatest Business Leaders of the 20th Century, which has been translated into 6 languages, Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership, and Entrepreneurs, Managers and Leaders:  What the Airline Industry Can Teach Us About Leadership.  These three books were derived from the development of the Great American Business Leaders database that Dean Nitin Nohria and Tony created (see https://www.hbs.edu/leadership/Pages/default.aspx).

Tony served as the Director of the Leadership Initiative from 2002 to 2018, and in this capacity, he oversaw several comprehensive research projects and managed a number of executive education programs.  He was a co-creator of the High Potentials Leadership, Leadership for Senior Executives, Maximizing Your Leadership Potential, and Leadership Best Practices programs and has been a principal contributor to a number of custom leadership development initiatives.  He currently serves at the Faculty Chair of the Leadership for Senior Executives program.  As part of his work in executive education, he launched the executive coaching component for the Program for Leadership Development.

Prior to his current role, Tony pursued a career in database marketing where he held senior general management positions at advertising agency – Hill Holliday, database management firm – Epsilon, and full-service direct marketing company – DIMAC Marketing Corporation.  At Epsilon, he served as Acting Chief Executive Officer where he had full responsibility for the delivery and management of strategic and database marketing services for Fortune 1000 companies and national not-for-profit organizations.  He also held senior management positions in Epsilon’s sales and account management departments. 

Tony completed his MBA from Harvard Business School and received his Bachelor’s Degree, summa cum laude, from Boston College.