Michael Marquardt

Michael Marquardt, Ed.D.

President and Chairman of the Board

Michael Marquardt is a Professor of Human Resource Development and International Affairs at George Washington University. In addition to being the Chairman of the WIAL Board of Directors, he is WIAL's President responsible for overseeing the worldwide development of action learning programs and coaches.

Mike received his doctorate in Human Resource Development from George Washington University and his Masters and Bachelor Degrees from Maryknoll College. Dr. Marquardt has also done graduate work at Harvard, Columbia and the University of Virginia.

Mike has held a number of senior management, training and marketing positions with organizations such as Grolier, American Society for Training and Development, Association Management Inc., Overseas Education Fund, TradeTec, and U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Dr. Marquardt has introduced action learning to thousands of leaders and hundreds of organizations around the world since 1995, including Marriott, DuPont, Alcoa, Boeing, Caterpillar, United Nations Development Program, US Department of Agriculture, IBM, Nokia, Constellation, Samsung, Hong Kong Transit and Siemens as well as the government agencies in Singapore, Mauritius, Japan, Canada, Qatar, China, Korea, and Brazil.

Dr. Marquardt's achievements and leadership have been recognized though numerous awards including the International Practitioner of the Year Award from the American Society for Training and Development. He presently serves as a Senior Advisor for the United Nations Staff College in the areas of policy, technology, and learning systems. Mike is a Fellow of the National Academy for Human Resource Development and a co-founder of the Asian Learning Organization Network. The International Management Centre at Oxford, England recently awarded him an honorary Ph.D. for his work and writings in the field of action learning.

Dr. Marquardt also served as the Editor of the UNESCO Encyclopedia volume on Human Resources. He has been a keynote speaker at international conferences in Australia, Japan, England, Philippines, Malaysia, South Africa, Sweden, Singapore, and India as well as throughout North America. Mike is the author of 18 books and over 90 professional articles in the fields of leadership, learning, globalization and organizational change including:

  • Marquardt, M. (2006). "Leading with Questions." Leadership Excellence.
  • Marquardt, M. (2006). "Action Learning." In Experiential Handbook (Mel Silverman, ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Marquardt, M (2005). Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by Knowing What to Ask. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Marquardt, M. (2004). Optimizing the Power of Action Learning. Palo Alto: Davies-Black Press (Also translated and published in Japanese, Thai, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, and Korean)
    (selected as Book of the Year by the Academy of HRD
  • Marquardt, M. (2004). Harnessing The Power of Action Learning. T+D, 8 (6), 26-32.
  • Marquardt M. (2003). Developing Global Leaders via Action Learning Programs: A Case Study at Boeing. Thai Journal of Public Administration, vol. 3, no. 3, 133-157.
  • Marquardt, M. (2003) Learning to Think and Lead Globally at Boeing - Developing Global Leaders via Action Learning Programs. Proceedings of the Academy of HRD, Minneapolis, 2003.
  • Marquardt, M. (2001) "Action Learning" in Performance Intervention Maps. Alexandria: ASTD Press.
  • Marquardt, M. (2001) "Action Learning: The Cornerstone for Building a Learning Organization" in Fuhrungsstarke oder Charisma. Frankfurt: Peter Lang Press.
  • Marquardt, M. (2000). "Action Learning and Leadership." The Learning Organization, vol.7, no. 5, 233-240.
  • Marquardt, M. (1999) "Action Learning." in The Resource Guide to Performance Interventions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Marquardt, M. (1999) Action Learning in Action: Transforming Problems and People for World-Class Organizational Learning. Palo Alto: Davies-Black Press.
  • Marquardt, M. (1998) "Using Action Learning with Multicultural Groups." Performance Improvement Quarterly. Vol. 11, No. 1, 112-127.