Jen Stine

A former Harvard Business School case writer, Jen’s specialty is coaching “wicked-smart” leaders wrestling with rapid growth, complex team dynamics, and/or new opportunities for leadership in their organizations. She works primarily with teams seeking to adopt authentic and effective leadership behaviors, develop strategic plans, and/or embed best practices across their organizations. She also conducts broad leadership assessments.

In her career (and now with her clients), Jen bridges academics and action. Her training includes over a decade of research and case writing at Harvard, where in addition to working in the MBA program for two years, she developed two cutting-edge executive programs seeking to close the gap between leadership scholarship and practice: the Leadership Initiative (LI) and the Public Education Leadership Project (PELP). While at Harvard, Jen had the opportunity to write more than 20 case studies, including a three-year series describing the challenges of leading the Long Beach Unified School District, while Jen was a founding member of the PELP research team.

As a Partner at Paradox Strategies from 2015-2019, Jen worked closely with HBS Professor Linda Hill and former Pixar CTO Greg Brandeau to develop leaders of innovation. At Paradox, Jen developed a proprietary assessment of organizational culture and capabilities based on Hill’s bestselling book: Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation and directed the analysis of innovation potential at over 50 organizations around the globe. Linda, Greg, and Jen are writing an article for the Harvard Business Review to share their findings.

Jen herself holds leadership roles and knows from experience that leadership is easier said than done. From 2008-2011, Jen directed organization planning and development for Root Capital, a nonprofit social investment fund, where she designed and managed performance management and strategic planning, as well as HR and IT.

Jen has also led wilderness expeditions, recruited executives, studied investment bankers, taught middle schoolers, launched new programs, cycled across the country, and co-authored a strengths-based assessment of nonprofit leadership. Jen is the proud parent of two insatiably curious children, who keep her on her toes and ensures she remains humble. She is a long-time student of Iyengar yoga and seeks to bring both practical wisdom and lifelong learning into all her engagements.