Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business Dean Offers Executives Insights into Transformational Leadership
Georgetown University Qatar (GU-Q) recently organized a luncheon seminar by Dr. David A. Thomas, Dean and William R. Berkeley Chair of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in Washington, D.C. Dr. Thomas presented his “Five Insights on Leadership” to a select group of CEOs, government officials, and special guests that included the head of Doha Bank, Dr. R Seetharaman, and Qatar’s Minister of Communication and Information, Her Excellency Dr. Hessa Al Jaber.
The event, the first in a series of lectures GU-Q has planned for the benefit of the business community, was hosted by Doha Bank at their West Bay headquarters, and allowed the visiting dean, a thought leader in organizational behavior and strategic human resource management, a chance to share his extensive experience on issues related to leadership development and organizational transformation with the attending industry leaders.
“The Qatari economy has been developing rapidly in recent years to establish knowledge based industries and reduce the country’s reliance on the energy sector – a key element of the 2030 Vision. This presents both Qatari and multinational organizations with significant organizational and cultural challenges,” said the dean of Georgetown McDonough, a business school that was recently recognized by The Financial Times for their world-class custom programs. The Financial Times ranked its global Executive Custom Programs #2 in the United States for the percentage of clients with headquarters outside their base country, #3 in the United States for their international reach in delivery of custom programs globally, and #5 in the world for their range of international clients. “I greatly appreciated hearing the valuable opinions of various business leaders attending my presentation, and I hope my insights into transformational leadership will serve as a useful guide for those leaders when tackling the exciting challenges that lay ahead,” said Dr. Thomas.
A prolific author on the subject, Dr. Thomas shared five prime insights as the framework for discussing the process of creating and strengthening a culture of effective leadership within an organization. These included identifying, mentoring, and advancing future leaders early in their careers, understanding the functional difference between leadership and management in mobilizing leaders, the importance of critical self-awareness, the characteristics of transformational leaders, and organizational transformation through the efficient achievement of internal development goals.
“Dean Thomas did a fantastic job of distilling what I’m sure is many hundreds of pages of academic papers that he’s written into five insights that he could share with business leaders in a short event,” said Rob Sherwin, Deputy Country Chairman for Shell in Qatar, who attended the seminar. “Qatar Shell is actually this week in the middle of our own people development. We are really focusing on how to make sure that every single employee gets that development to reach their potential. So it was very interesting to hear the external validation that it’s this early career that really matters.”
Mr. Sherwin, who also welcomed the opportunity to engage with the internationally ranked business school, commented, “We of course know Georgetown through the School of Foreign Service here in Qatar, and through the graduates that we recruit from there, so for me, it was interesting to hear from the dean of the school of business because that’s not represented on a daily basis in Qatar.”
Susan Bastress, Managing Partner at the law firm Patton Boggs, the first U.S. law office licensed to practice in Qatar, said, “This was an excellent presentation. I’ve been practicing law for over 30 years, and I’m very interested in what makes effective leaders and keenly focused on supporting diversity in organizations – both in management and on their boards.”
Following the presentation, Georgetown University Qatar (GU-Q) presented Doha Bank with a token of gratitude for their continued support and dedication to education and human development. In addition to this lunch presentation, Dean David Thomas and his colleagues from Georgetown McDonough met with several of the university’s key corporate partners, as well as alumni living and working in the region.