Skip to main content

DEFINING MOMENTS

What Leadership Requires When the Rules are Changing

Leadership is easiest when conditions are stable. It is tested when markets shift, trust weakens, technology disrupts, and old assumptions no longer hold.
Mark Kennedy has led through defining moments across business, government, higher education, and global strategy. He helped navigate a major corporate reorganization in the private sector, served in Congress during the years following 9/11, led public universities through financial pressure and political tension, and guided institutions through the disruption of COVID. Today, his work focuses on how leaders respond to a world being reshaped by artificial intelligence, economic competition, and geopolitical change.
That uncommon breadth gives Kennedy a perspective audiences value: how to lead when systems are under pressure and the environment is changing faster than institutions are built to respond.

WHAT LEADERSHIP REQUIRES NOW

The most effective leaders today do more than manage operations. They create trust, align talent, communicate clearly, and adapt before circumstances force change.
They understand that in a more competitive age, performance and legitimacy must reinforce one another. Results matter. So do confidence, culture, and mission.
Strong leaders also recognize that people support what they help build. They listen seriously, engage broadly, and bring others into the work of progress.

Listening Leadership

Listening to stakeholders in Beijing during an engagement with AmCham China.

Building Capability

Helping talented people do meaningful work.

Civic Stewardship

Connecting leadership to citizenship and public purpose.

LEADERSHIP ACROSS SECTORS

Business

In business, Kennedy learned the disciplines of execution, accountability, customer value, and competition in globally contested markets.

Public Service

In Congress, he worked on trade, infrastructure, financial services, and national security, building coalitions in a polarized environment and helping translate complex challenges into practical action.

Higher Education

As president of the University of North Dakota and president of the University of Colorado, he led large public institutions focused on student success, research excellence, innovation partnerships, and long-term stewardship.

Global Strategy

Today, as Director of NYU’s Wahba Initiative for Strategic Competition, he leads work on growth, productive capacity, artificial intelligence, and strategic competition.

IN THE CONVERSATION

Tested in Public View
Debating future Senator Amy Klobuchar on Meet the Press.

BRING LEADERSHIP INSIGHT TO YOUR AUDIENCE

For keynote speeches, executive briefings, university forums, or strategic discussions on the future of freedom, competition, and global leadership.