Prof. Nicola M. Pless (Dr. oec, Dr. habil, University of St. Gallen), listed by Stanford University among the top 2% scientists in the world, is a former Vice President Leadership Development, holds the Chair of Positive Business at the University of South Australia. She holds further qualifications/ degrees from Berkeley, Cornell, INSEAD, MIT. She received the Faculty Pioneer Award for Teaching Innovation and Excellence by the Aspen Institute, dubbed the “Oscars of the business school world” by the The Financial Times. Her seminal contributions to Responsible Leadership have advanced its theoretical foundations and practical applications, shaping industry engagement (e.g., PwC, Accenture) and informing global policy agendas (e.g., ACCA, World Economic Forum).
She has held professorships at the University of St. Gallen (No. 9 in the FT European B-School ranking 2024) and ESADE Business School (No 8 Global FT MBA ranking 2025) and served for five years on the faculty of INSEAD (No 4 Global FT MBA ranking 2025) . She held the Honorary Jef van Gerwen Chair at the University of Antwerp (2010-11) and was Distinguished Visiting Professor at EBS University in Germany. She is an elected permanent faculty member of Switzerland's University of St. Gallen. 
She has lived in seven countries on three continents and combines her multicultural background with mulitsector business experiences, which she translates into her academic work. She worked for the World Bank Group, is a former Vice President Leadership Development at Credit Suisse and Managing Director of a consulting firm. Through consulting and executive coaching, she has helped individuals and organizations to develop effective and responsible strategies for navigating successfully in a VUCA world and to unleash their leadership potential for positive change in business and society.
She is internationally recognized as a founder of and authority in responsible leadership research and teaching. According to ScholarGPS she ranks high both in Leadership (#135 in the world and #10 in Australia) and in Business Ethics (#58 globally and #3 in Australia). Her award-winning research in the fields of leadership, responsibility and neuroscience has been published in leading academic A* and FT50 journals (e.g. Journal of Management Studies (FT50, A*), Human Resource Management (FT50, A*), Journal of Business Ethics (FT50, A), Academy of Management Learning and Education (A*), Organizational Research Methods (A*), and featured by Harvard Business School and in the international media: Business Week, Forbes, Management Today, El Mundo, La Vanguardia, CEO Magazine, UN PRME etc. Research impact according to: Web of Science (WoS) citations: >2500, h-index: 17, Google Scholar citations >9600, h-index: 30. And nearly 100 publications, more than 108.000 reads and 63 recommendations on ResearchGate.
Professor Pless' current research focuses on (1) ethics, sustainability & governance (ESG), (2) purpose in business, (3) social and responsible innovation, (4) mindfulness and (5) responsible leadership (multi-level and contextual research) and its development. This includes responsible decision making in multicultural and top management teams, and micro foundations of strategy, CSR and sustainability. She specifically investigates the relationship between RL and social and economic value creation and the roles of values, empathy, compassion and mindfulness within this process. She is also a Principle Investigator in the international research group, ‘The Neuroscience of Leadership’. Her work often occurs in collaboration with business practice and is substantially informed by her senior executive experience.
Her research received seven international awards, including the prestigious Academy of Management Carolyn Dexter Finalist Award (2010), two Best Paper Awards from the Academy of Management, one from the Neuroscience interest Group (2022) and another from the Management Education Division (2011). For her service, she also received the Academy of Management Best Reviewer Award (2023).
She teaches ESG and responsible leadership at MBA and executive levels. She also taught courses at BA, MSc, MBA, and PhD level and has been involved in executive programs, such as the Georgetown ESADE Global Executive MBA and Stanford ESADE CSR program. Her innovative "Business in Society" core course was part of ESADE's Master of International Management, which took first place worldwide for CSR and ethics in the Financial Times rankings 2013.
She serves as a Guardian to the Council of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI). GRLI is a foundation of public interest and an AACSB International and  EFMD strategic partnership established with the founding support of EFMD and United Nations Global Compact.
She is a former Editor of the Journal of Business Ethics (FT50, A ABDC list) and sits on the editorial review boards of Academy of Management Collections and Academy of Management Perspectives (A, ABDC list, 4 ABS list)
Over the past twenty years she has worked with for-profit companies (Credit Suisse, Deutsche Telekom, Dong Energy, Mercedes, PwC, SAP-N, Swarovski, UBS, Volkswagen) and with for-purpose organizations such as Gram Vikas (India), Jurlique, The Body Shop, The World Bank.
Her mission is to advance the practice of inclusive, resonant and responsible-global-leadership and its development through research and teaching innovation.