Dr. Bill Cohen

Dr. Cohen is President of the Institute of Leader Arts. He has spoken and given workshops for small groups of managers and executives, and given keynote addresses to audiences of up to 15,000 in size. He has presented on five continents, and executives from more than 50 countries have heard him speak. Dr. Cohen is also a retired major general from the U.S. Air Force Reserve and has held executive positions in several companies including Director of Research at Sierra Engineering Company, Manager of Advanced Technology Marketing at McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company, and President of Global Associates. He lived in Israel from 1970-73 and flew in the Yom Kippur War. In addition he was a registered professional engineer in Israel and holds engineering patents in the U.S., the U.K. and Israel. He was recognized by the Israeli government for his contributions to the development of Israel’s first fighter. Graduating from West Point, Dr. Cohen flew 174 combat missions in A-26 aircraft in the Vietnam War. His military awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters and the Air Medal with eleven oak leaf clusters. Among his 54 books published in 21 languages and over 100 articles resulting from his research, are the best sellers The Stuff of Heroes: The Eight Universal Laws of Leadership (Longstreet Press, 1998) and The New Art of Leader (Prentice Hall Press, 1990, 2000). The latter was named a Best Business Book of the Year by Library Journal. The former was nominated as one of the 10 best management books for the year 1998 by Management General and appeared as number four on the Los Angeles Times best seller list. Both books have been recommended by a host of world class leaders including from the U.S. Congress, astronauts, generals and admirals, presidents of unions and trade associations and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. His textbooks have been adopted by more than 200 colleges and universities around the world. His book A Class with Drucker set a record for the highest foreign rights sales in the history of the 45-year old professional publisher, selling over 100,000 copies in seven countries. He received his BS in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, he has an MBA from the University of Chicago, an MA and PhD in management from the Peter Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, and has completed all coursework for a second PhD in psychology. He is a distinguished graduate in residence of the prestigious Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C.