Tim Kotnour
Tim Kotnour
Chief of Staff–level executive and strategy leader with 30+ years advising CEOs and senior executives across NASA, federal agencies, leading video game companies, and Fortune 500 organizations. Expert in translating strategy into execution through executive alignment/consensus, operating rhythms, and enterprise transformation in complex, high-stakes environments.
Serves as a trusted executive advisor and strategic partner across leadership transitions—facilitating senior-level decision-making, aligning stakeholders, and driving enterprise-wide transformation initiatives for sustainable growth. Thought leader, academic leader and institute founder who built and scaled nationally recognized leadership and innovation programs, developing next-generation technical and executive leaders to drive meaningful change. He is the Lockheed Martin St. Lauren Professor, Industrial Engineering & Management systems.
Grounded in kindness, empathy, and a customer-first mindset, his leadership philosophy emphasizes value creation, execution discipline, and continuous learning.
In addition to writing, he enjoys spending time on their other passions and interests.
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Chief of Staff–level executive and strategy leader with 30+ years advising CEOs and senior executives across NASA, federal agencies, leading video game companies, and Fortune 500 organizations. Expert in translating strategy into execution through executive alignment/consensus, operating rhythms, and enterprise transformation in complex, high-stakes environments.
Serves as a trusted executive advisor and strategic partner across leadership...
Books
Conquering Chaos: How to Lead in a Time of Extraordinary Change
Transformations are hard.
Especially when everything around you is on fire.
Your organization is in crisis. Pressure from your boss. Rumblings from stakeholders. Demands from stockholders. Disruptions in the marketplace. Deeply frustrated staff and workforce who need to be heard and respected. Who need their dignity. Who need your leadership....
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Inspiring the Leader Engineer: Instilling the Burning Desire and Confidence to Change the World
Creating the burning desire and confidence to deliver world-changing solutions.
We need to deliver world-changing solutions. We need Engineering Leaders to deliver these world-changing solutions. This is a story of how we built and are executing a program that impacts undergraduate students, graduate students, leaders, and their organizations....