About Walt
Walter C. Wright, Jr., PhD, is executive director of the Max De Pree Center for Leadership in Pasadena. He came to this position after twelve years as president and professor of Leadership at Regent College, a graduate school affiliated with the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Prior to this he served twenty years on the management team of Fuller Theological Seminary in California.
Building on Max De Pree’s assertion that “belief precedes behavior,” Walt believes passionately that effective organizations should also be lively relational communities. As Walt says,
“The values and integrity of leadership shape the relationships of trust and respect that enable collaboration and cooperation in any organization. Character matters!”
He is invited to speak to diverse groups around the world — religious, non-profit and corporate. He was twice invited to be the commencement speaker for the Banff School of Advanced Management and for five years presented at the Executive Development Program of the University of Calgary. Most recently he led retreats for the government Health Ministry of Western Australia, the Western Australia Football Commission, the Murdock Charitable Trust and the YMCA. Funded by a Canadian government grant, he conducted training for supervisors and union stewards for the Save-On Grocery stores. He is a regular presenter for Vistage (formerly TEC), an international association of CEOs, offering over two dozen workshops on CEO values each year.
Walt is the author of three books, Relational Leadership, Mentoring: The Promise of Relational Leadership and, most recently, Don’t Step on the Rope! Reflections on Leadership, Relationships and Teamwork. He has written many monographs, articles and chapters for edited volumes. His books have been translated and published in Germany, Korea, India and Nigeria.
Walt was invited to California in September 2000 to develop a new leadership center in honor of his long time friend and mentor, Max De Pree, the highly respected former Chairman and CEO of Herman Miller, Inc. Max De Pree, the author of Leadership Jazz, Leadership is an Art and Leading without Power, wrote the foreword in Walt’s book on Mentoring. The De Pree Leadership Center serves as a resource to leaders promoting values-driven relational leadership and mentoring as an effective tool for personal renewal and leadership development
Current Projects
Current projects on Walt’s desk include a study of leadership transition in nonprofit organizations and “Leading from the Heart,” a workshop on relational leadership. Walt is a highly regarded speaker and frequently addresses executive events and seminars and corporate workshops.
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