Nonprofit HR’s Blog

Name: Kirk Kramer
Title: Partner
Company: The Bridgespan Group
Session title: Developing Your Leadership Pipeline
Session date/time:  Tuesday, October 22 – 9:30 AM
LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kirk-kramer/8/26a/624
Twitter: @BridgespanGroup

Profile: Kirk Kramer joined The Bridgespan Group in 2005 as a partner in the Boston office and currently serves as the head of our Leadership and Organizational Development practice area. He has over 30 years of global for-profit and nonprofit consulting experience in strategy, organization, and operations.

His work in the nonprofit sector includes strategic and organizational planning. He has worked for a number of K-12 educational nonprofits and youth development organizations. Other clients have included major global foundations and aging and health care organizations. Kirk leads Bridgespan’s Leadership and Organization practice, including the firm’s leadership team development program (Leading for Impact), and its Group Consulting services. He is co-author of the recently released book, “Plan A: How successful nonprofits develop their future leaders.”

Recent speaking engagements on the topic of leadership development include presentations at the 2012 BoardSource Leadership Forum, 2012 annual Independent Sector conference, and the 2012 annual InterAction conference.

Prior to joining Bridgespan, Kirk was a Managing Director of Oliver Wyman, where he led the firm’s Operations practice unit. He also ran the firm’s Asian operations from Hong Kong and built the firm’s organization strategy practice in Europe while based in London.

While living internationally, Kirk worked with organizations promoting small business formation and local economic development. In Hong Kong, his family was active in fundraising and giving to education in China. Current nonprofit passions include nonprofits that support quality education for low-income immigrants and improving excellence in higher-education in West Africa.

Kirk received a B.A. in economics from Williams College and obtained an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Kirk will present on leaderships development. Surveys consistently show that nonprofit organizations are acutely aware of their leadership development gaps, but unsure about how to address them. Through research and conversations with management experts and nonprofit executives alike, one thing has become clear: the most successful succession planning is not a periodic event triggered by an executive’s departure. Instead, it is a proactive and systematic investment in building a pipeline of leaders within an organization, so that when transitions are necessary, leaders at all levels are ready to act. In this workshop, you will be provided with an understanding of five linked processes that good leadership development and succession planning requires, identify how to assess where they are relatively strong or weak, and share action steps to address weaknesses.