Alyson Meister is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD Business School, where she helps organizations build high performing and resilient leaders, teams, and workplace cultures. She works closely with senior leaders and executive teams across several industries, partnered with global organizations such as Maersk, the LEGO Group, Booking Holdings, Heineken, Sandvik, L’Oreal, Hilti, and DP World. At IMD, she directs several flagship programs including Future Leaders, Change Management, and Resilient Leadership, where she designs and facilitates development journeys for leaders navigating transformation, uncertainty, and growth.
Meister also leads IMD’s workplace well-being initiative, where she explores the science and practice of resilience and mental health at work. Her research focuses on how leaders experience and best manage stress and recovery, mobile phone addiction at work, how identity shapes behavior under pressure, and how workplace dynamics—such as bias and overwork, and meta-perception —impact performance and well-being.
Meister was named to the Thinkers50 Radar list in 2021 and nominated for a Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award for her work on identity and leadership. Her academic work has been published in top journals including Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Leadership Quarterly, and Journal of Organizational Behavior. She is also a regular contributor to practitioner outlets such as MIT Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review and IbyIMD.
Canadian-born, Meister has a PhD from the University of Melbourne (Melbourne Business School) and has lived and worked across five continents. She brings a global perspective, academic rigor, and practical business insight to her work helping leaders lead themselves and others more effectively.
