Dr. William J. Rothwell

President, Rothwell & Associates

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Dr.William J. Rothwel, Ph.D., DBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, RODC, FLMI, CPTD Fellow, is President of Rothwell & Associates, Inc., Rothwell & Associates, LLC, and Rothwell & Associates Korea. As a consultant he has worked with over fifty multinational companies and countless governments and nonprofits globally. In addition to the three consulting companies he founded, he also founded three small businesses (a vacation rental home company employing three people; a personal care home for the elderly licensed for fifty beds employing twenty-seven people; and an eighteen-unit motel employing five people).

As a Distinguished Professor at Penn State University, University Park, where he has taught for 30 years, he is co-Professor-in-Charge of an online and onsite academic program that offers a Master degree in Organization Development and a Ph.D. in Workforce Education and Development with an emphasis in Talent Development/Organization Development. Before joining Penn State in 1993, he had over 15 years of experience in HR, Talent Development, and Organization Development leadership at the executive level in government (Illinois Office of the Auditor General) and in a wholly-owned subsidiary of a multinational company, #48 on the Fortune 500 list (American Brands, owners of Jim Beam, American Tobacco, and others). With 50 years of work experience in HR, OD and Talent Development, he is known widely for his practical approach. Having published 159 books in the Human Resources field, he was awarded Penn State University’s Graduate Faculty Teaching Award in 2004 (only one given per year on Penn State’s 24 campuses), the Association for Talent Development’s (ATD) Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award in 2011, was given the Walter Zeller Award for Service by UNICEF and Kiwanis in 2013, was awarded the Organization Development Network’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, was awarded Penn State University’s highest award for international work in 2022, and was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2023. He has conducted training and taught in universities globally-including 83 trips to China and 32 trips to Singapore.

His recent books since 2020 include Mastering the Art of Process Consultation and Virtual Group Coaching Simulation (2023); Successful Supervisory Leadership: Exerting Positive Influence While Leading People (2023); Transformational Coaching (2023); Succession Planning for Small and Family Businesses (2022); High-Performance Coaching for Managers (2022); Rethinking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (2022); Organization Development (OD) Interventions: Executing Effective Organizational Change (2021); Virtual Coaching to Improve Group Relationships: Process Consultation Reimagined (2021); The Essential HR Guide for Small Business and Start Ups (2020); Increasing Learning and Development’s Impact Through Accreditation (2020); Adult Learning Basics, 2nd ed. (2020); and, Workforce Development: Guidelines for Community College Professionals, 2nd ed. (2020).