Jonathan is Professor of Leadership and Director of the Centre for Leadership Studies at University of Exeter Business School since 2002. He is currently leading the worldwide launch of the One Planet MBA.

Trained as an anthropologist, Jonathan worked for several years as a mediator in neighbourhood conflicts in London, founded the UK’s first community mediation service and was the founding Secretary of the European Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution. After taking a mid-career MBA he moved into management education at Lancaster University, where he directed MBA and other programmes for British Airways and other major companies. He co-founded, with Henry Mintzberg and 3 other malcontents, a new approach to management education, the International Masters in Practising Management. This takes place in six countries around the world, and has been the springboard for several subsequent innovations in helping practising mangers to improve the way they manage, including an annual short course ‘Round Tables for Practising Managers’. Jonathan also played a significant role in the so-called ‘critical management’ movement, launching an influential MPhil and PhD programme and contributing to the development of specialist conferences and interest groups.

He has published articles in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Leadership, Management Learning, Academy of Management Learning and Education, and in many more practice-oriented outlets, including a regular column in Exeter’s ‘Leadership Matters’. His 2005 book ‘Nelson: Leadership Lessons from the Great Commander’ (with Stephanie Jones) was published for the bicentenary of the battle of Trafalgar, and is the basis of a popular series of lectures and workshops. In 2007 he published ‘Key Concepts in Leadership Studies’ (with Antonio Marturano) and ‘Foundations in Leadership: articles in celebration of John Adair’ (with Morgen Witzel and Peter Case).

He is currently conducting research into emerging concepts of leadership, extending earlier work on the distribution and practice of leadership in Higher Education. Other on-going research includes the study of change and continuity in large organisations, and the processes by which leadership is legitimized in minority communities.

In 2009 he was Visiting Professor at INSEAD, France; Lund, Sweden; and Bled, Slovenia. He is a Fellow of the Windsor Leadership Trust; the Leadership Trust Foundation; and Trustee of The Fintry Trust. Jonathan advises several companies, international agencies and government departments on their leadership-related issues. As director of the Centre for Leadership Studies he works with a first-rate team of researchers, teachers and consultants collectively making a significant impact on both the understanding and practice of leadership.

Jonathan was appointed a Fellow of the Windsor Leadership Trust in February 2006. He is also Trustee for a number of Charities and Foundations.