Steven Snyder, PhD, is the founder of Twin Cities–based Snyder Leadership Group, an organizational consulting firm dedicated to cultivating inspired leadership. Snyder has developed the breakthrough concepts introduced in Leadership and the Art of Struggle based on years of research, including extensive interviews with senior executives from major corporations as well as his personal experience working closely with Bill Gates. 

Snyder joined Microsoft in 1983, when that company was in its infancy. His work there, praised by Gates, secured the relationship with IBM during a crucial stage in Microsoft’s growth and helped shape the history of the personal computer industry. Promoted as Microsoft’s first business unit general manager, Snyder led the company’s development tools business, where his team won PC Magazine’s prestigious Technical Excellence Award on three occasions. 

After his influential tenure at Microsoft, Snyder earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Minnesota. He applied his multidisciplinary background to initiate innovative soft ware for human resource development at Personnel Decisions International, a worldwide human resources consulting firm.

When Internet advancements drew Snyder’s attention, he joined forces with computer scientists from the University of Minnesota to pioneer a groundbreaking technology called collaborative filtering. As co-founder and CEO of Net Perceptions, he successfully commercialized this invention to enable the real-time personalized recommendations that have become central to the online experience. This groundbreaking work won Snyder the first-ever World Technology Award for Commerce for “contributing to the advance of emerging technologies for the benefit of business and society.”

In addition to his work with Snyder Leadership Group, Snyder was an Executive in Residence at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Integrative Leadership and is currently an Executive Fellow in Leadership at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business. Snyder also taught business ethics at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management for seven years. 

Snyder has been a guest on ABC-TV’s Nightline as well as a featured speaker in North America, Europe, and Asia. He was selected to deliver the seventeenth JRD Tata Oration on Business Ethics in Jamshedpur, India. 

In addition to his psychology degrees, Snyder earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Drexel University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. He currently lives with his family in the Minneapolis area, where he remains actively engaged in philanthropy and community service. 

Here’s how you can connect with Steven Snyder:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevensnyder

Facebook: www.facebook.com/artofstruggle

Website: www.snyderleadership.com