David Lapin is one of the world’s leading thinkers in the fields of leadership and business transformation. As a scholar, speaker, columnist, author of Lead by Greatness (Avoda Books, 2012), and founder of Lapin, he has helped thousands of leaders and organizations distinguish themselves and elevate performance at every level.

David’s every engagement is grounded in his humanist philosophy of leadership known as Lead by Greatness®—a blueprint for personal achievement and business growth forged during the turbulent post-Apartheid period in his native South Africa. During this time, in collaboration with Nelson Mandela’s government and an assembly of influential business leaders, David drafted one of the world’s first formal codes of corporate ethics. Known as the Code of Ethics for the King Commission on Corporate Governance, it is still in practice today.

Inspired by his success in applying Lead by Greatness® principles in the country’s then-blighted business sector, David founded Lapin (then called Strategic Business Ethics, Inc.) in 1989 to help businesses and organizations around the world strengthen the collaborative forces that promote their growth and creativity.

From training over 100,000 law enforcement officers—including the Los Angeles Police Department—to build trust through community engagement, to helping a global Real Estate Investment Trust expand its portfolio from $2 billion in one country to $11 billion in 15 countries, to helping a Native American hospitality group grow its revenue by nearly 700% in eight years, he has spent the past two decades deploying his unique approach in some of the world’s most intricate corporate and cultural contexts.