Toto Wolff, the Co-Owner, CEO and Team Principal of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, has been appointed an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School. He will serve as a guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse. The role will see Wolff share insights on high-performance leadership, organizational culture and personal effectiveness gained in one of the world’s most competitive industries with the School’s MBA students.
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A former racing driver turned investor, Wolff has become one of the most successful leaders in world sport, guiding the Mercedes team to eight Formula One Constructors’ Championships and seven Drivers’ Championships in his ten years at the helm. Wolff’s partnership with the Harvard Business School will further its mission of educating and inspiring the leaders of tomorrow.
Throughout the 2021 F1 season, Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse gained behind-the-scenes access to the Mercedes team to observe how they prepared for, competed in and analyzed their performance in races. The result was a Harvard Business School case study entitled ‘Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team’, which Wolff has since helped teach to MBA students on campus.
The pair also collaborated on a popular Harvard Business Review article, ‘Number One in Formula One’. Professor Elberse distilled Wolff’s leadership philosophy into six lessons to help managers develop a winning culture. In January 2024, Wolff and Elberse will team up to deliver a groundbreaking short course for both first-year and second-year MBA students, “Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team.”
Toto Harvard Visit – Paul Ripke
“I feel very honoured and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard”, noted Wolff. “Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students’ curiosity and ambition, and I leave energized by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty.”
“We very much look forward to welcoming Toto back to campus,” said Elberse. “I have seen first-hand how much our students benefit from learning about Toto’s leadership journey and his deep knowledge of what it takes to run a highly successful sports team. With Toto on board, I am confident that we can make a profound positive difference in the development of the leaders of tomorrow.”
Harvard Business School’s Executive Fellows program aims to create a community of practitioners who, alongside their faculty partners, contribute to the School through a rich set of activities. “HBS is fortunate to be able to benefit from this dynamic partnership of Anita and Toto; I am confident it will be a spectacular experience for the students,” said Professor Len Schlesinger, Chair of the Practice Faculty.
Toto Harvard Visit – Paul Ripke
