A soldier, scholar, skydiver, author, executive coach and highly recognized leadership thought leader, Brigadier General Tom Kolditz has dedicated his career to helping people become stronger leaders—especially during crisis, adversity and extreme conditions. His celebrated work across the military, higher education and business consulting is driven by a singular mission: preparing leaders from all walks of life to perform when pressure is high, uncertainty is real and the consequences matter.

Tom is one of the most experienced and highly educated leadership experts of his generation. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University, three master’s degrees, a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Missouri and an honorary doctorate from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Over the course of 22 years, he taught leadership at West Point, Yale University and Rice University. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the author of multiple books and more than 75 journal articles, and a respected authority on leadership development, trust and performance under pressure.

Unlike many leadership academics, Tom also brings decades of hands-on command and organizational experience. During more than 35 years of military and civilian leadership, he served as the principal leader of 12 organizations across four continents. A retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, he commanded thousands of troops, served in combat and received the Distinguished Service Medal, the Army’s highest award for service.

Tom chaired the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point and founded the West Point Leadership Center. After retiring from the Army, he designed and directed the leadership-development program at the Yale School of Management. He later became the founding executive director of the Ann and John Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. In total, he has successfully founded five leadership-development organizations, helping reshape how leaders are selected, developed and coached across the military, higher education and business.

Tom is the author of In Extremis Leadership: Leading as if Your Life Depended on It, an authoritative examination of leadership in dangerous and life-threatening environments. The book is based on more than 175 interviews conducted on the ground in Iraq during combat operations and reveals what leaders in extreme conditions can teach leaders in every organization.

His latest book, Against the Storm: How True Leaders Prevail When the World Shakes, scheduled for release in September 2026, offers a practical and experience-driven framework for building trust, making high-stakes decisions and guiding people through extreme uncertainty, crisis and potential chaos.

Tom’s contributions to leadership and executive development have earned him significant international recognition. He received the prestigious Warren Bennis Award for Excellence in Leadership, an honor shared with influential leaders and thinkers including Benazir Bhutto, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Tom Peters. He has also been named a Top Leadership Thought Leader by the Leader to Leader Institute and repeatedly ranked among the world’s leading executive coaches by Global Gurus and Thinkers50. Most recently, Thinkers50 ranked him #3 among its 2025 Coaching Legends.

Today, Tom focuses on developing and coaching leaders across industries. He has spoken to more than 350 audiences worldwide and is a highly sought-after executive coach. Combining memorable stories, rigorous research and real-world leadership experience, he helps leaders remain calm under pressure, build trust quickly, make better decisions and guide their people confidently through change, disruption and adversity.