Warren Bennis

Published September 4, 2014 This content is archived.

Warren Bennis, a one-time UB administrator and internationally known expert on leadership, died July 31 in Los Angeles. He was 89.

Bennis, who the Financial Times called “the professor who established leadership as a respectable academic field,” served as UB’s provost from 1967-71. He received an honorary degree from SUNY at UB’s 161st university commencement ceremony in 2007.

Following his stint at UB, Bennis served as president of the University of Cincinnati for seven years, then moved to the University of Southern California, where he was a distinguished professor of business administration for more than 30 years.

Bennis wrote more than 30 books on the topic of leadership, among them the best-selling “Leaders,” named by the Financial Times as one of the top 50 business books of all time, and the influential “On Becoming a Leader,” both of which have been translated into 21 languages.

His 1993 essay collection, “An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.