Leadership, Leadership Quote of the Week

Extraordinary leaders are ordinary people

Hitendra Wadhwa

The notion of good and ethical leadership is often mystified in popular culture to seem like an unreachable goal. However, we must remember that nobody is born into a leadership position, and all inspirational and extraordinary leaders start somewhere.

This week, we are featuring a quote from Hitendra Wadhwa, a professor at  Columbia Business School who founded the Mentora Institute. A number of  Laidlaw Scholars from across the world have participated in the Mentora Youth Changemaker Fellowship


Hitendra Wadhwa (1967-) is an Indian-American businessman and educator. He is a professor at Columbia Business School and founder of the Mentora Institute, which provides leadership training and coaching to organisations and individuals. 

Born in India, Wadhwa completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Delhi. Moving to the US, he completed an MBA and a PhD at MIT. He worked as a consultant and McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy firm. Later moving into education, Wadhwa taught at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, moving to Columbia Business School as a professor in 2006.

A champion of extraordinary, inspirational, ethical and good leadership, Wadhwa launched the Mentora Institute in 2011. This organisation aims to create a new model of leadership fit for the 21st century by training corporates and individuals.  In 2022, Wadhwa published a book titled  Inner Mastery, Outer Impact, outlining the leadership model the Mentora Institute promotes. 

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