Stellant Group now represents Jim Ryan, president emeritus of the University of Virginia and senior fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Ryan's work centers on how leaders use questions to sharpen judgment, build trust and turn conflict into clarity. His 2016 commencement speech at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he served as dean from 2013 to 2018, went viral after presenting five essential questions for leadership and life. The speech became Wait, What? And Life's Other Essential Questions (HarperCollins, 2017), a New York Times bestseller that distills how leaders listen, learn and lead under pressure.
Ryan's forthcoming How About Never? And Other Essential Questions For Leadership and Life (HarperCollins, 2027) extends that framework into seven questions that define exceptional leadership, from basic questions of identity and purpose to the operational challenges of decision-making and knowing when to change course. The framework is anchored in the conviction that true leadership means putting the interests of the organization above your own.
As the ninth president of the University of Virginia from 2018 to 2025, Ryan chaired the Atlantic Coast Conference Board of Directors and the Council of Presidents. He has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and authored widely cited scholarship on education law and educational opportunity, including Five Miles Away, A World Apart (Oxford University Press, 2010). Ryan is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations, and the 2026 recipient of Yale's Legend in Leadership Award.
Ryan's work informs leadership conversations on crisis leadership, organizational culture, change management and the questions that move teams from reaction to clarity.
Jim Ryan is exclusively represented by Stellant Group for speaking engagements including keynotes, fireside chats and panel discussions with leadership teams thinking through how to lead with questions that sharpen judgment, build trust and anchor decisions in mission and values. For our consulting or advisory offerings, please reach out for a custom proposal.
