Nadya Zhexembayeva
Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva shows executives how to convert chaos into opportunity. A celebrated business theorist and reinvention expert, she helps organizations evolve faster, smarter, and more sustainably — again and again.
Queen of Reinvention
•
Change Champion
•
Chaos Buster
•
Queen of Reinvention • Change Champion • Chaos Buster •
More about Nadya
Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva helps leaders turn constant disruption into sustained competitive advantage. As a leading business theorist, Nadya’s career spans three worlds: she served as the Coca-Cola Chaired Professor of Strategy & Sustainability at IEDC-Bled School of Management; stepped into industry as a fractional executive in mining & metals, leading transformation amid extreme volatility for a 30,000-employee company; and founded Reinvention Academy, a global education and advisory firm equipping organizations to reinvent on repeat.
Recognized by In Ventures magazine as “The Reinvention Guru,” Nadya is widely credited with establishing reinvention as a cross-disciplinary management field that unifies strategy, innovation, change, foresight, design thinking, Agile/SCRUM, and leadership into one practical capability.
-
Nadya’s client roster includes The Coca-Cola Company, IBM, Cisco, L’Oréal, Henkel, Erste Bank, Kohler, and others. As an educator, she has developed more than 10,000 executives across 60+ countries, with teaching contributions at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management (USA), CEDEP (France), and IPADE (Mexico). She has delivered four TEDx talks across Europe and the United States.
Her books include Embedded Sustainability, Overfished Ocean Strategy, Titanic Syndrome, and the award-winning Chief Reinvention Officer Handbook—winner of the Axiom Business Book Award, finalist for the American Book Fest Awards, and recipient of the Kirkus Star for exceptional merit. Her Handbook and her Six-Pillar Framework are used by teams worldwide. Through Reinvention Academy and the annual Reinvention Summit, Nadya leads a global practitioner community applying these tools in boardrooms and on factory floors.
Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva’s journey began in Almaty, Kazakhstan, during the final years of the Soviet Union — a time marked by instability and rapid change. Growing up in this environment, she quickly learned the value of resilience. With the help of a Freedom Support Act scholarship, Nadya moved to the United States, where she completed dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Management and Psychology at Hartwick College, earning the prestigious titles of Faculty Scholar and John Christopher Hartwick Scholar, the college’s highest honors. In 2008, she earned a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University, where she teaches today.
Speaking Topics
Reinvention
Leadership
Resilience
Managing Change
Navigating the Future
Innovation
Overcoming Obstacles
Culture
Watch Nadya in action
Presentations
Leading in Turbulence Without Losing Your Mind
Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva helps leaders turn constant disruption into sustained competitive advantage. A seasoned business theorist considered “The Queen of Reinvention,” Nadya shows leaders and their organization how to handle disruption with ease and impact—accelerating strategy execution, turning resistance into buy-in, and lifting engagement.
Why You Must Reinvent Every
3 Years
Nadya’s research with thousands of leaders—featured in outlets including Harvard Business Review—shows that the pace of change has outstripped most companies’ capabilities: many organizations must reinvent every three years or less just to stay competitive. Her playbook speaks to corporate leaders facing disruption head-on, emphasizing urgency and strategic advantage.
From Resistance to Buy-In: How to Mobilize Your Team
In this fast-paced, dynamic workshop, Nadya speaks directly to leaders struggling with change fatigue. Translating the reality of constant disruption into action: Nadya shows how to turn skepticism into energy and mobilize teams around reinvention using science-backed, field-tested strategies for faster, smoother transformation.
“Change and reinvention are not punishment. They signal the freedom to make a new choice.”
– Nadya Zhexembayeva