Leith Sharp

Leith Sharp is a change leader with 25 years of practice, research, and teaching. Sharp has taught leadership for sustainability at Harvard University for 18 years, earning numerous commendations for distinguished teaching performance. Sharp founded the Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership program at Harvard in 2014, which she continues to lead. This cross-sectoral, residential leadership program brings sustainability leadership, human wellbeing, purpose, biomimicry, agility, integrated business models and organizational design together. In 2017, Sharp co-founded Leaders on Purpose to engage global CEOs in defining and scaling a new leadership paradigm and business logic with the fitness to deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Global CEOs from Paypal, Siemens, Mastercard, Ikea, P&G, Sodexo, Danone, Mars, Best Buy, Phillips, SAP, BMW, L’Oreal and many more have contributed. Sharp is known for founding Harvard’s Office for Sustainability in 2000, where over a period of nine years she led Harvard to become a global leader in campus sustainability. In 2010, Sharp became the founding executive director for the Illinois Green Economy Network, working with the state’s 40 college presidents to raise $24 million for green workforce development. Sharp has consulted with over 200 organizations and has received numerous awards internationally, including Young Australian of the Year, New South Wales Environment Category and a Churchill Fellowship. Sharp has an environmental engineering degree (University of New South Wales), a Master of Education (Harvard Graduate School of Education) and is currently completing a Master of Science in biomimicry (Arizona State University).