Capability & conscience.
John Robichaux builds and turns around mission-driven institutions — and teaches, trains, and convenes high-impact leaders wrestling with the most consequential choices of our time.
The builder.
Twenty-five years running complex organizations — portfolios of up to $100M+ and 1,000+ faculty and staff across dozens of global locaations — from nonprofits and consulting agencies to research and education portfolos at Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and Columbia. The pattern: inherit a hard problem, build what doesn’t exist yet, and hand it on stronger than he found it. He builds inside institutions — he’s not a caretaker.
The educator.
Teaches leaders, not just students: “Leadership in the Age of AI” and “Ethics and AI” at Berkeley, the CEO Roundtable on AI and the Transatlantic AI Policy Lab at Stanford, executive programs reaching leaders in industry, government, nonprofits, and philanthropy from dozens of countries. Inaugural Director of Education, Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI (2020–23). Working on AI since 2010 — years before ChatGPT.
The voice.
Between the doomers, the hype merchants, and the data-only optimizers who treat principles as friction, there is a harder, more useful position: judgment. Most of what AI asks of leaders turns out to be old questions in new clothes. What it actually changes about leading an organization, what it doesn’t, and who benefits from the choices leaders are making right now.
"Leadership is defined by the choices we make when multiple paths emerge."
Judgment in the permissive space. Old questions in new clothes. The standing test: who benefits? The ideas John teaches, trains, and convenes around.
→ Ideas
Talks, executive sessions, and board briefings for leaders in business, government, and philanthropy.
→ Speaking
Views expressed here are John's own, in his personal capacity — he does not speak for Berkeley or the Fung Institute.