Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva is a business owner, author, and educator working at the intersection of innovation, leadership, and sustainable growth. As a business owner, Nadya oversees a group of companies active in real estate, investment, and consulting industries. Her recent client engagements include The Coca-Cola Company, ENRC PLC, Erste Bank, Henkel, Knauf Insulation, and Vienna Insurance Group.

Nadya also serves as the Coca-Cola Chaired Professor of Sustainable Development at IEDC- Bled School of Management, an executive education center based in Slovene Alps, where she teaches courses in leadership, strategy, change management, design thinking, and sustainability. In addition to IEDC, Dr. Zhexembayeva has taught in a number of other business schools, including CEDEP-INSEAD (France) and IPADE (Mexico).

Dr. Zhexembayeva chairs Resourcefulness Advisory Board at OMV, an oil and gas company, and sits on the Advisory Board of Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. She also serves as Vice-President of Challenge:Future, a global student think-DO-tank and innovation competition.

“Overfished Ocean Strategy: Powering Up Innovation for Resource- Deprived World” is Nadya’s second book. Together with Chris Laszlo, in 2011, Dr. Zhexembayeva co-authored her first book, “Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage,” published by Stanford University Press in the US and Greenleaf Publishing in the UK.

A daughter of Kazakhstan, these days Nadya and her family split their life between US and Europe.