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Dr. Maria Pressentin is a behavioral scientist, professor, consultant, and author specializing in leadership strategy to accelerate people’s growth and business performance.

Dr. Maria is known for her published research in servant leadership application in Asia, Middle East & Africa. She is the founder and chief knowledge officer of Leadership ScientificTM, an authority in executive education that helps organizations reduce attrition rates and increase employee work passion.

Dr. Maria is known for her methods of changing toxic cultures bottom up, with a track record of success in Return on Impact measured by behavioral change adoption rates. She is also a professor of leadership at the University of Reading, the International School of Management and at Emeritus.

As an organizational practitioner, Dr. Maria has over 25 years of direct organizational leadership applied experience and over 18 years of executive education consultancy, bringing the appropriate leadership culture to organizations, invigorating people’s passion at work, enhancing their self-awareness, and helping them recognize their performance-contribution formula to organizational growth.

Dr. Maria has received several awards and recognitions for her contributions, most recently she was awarded by the Education 2.0 Conference the Outstanding Leadership Award, Thinkers 360 has honored her with the Top APAC VOICE and Top 50 Thought Leader in Diversity& Inclusion, as well as CMO Asia with the Asian Women’s Leader – World CSR Sustainability, in addition to accolades in Top 100 Best Global Coaching &Leadership Professional by the Global HRD Congress, the Iconic Woman for Creating a Better World for All by the Women Economic Forum, and the Best Researcher award by the ACBSP academic accreditation council.

Dr. Maria is the co-author and editor-in-chief of the book “Key Factors and Use Cases of Servant Leadership Driving Organizational Performance”, published by IGI Global, 2022,as well as the book "Can Genuine Servant Leadership Gain Followers' Respect for the Leader? Evidence from the Asian high power distance cultures", by ProQuest, 2020. She has also published several white papers on servant leadership, organizational behavior, and human resources in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr Maria speaks 5 languages

English

Portuguese

Cantonese Chinese

German

French

 

BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST

In answering the need for better leadership practices, Maria’s research bridges modern organizational leadership and cultural gaps with innovative models of collaboration to enhance the people and economic value of organizations.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Bringing the appropriate leadership culture to organizations has been the calling for Maria’s past 18 years, in invigorating people’s passion at work, enhancing their self-awareness, and helping them recognize their performance-contribution formula to organizational growth.

RECENT TALKS

  • Three Ways to Succeed in Digital Era
  • Emerging Trends in Millennial Workforce
  • Servant Leadership: The Best Bottom-line for your Organization
  • Leading with Luv: The Power with leading With Heart
  • Servant Leadership Framework for Asian High Power Distance Cultures
  • Humanizing Leadership
  • Servant Leadership: Is the concept ready to be taken off?

Leadership Programs

 Outstanding Leadership Award – Education 2.0, February 2024  Top Voice Asia Pacific – Thinkers 360, October 2023  Top 50 Thought Leader Diversity & Inclusion – Thinkers 360, March 2023  Asia’s Woman Leader – World Women Leadership Congress, 2022  Top 100 Thought Leader – Thinkers 360, Summer 2021  People's Choice Award: The Silver Lining Award Nominee – The Ken Blanchard Companies, 2020  People's Choice Award: The Silver Lining Award Nominee – The Ken Blanchard Companies, 2020  Iconic Woman Creating a Better World for All – Women’s Economic Forum, July 2020  Best of All Regions Award Winning Presentation, ACBSP University Accreditation Council’s Global Conference, June 2019  Winner of The Best Paper Award, ACBSP University Accreditation Council’s Region 8, November 2018  100 Best Global Coaching Leaders Award – World HRD Congress, February 2017  Global Training & Development Leadership Award – World HRD Congress, February 2017  Iconic Woman Creating a Better World for All – Women’s Economic Forum, May 2017  Advisory Executive Council Member at Women’s Economic Forum, May 2017
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