Before Margaret joins us at the Barton School of Business on October 27, we wanted to introduce you to the person behind the keynote. Her career has taken her from the business world to leadership roles at some of the world’s best-known academic institutions, and into classrooms and organizations around the globe.
Margaret began her career as a CPA with Deloitte & Touche in San Francisco before moving into strategy consulting with Mercer Management Consulting, now Oliver Wyman. She later served as Vice President of Marketing at Putnam Investments. Then came higher education.
At the MIT Sloan School of Management, Margaret served as Executive Director with responsibilities spanning the MBA program, admissions, student affairs, career development, marketing, alumni relations and MIT Sloan Management Review. She later served as Vice Provost at Hult International Business School and Associate Dean for Management Programs at Harvard University.
Today, she continues to teach leadership and executive education at Harvard, with courses and programs exploring emotional intelligence, organizational culture, strategic leadership and the challenges and complexities of leading others. But one question has been at the center of much of Margaret’s work: How can you effectively lead other people if you don’t first understand how to lead yourself?
That question led her to create Managing Yourself and Leading Others at Harvard. The graduate-level course has consistently drawn a waitlist, and the executive program it inspired has become Harvard’s most popular professional development program. Through her teaching, speaking and consulting, Margaret has worked with thousands of executives and professionals and has taught on four continents.
She now brings that work beyond the classroom as founder and Managing Director of The MYLO Center, a leadership development firm focused on helping leaders better understand themselves, their teams and the organizations around them. In 2025, she brought those lessons together in her book, Manage Yourself to Lead Others: Why Great Leadership Begins with Self-Understanding. The book explores how our experiences shape the way we lead, how leaders can recognize their own strengths and blind spots, and how greater self-understanding can improve everything from decision-making and difficult conversations to managing up, developing others and navigating organizational culture.
Margaret is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and MIT Sloan School of Management, where she was named a Seley Scholar, the school’s highest honor. And on October 27, she’s coming to Wichita.
Join Margaret and the Barton School for an interactive conversation about leadership, creativity, emotional intelligence and what it takes to become the leader you want to be.
📅 Tuesday, October 27
📍 Fidelity Bank Ballroom | Woolsey Hall
🚪 Doors open at 9 a.m. | Program begins at 9:30 a.m.
📖 Networking and book signing to follow
🎟️ Free and open to the public
Seating is extremely limited. RSVP at wichita.edu/there