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Event 17 September 2026, 16:30-19:30

Meet Mary Uhl-Bien – a Pi­on­eer in Mod­ern Lead­er­ship Think­ing

Gain fresh inspiration for your leadership when internationally recognized leadership scholar Mary Uhl-Bien visits Denmark to introduce Collective Leadership. This research-based perspective explores how leadership can strengthen organizations’ ability to navigate complexity and transformation.

Professor Mary Uhl-Bien underviser i collective leadership

What to expect

Time
17 September 2026, 16:30-19:30
Location
CBS Solbjerg Plads, SPs01
Format
Keynote
Host
CBS Executive Education & DJØF
Language
English
Price
Free, but requires registration

About the event

Djøf and CBS invite you to an exclusive event with Mary Uhl-Bien, widely regarded as one of the key architects behind the relational and complexity-based approach to leadership. Her work has had a significant impact on both research and practice, particularly in Scandinavia.

At the event, Mary Uhl-Bien will focus on Collective Leadership and what it means for leadership in complex organisations. Much traditional leadership thinking centers on the individual leader. Collective Leadership highlights how leadership emerges through relationships, collaboration, shared responsibility and joint action.

The core idea is to strengthen an organisation’s overall leadership capacity, so it is better equipped to address challenges, foster innovation and turn knowledge into action.

This is a unique opportunity to hear Mary Uhl-Bien unfold what it means in practice to work with leadership as a collective capacity and how this reshapes the role of the formal leader.

You will gain new perspectives to inspire your leadership and organisational development, whether you are a leader, specialist, or working in HR or strategy.

Programme

16:00-16:30: Registration and refreshments

16:30-16:35: Welcome 
Dorte Salskov-Iversen, Head of Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS  

16:35-16:45: Setting the scene for the afternoon 
Professor Mary Uhl-Bien & Jacob Rosenkrands, Journalist and Conference Moderator, introduce the themes and formats of the afternoon. 

16:45-17:45: Keynote: Collective Leadership 
Professor Mary Uhl-Bien explores the foundations and practice of Collective Leadership.

17:45-18:10: From insight to action: Interaction and co-creation 
Participants work with keynote perspectives and connect them to their leadership challenges and experiences. Audience input will be gathered digitally, creating a collective basis for the concluding conversation. Facilitated by Eric Guthey, Associate Professor, CBS, and Nicole Ferry, Tenure Track Assistant Professor, CBS.
 
18:10-18:30: Collective perspectives: Reflections, questions and conversation
Mary Uhl-Bien and Jacob Rosenkrands bring together insights from the keynote and the collaborative session, and respond to participants’ questions.

18:30-18:35: Closing remarks 
Tomas Therkildsen, CEO, Djøf

18:35-19:30: Reception & networking

RE­GIS­TRA­TION CLOSED

Due to high demand, this event is now fully booked. If you would like to be added to the waiting list, please feel free to get in touch.

Meet the speak­er

Portrait of Mary Uhl-Bien, Professor of Leadership at Neeley School of Business

Mary Uhl-Bien

Chaired Professor of Leadership, Neeley School of Business

Mary Uhl-Bien is one of the most influential scholars in contemporary leadership theory and is particularly known for her work on leadership and complexity in organizations. Her research is grounded in extensive studies on how leadership emerges through relationships, interactions, and dynamic processes within organizations. She is internationally recognized as a leading voice in the development of new perspectives on leadership in a complex and rapidly changing world. In 2023, CBS awarded Mary Uhl-Bien an honorary doctorate.

Photography and video recording

Please note that photographs/videos will be taken/recorded during the event. These will be used by CBS as a record of the event, for digital marketing and publicity purposes on our websites/social media as well as for marketing and publicity purposes in printed formats. Photographs/videos will be stored until it is no longer necessary in order to meet these purposes. Please contact executiveeducation@cbs.dk if you have any concerns or you wish to have a photograph/video of you deleted.