Peter Vaill

Peter B. Vaill, Ph.D., is regardet one of the nation's most influential organizational change theorists. He published widely in the fields of organizational behavior, organization development (O.D.), and leadership studies including the intersection of spirituality and leadership.

Life

Peter Brown Vaill was born in St. Cloud Minnesota, on November 5, 1936, to Stanley and Elizabeth (Brown) Vaill. Peter’s father (who worked for the phone company) was transferred from St. Cloud to Duluth for 9 years, then later to Minneapolis. Peter went on to attend and graduate from high school in Minneapolis, and later attended the University of Minnesota, earning an undergraduate degree in Psychology. At age 23, (1958) Peter goes to Boston where he is admitted as a student in the Harvard MBA program. His academic career began in 1960 at the Harvard Business School where he graduates with degree in General Management. In 1964 he also earns Doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard Business School with field of study in Organizational Behavior. Peter Vail’s life changes significantly in 2001 when he becomes paralyzed from the waist down. This greatly reduces his mobility, although he is also battling a myriad of related health challenges finds ways to remains active scholar until his last days. Peter Vail dies on March 24, 2020 in a hospital in his hometown Minneapolis where he had been admitted due to pneumonia complications.

Professorships and works

Vaill is internationally known for his innovative approaches to organizational behavior, and has written extensively, including the well-known: Managing as a Performing Art: New Ideas for a World of Chaotic Change; Learning as a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent White Water; and Spirited Leading and Learning: Process Wisdom for a New Age.

The Harvard Business School writes of its alumnus (MBA '60, DBA '64): “Cited in some circles as one of the country's top ten organizational development specialists, Vaill is known for his ideas on what he's termed "permanent white water" - the turbulent social and organizational conditions that managerial leaders face today.” Peter has also consistently broken new ground in addressing issues of spirituality in the workplace as well as on the importance of lifelong learning. In fact, he argues that learning is a foundational element of effective leadership, and that learning is “a way of being.”

Former positions

Vaill has worked with many well-known corporations and most major agencies of the US government, as well as with many universities, health systems and professional associations. He was formerly director of the Ph.D Program at George Washington University’s School of Business and Public Management, and most recently, Distinguished Chair in Management Education at the Graduate School of Business, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis – St. Paul, Minnesota. Peter B. Vaill, was Professor Emeritus of Managerial Leadership of the new Ph.D. Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Influences

His fame has led a former colleague, Eric Dent, Ph.D, also an innovator in organizational change and development, to create the Peter B. Vaill Business Faculty Award for the School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke where he become Dean of the School of Buisiness.