Biography

Peter Topping is Associate Professor in the Practice of Organization and Management at the Roberto C. Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta.  In this role, Peter teaches courses in Leadership, Organizational Behavior, and Ethics across the School’s MBA programs, including the fulltime, Evening, and Executive MBA formats.  Peter has also served as a Visiting Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico Autonomo de México (ITAM), Mexico’s leading business school; and as an Associated Faculty Member with the Nonprofit Studies Program in the Andrew Young School of Policy and International Studies at Georgia State University.  During the summers of 2000 and 2001, Peter was a Visiting Professor at EM Lyon, one of France’s major business schools.

Peter is an active consultant and executive coach specializing in organizational effectiveness, talent management, leadership development, and senior team effectiveness.  Peter’s past clients have included: AGL Resources, Alcatel, Ameritech, Avio-Diepen US, Burlington Industries, CARE, C.R. Bard, Emory Healthcare, Fluor Daniel, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Fulton County School System, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, The Home Depot, iVision, JM Huber Corporation, ORBIS International, Post Properties, Raychem Manufacturing, Robert Bosch Corporation, Sapient, Silverpop, Sprint, Synovus, The Tennessee Valley Authority, UNUM, the US Environmental Protection Agency and Zieta Technologies. 

Peter is an experienced executive education teacher. He has also served as the primary learning designer and faculty director for a broad range of customized executive across industries, global boundaries, and types of organizations.  Peter’s executive education teaching expertise is in the areas of leadership, organizational change, strategic execution, high performance work teams, systems thinking, cross cultural management, collaborative negotiations and conflict management.  Over the past fifteen years, Peter has worked with a number of market leading organizations in designing and delivering executive development activities.  These include: the CDC, Coca-Cola, Eastman Chemical, Emory University, Fluor Daniel, The Home Depot, IBM, InterContinental Hotels Group, Kilpatrick Stockton law firm, Lockheed Martin, the Mayo Clinic, McKesson, the Medical University of South Carolina, Newell Rubbermaid, Phelps Dodge, Ryder System, Siemens Medical Solutions, SCANA, Suez Group (France), Synovus, Texaco, US Environmental Protection Agency, Verizon and Xerox, among others.

Prior to becoming a full time faculty member at Goizueta Business School, Peter held a variety of senior administrative positions at four different universities over a thirty year span.  From 1990 – 2006, Peter led executive education units inside the business schools of the universities of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Emory.

Peter has published a research white paper in 2005 on “Measuring Return on Investment of Executive Development Activities” and his most recent book, entitled Managerial Leadership, was released for publication by McGraw-Hill in January, 2002.

Peter has received several teaching awards in the Executive MBA Programs at Goizueta Business School, including “Most Inspiring Educator” three years consecutively, 2008-2010.  Peter is an emeritus member of the Board of Directors of the International University Consortium for Executive Education (UNICON).  He has also served on many boards of community not-for-profit organizations.  Peter earned a PhD. in Higher Education Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after completing B.A. and Masters Degrees from UNC as well.