About this event

An executive advisor Naomi Bagdonas shares insight on why humor is a secret weapon in business and life.

Naomi empowers leaders to build more innovative, collaborative, and joyful work cultures (and lives). She is an executive advisor, Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and leading expert in the intersection of humor and business.

As an executive advisor, Naomi facilitates interactive sessions for the boards and leadership teams of Fortune 100 companies and nonprofits. Versed in behavioral science and human perceptions, she coaches executives and celebrities on topics ranging from leadership presence, to media appearances on Saturday Night Live and The Today Show, to political campaign strategies, to creative marketing assets. At Stanford, Naomi teaches courses in the MBA and Executive Education programs, including Humor: Serious Business, Rethinking Purpose, and A New Type of Leader.

Naomi is the national bestselling co-author of Humor, Seriously, and her work on the power of humor has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Good Morning America. Her media coaching was featured in Sports Illustrated. Her pioneering research on team culture was the cover story of the Harvard Business Review and led to the creation of a business-focused personality system used by more than 800,000 people in over 150 countries to collaborate and innovate more effectively. It also led to her co-writing and producing a music video on the topic, in which she cameos as Janitor #2.

She earned her MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, her BA in Economics and Psychology from Claremont McKenna College, and is formally trained in improv and sketch comedy at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. In her spare time, she teaches improv in San Francisco’s county jail, backpacks in the Sierras, and fosters a revolving door of rescue dogs whom she adores and who systematically destroy everything she owns.