When you press the pause button on a machine, it stops... But when you press the pause button on human beings, they start.
Dov Seidman
Dov Seidman
Dov Seidman is a successful entrepreneur, CEO, best-selling author, and teacher.
He has devoted his life and career to elevating individual and organizational behavior, inspiring principled performance, nurturing a culture of moral leadership, and building institutions committing to scaling deep, sustainable, human values in the business arena and across all spheres of society. Dov is the Founder and Chairman of The HOW Institute for Society, a global nonprofit, and LRN, the leading ethics and compliance firm. Dov is also the author of the New York Times best seller “HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything.” Dov holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in moral philosophy from UCLA and Oxford, a law degree from Harvard, and an honorary doctorate from Hebrew Union College. Dov serves on the board of directors at The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, The 92nd Street Y, The Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, and Planet Word. In the Fall of 2022, Dov was appointed a Hauser Leader at The Center for Public Leadership at The Harvard Kennedy School.
Building and scaling
Institutions
Dov Seidman works with and advises business leaders. He builds institutions committed to scaling shared and sustainable human values, and not just shared interests, as central to how they lead and operate.
Mission-aligned
Affiliations
Dov Seidman is meaningfully involved in and supports organizations pursuing aligned missions of significance and seeking to inspire positive change in our world.
Inspiring the NEXT GENERATION OF
Leaders
Dov Seidman helps to educate and develop the next generation to become inspirational, moral leaders and principled decision-makers.
Dov Seidman is so obsessed with the HOW that he created The HOW Institute for Society as a non-profit to build and nurture a culture of moral leadership, principled decision-making, and values-based behavior. The Institute seeks to enable individuals and institutions to meet the profound social, economic, and technological changes of the 21st Century.
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Dov Seidman founded LRN, the leading ethics and compliance management and education company, with a purpose to “help people around the world do the right thing” and mission of “inspiring principled performance in business.” Dov was CEO for 25 years and currently serves as chairman.
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Dov Seidman wrote The New York Times best-seller, HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything. But HOW is much more than a book; HOW is a philosophical framework for changing the role of behavior, governance, culture and leadership in contemporary society.
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Dov writes for The New York Times and Fortune Magazine, among others. He has been referred to as “One of the Top Thought Leaders of the Past Decade.” He speaks at leading private and public sector events such as The World Economic Forum, The Time-Fortune Global CEO Forum and The World Business Forum.
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The State of Moral Leadership in Business 2025
The 2025 State of Moral Leadership in Business report is the latest in an ongoing study of the presence of moral leadership and how, when present, it inspires elevated behavior in people, shapes values-based organizational cultures, strengthens performance, and builds stronger links to society and communities.
Moral leadership among CEOs is declining, even as more people demand it
Dov Seidman, who runs the HOW Institute for Society, has a new survey out assessing the “State of Moral Leadership in Business.”
We Are Opening the Lids on Two Giant Pandora’s Boxes
Let’s face it, we did not understand how much social networks would be used to undermine the twin pillars of any free society — truth and trust. So if we approach generative A.I. just as heedlessly — if we again go along with Mark Zuckerberg’s reckless mantra at the dawn of social networks, “move fast and break things” — oh, baby, we are going to break things faster, harder and deeper than anyone can imagine
We Need Great Leadership Now, and Here’s What It Looks Like
These times are testing leaders from the schoolhouse to the White House, from city halls to corporate suites.
Courageous Leadership at UN75
Dov Seidman, founder and chairman of The HOW Institute for Society spoke at the opening session of the UNGA 75 Private Sector Forum on September 22, 2020. Dov shared his thoughts on what it means to lead with courage in our rapidly reshaped world.
Why HOW Matters Most
Dov Seidman, Founder and Chairman of The HOW Institute for Society, joined Harvard as a Hauser Leader in the Fall of 2022. Throughout his time on campus, Dov drew students into deep, provoking conversations about frameworks and models of leadership and explored with students their own leadership journeys and how they can be guided by their deepest beliefs. Dov spoke with us about his experience engaging with students at CPL.
Human Connection in Remote Work
How the best leaders help companies build deeper connection in a work-from-home world.
Exercise Your Ethical Muscles: Here Are 4 Keys to Being a Better Boss
Lessons on how to be a better boss from corporate-leadership guru Dov Seidman.