Shawn Achor is the winner of over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in the most popular class at Harvard. His research and lectures on happiness and human potential have received attention in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, as well as on NPR and CNN Radio. When not at Harvard, Shawn travels around the world giving talks on positive psychology to Fortune 500 corporations, financial institutions, schools, and non-profit organizations. He is the CEO of Aspirant, a global positive psychology consulting firm which researches positive outliers—people who are well above average—to help consult organizations on where human potential, success and happiness intersect. In 2009, Shawn will share his research with leaders in over 40 countries and 36 states.

Shawn graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned a Masters degree from Harvard Divinity School in Christian and Buddhist ethics. In 2006, Shawn served as Head Teaching Fellow with Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar of “Positive Psychology,” a class that enrolled 1 out of every 7 Harvard undergraduates. For seven years, Shawn served as an Officer of Harvard, living in Harvard Yard and counseling students through the stresses of their first year. Shawn continues to conduct original psychology research on human potential, happiness, and organizational achievement.

Shawn has spoken to diverse audiences—Wall Street analysts, medical institutions, business leaders, elite high school students, wealth managers, and parents—in order to close the gap between the advances made in positive psychology research and our everyday lives. Based on his research and 12 years of experience at Harvard, Shawn Achor clearly and humorously describes to organizations how to increase happiness and meaning, raise success rates and profitability, and create positive transformations that ripple into more successful cultures.