Frances Hesselbein

Frances Hesselbein (November 1, 1915 – December 11, 2022) was an American businesswoman and writer. She was the CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, from 1976 to 1990, and the president and CEO of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Non-Profit Management, the Leader to Leader Institute, and the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute, which later became the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership.

Between 1965 and 1976, she rose from volunteer troop leader to CEO and held the position of CEO for thirteen years until 1990.

In 1990, Hesselbein left the Girl Scouts to run the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly known as the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management).

Hesselbein is the co-editor of 27 books published in 29 languages and the author of Hesselbein on Leadership and My Life in Leadership.

Hesselbein was on the boards of the Mutual of America Life Insurance Company, the Bright China Social Fund, California Institute of Advanced Management, and the Teachers College, Columbia University Presidents Advisory Council. She turned 100 years old in November 2015.

Frances Hesselbein Student Leadership Program In 2006, the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) created the Frances Hesselbein Student Leadership Program to support high school students and to honor Hesselbein and her situational leadership. The program aims to teach high school students leadership, communication, and team-building skills by sending them on a week-long trip to either the United States Military Academy in the fall or to the United States Air Force Academy in the spring.

Publications

Author Hesselbein, Frances, foreword by Jim Collins, My Life in Leadership, 2011 Hesselbein, Frances, and General Eric K. Shinseki, United States Army, Ret. Be, Know, Do: Leadership the Army Way, 2004 Hesselbein, Frances, foreword by Jim Collins, Hesselbein on Leadership, 2002

Editor Hesselbein, Frances, Marshall Goldsmith, Sarah McArthur, eds.Work Is Love Made Visible, 2018. Hesselbein, Frances and Marshall Goldsmith, eds. The Organization of the Future 2: Visions, Strategies, and Insights on Managing in a New Era, 2009.