John Antonakis is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at HEC Lausanne, the business school at the University of Lausanne. He is Editor in Chief of The Leadership Quarterly and an adviser to businesses and governments on leadership development.

He received his Ph.D. from Walden University in Applied Management and Decision Sciences specializing in the psychometrics of leadership and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at Yale University focusing on leader development and expertise. His work has been widely published and he is the author of two books: The Nature of Leadership (two editions), and Being There Even When You Are Not: Leading Through Strategy, Structures, and Systems.