Lela Tepavac, PhD is a social/organizational psychologist helping companies and their leaders build strong organizations with enabling cultures that attract exceptional people and fully leverage their talents. Lela works primarily in the areas of executive leadership assessment and development, CEO evaluation and succession, organization assessment and diagnosis, culture change, intellectual capital building, and change metrics. Lela has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies across industries: media and entertainment, publishing, banking, airlines, retail, insurance, arts, sports, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and high technology. A representative list of Lela’s clients includes: Citibank; PepsiCo; United Airlines; Time Warner Co; Credit Suisse Asset Management; American Reinsurance; Best Western International; Shell, Texaco, Saudi Aramco; Bristol-Myers Squibb; The Limited; The New York Times; International Paper; Ford Motor Company; Corning; Unilever; Raytheon; League of American Orchestras; Memphis Symphony Orchestra; Merrill Lynch; OmnicomMediaGroup; The World Bank; National Football League, and more.
Lela has created proprietary methodologies and tools to assess leaders’ capabilities to lead in a specific business context such as growth, turnaround or turmoil. She developed a conceptual model and approach to build an innovative organization that enables the creative potential of employees. Lela authored a book on the topic of innovation in organizations (Fearless Journeys: Innovation in Five American Orchestras). Prior to starting her consulting practice, Lela was a Partner at Mercer Delta Consulting (now Oliver Wyman, ’93 – ’06). Lela holds a PhD and MA in social/organizational psychology from Columbia University, New York, an MA in Social Psychiatry from the School of Medicine Zagreb, Croatia, and a BA in liberal arts from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. She fluently speaks English and Croatian.
Lela currently resides in New York City. She enjoys the vibrant cultural life in the Big Apple, as well as weekend escapes to her country home and long summers at the Adriatic coast.
