Al Ritter, Leadership and Team Development Consultant

Before starting his own consulting and speaking business, Al was an engagement leader for the large consulting firm Accenture, and was recognized as that firm’s resident expert in leadership, team development, culture and large scale change. Earlier, he served as senior vice president for Citigroup, chief financial officer for Swift & Company, and in marketing and operations positions with PepsiCo.

The origins of Al's approach to leadership and team development began in those early years. He witnessed a dysfunctional behavior pattern in both himself and many other leaders around him — a single-minded drive for success. This had the side effect of running roughshod over others, compromising the very success everyone was after. So, after a lot of soul searching he decided to help change the industry paradigm by taking the leap into consulting in 1989. He developed a new approach based on peeling back the onion on both domains of great leadership — results and relationships.

As a professional speaker, Al speaks on leadership and high performance teams with businesses, associations and universities, having delivered over 500 speeches, workshops and seminars.

He has also written two books and several articles on leadership. Both books are best-sellers and have been life-changing for business professionals. His first book, Life is a Paradox: Counter-Intuitive Secrets to Personal and Professional Effectiveness, relates stories and lessons from his consulting experiences as well as his background in sports and other domains. The second book, The 100/0 Principle: The Secret of Great Relationships, is an even bigger best seller. It teaches the reader how to take full responsibility for the important relationships in their life, expecting nothing in return.

Al holds an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth, and a BA in Economics from The University of Connecticut.

For fun, he enters two or three triathlons every year. Al played basketball and baseball in college, and follows these sports plus football and hockey avidly. Al also enjoys reading the latest research on leadership and team performance.