Marissa King

Marissa King is Professor of Leadership and Management at IMD, where she helps executives understand and harness the power of human connection. Her research, teaching, and consulting draw on network science, psychology, and organizational behavior to provide leaders with practical relational tools for building stronger teams and more effective organizations. 

“Relationships are not random. They follow predictable patterns that can be understood, measured, and changed. Most leaders underestimate how much the structure of their relationships influences their own performance, organizational resilience, and ability to innovate,” shares King.  

She provides leaders and organizations with evidence-based tools to harness the strengths of existing relationships and transform their networks to meet their objectives. Increasingly, that includes designing teams and networks that integrate AI not just as a tool, but as a collaborator. 

She is the author of Social Chemistry: Decoding the Elements of Human Connection, which translates decades of network research into an accessible framework for understanding how different relationship styles shape our professional and personal lives. Her academic work has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, and Organization Science, and she has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and NPR. 

King has deep expertise in health care. She has published in JAMA and BMJ, led multiple NIH-funded research projects, and worked with leading healthcare organizations. She has also been at the forefront of AI adoption in the field, serving as co-director of the health care lab under the Wharton AI and Analytics Initiative and as a convener of (Re)Writing the Future of Healthcare with Generative AI. She is particularly interested in how AI reshapes team design and collaborative relationships. 

She has collaborated with Fortune 500 companies and international organizations, including Apple, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Fidelity, PepsiCo, and the World Bank, translating her research into impact through hands-on assessments and experiential exercises. In addition to her work with large corporations, she has partnered with small and mid-sized organizations, non-profits, and public institutions.  

Before joining IMD, King was the Alice Y. Hung President’s Distinguished Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that, she was Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management.