Iris Bohnet Keynote Speaker

Best-Selling Author, "What Works: Gender Equality by Design"
Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School (2006-present)
Behavioural Economist

Iris Bohnet's Biography

Dr. Iris Bohnet, a Swiss behavioral economist, is the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government and the co-director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School.

She combines insights from economics and psychology to improve decision-making in organizations and society, often with a gender or cross-cultural perspective. Her most recent research examines behavioral design to de-bias how we live, learn and work. She is the author of ‘What Works: Gender Equality by Design’, and her most recent book is Make Work Fair: Data-Driven Design for Real Results – The Harvard Experts’ Blueprint: Actionable Practices for Equity and Inclusion in Organizations, and advises governments and companies on the topic around the world. What Works was shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, was a Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year and a Times Higher Education Book of the Week.

Professor Bohnet served as the academic dean of the Kennedy School, is the director of its research center, the Women and Public Policy Program, co-chair of the Behavioral Insights Group, an associate director of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory, and the faculty chair of the executive program “Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century” for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders.

She was appointed to the Gender Equality Advisory Council of the G7 in 2021 and named one of the Most Influential Academics in Government and one of the most Influential People in Gender Policy by apolitical.

She is a co-chair of the Global Future Council on Behavioral Science of the World Economic Forum and serves on the boards or advisory boards of Applied, and Edge, as well as numerous academic journals.

What works: Gender Equality By Design

AI and bias in HR

Defying Gender Bias

Designing Diversity

She brings world-leading authority on behavioural economics and organisational design from Harvard Kennedy School, helping leaders make better decisions and build more effective institutions.
She shows organisations how to reduce bias through practical behavioural design, drawing on research that applies economics and psychology to how people are hired, evaluated, and promoted.
She translates evidence on gender equality and inclusion into scalable, actionable interventions, informed by her bestselling book What Works: Gender Equality by Design and her advisory work with governments and companies.
She equips executives and policymakers to move from intention to implementation, using rigorous experimentation and decision science to redesign systems rather than relying on individual behaviour change.
She offers a global policy perspective on talent, fairness, and performance, shaped by her roles with the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council and the World Economic Forum’s behavioural science initiatives.