Joseph Holt (Past Speaker)

Joe Holt is a Teaching Professor in the Management and Operations Department in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.  Joe received his B.A. from Boston College and spent 12 years as a Jesuit completing graduate studies in Philosophy (Fordham University), Theology (Weston School of Theology), and Biblical Theology (Gregorian University in Rome).

He also taught Philosophy with a specialization in Business Ethics at Canisius College, Boston College, and Loyola University Chicago’s Rome Center.  After leaving the Jesuits, Joe reflected on faith, values and ethics in the workplace from the perspective of one in the business trenches; he spent a brief stint as a stockbroker and then graduated from Harvard Law School and worked for more than 5 years as a corporate attorney in major Chicago law firms (while teaching Business Ethics and Spirituality of Work on an adjunct basis in Loyola University Chicago’s MBA program).  For two years prior to joining Notre Dame full-time, Joe was a Senior Lecturer in Law and Director of the Clinic on Entrepreneurship at The University of Chicago Law School (the Clinic provides free legal assistance to inner-city, low-income entrepreneurs seeking financial self-sufficiency).  At the law school, Joe taught Entrepreneurship and the Law, Negotiation and Mediation, and a seminar designed and offered for the first time by Joe on The Ethical Dimensions of Lawyering.

He currently teaches Foundations of Ethical Business Conduct in the Notre Dame MBA and MSM programs and Ethics in the Nonprofit Organization in the MNA program. He also teaches Ethics in the Emerging Markets, Sustainable Business: Strategies & Solutions, Negotiations, and Spirituality and Religion in the Workplace in the Notre Dame MBA program and Negotiations in the MNA program.  Joe also designs and offers executive programs as well as teaches Values-Based Decision Making, Negotiations, Adaptive Leadership and CSR in the Notre Dame Executive Education online program. He also consults in the areas of ethics, leadership, spirituality, and negotiations.  Joe regularly writes op-ed pieces for CNBC and other media outlets on ethics, leadership and negotiation and has been interviewed on CNBC’s Nightly Business Report on ethics in business.

He won the MBA Teacher of the Year Award in 2013.