How to Thrive
in Chaos
Dr. Nadya’s personal story
Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva is a scientist, business theorist, fractional mining executive, serial entrepreneur, and award-winning author specializing in resilience and reinvention.
01
From Almaty to Academia: The Roots of Resilience
Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva’s journey began in Almaty, Kazakhstan, during the final years of the Soviet Union — a time marked by instability and rapid change. Growing up in this environment, Dr. Nadya quickly learned the value of resilience. As a high school student, she ventured into business, starting with a job selling insurance. This early experience in entrepreneurship, coupled with her role as a trainer at the Association of Young Leaders, sparked a lifelong passion for leadership and change.
With the help of a Freedom Support Act scholarship, Dr. Nadya moved to the United States, where she completed dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Management and Psychology at Hartwick College. During her studies, she earned the prestigious titles of Faculty Scholar and John Christopher Hartwick Scholar, the college’s highest honors, further solidifying her academic potential. She will later return to her Alma Mater as a Commencement Speaker for the graduating class of 2018.
02
A Scholar and Innovator in Sustainable Business
Dr. Nadya’s pursuit of knowledge didn’t stop there. In 2008, she earned a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University. Her doctoral journey took her to the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit, where she became associate director and later joined its Board of Advisors. Here, Dr. Nadya’s work began to center on embedding sustainability into business practices—an idea that would become central to her career and result, among other things, in receiving the Case Western Reserve University Hall of Fame Award for significant career impact in business and society in 2025.
03
The Educator’s Calling: Teaching Sustainability and Reinvention Globally
Beyond her work in research and consulting, Dr. Nadya was drawn to teaching. She became the Coca-Cola Chaired Professor of Sustainable Development at IEDC-Bled School of Management in the Slovene Alps, a role that enabled her to teach leadership, strategy, and change management.
Around this time, she co-authored Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage with Dr. Chris Laszlo, pioneering the concept of “embedded sustainability” as a strategic approach for companies worldwide. The impact of this work would be profound, marking the beginning of a new era in corporate sustainability and being named one of the “Best Sustainability Books of All Time”.
She also taught in other prestigious institutions, including CEDEP-INSEAD in France (where she served on the Advisory Board) and IPADE Business School in Mexico, personally training nearly 5,000 executives from over 60 countries.
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04
The Reinvention Guru:
Transforming Businesses Worldwide
While teaching, Dr. Nadya was also becoming a highly sought-after consultant, working with renowned global companies. In 2007, Dr. Nadya co-founded
the WE EXIST Reinvention Agency, driven by her desire to bring a structured approach to reinvention.
As a consultant, Dr. Nadya has worked with Fortune 500 and global leaders
such as Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation, Coca-Cola, IBM, Cisco, L’Oreal Group, Danone, Kohler, Erste Bank, Henkel, Knauf Insulation, and Vienna Insurance Group — helping them reinvent products, leadership practices, and business models to stay relevant in turbulent times.
Brands that trust Dr. Nadya’s work
Dr. Nadya also appreciated an opportunity for corporate experience when a long-term client ENRC PLC, a leading mining and metals company with 75,000 employees across Kazakhstan, Africa, and Brazil, invited her to join the executive suite to curate business transformation efforts.
From 2013 to 2016, Dr. Nadya oversaw all aspects of the transformation as the company went from public to private and from a financial to a hands-on operational holding under the new brand, Eurasian Resources Group. She continues to support the Group in a fractional/ advisory role.
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05
Reinvention Academy — A Legacy of Reinvention and Resilience
Building on this foundation, Dr. Nadya launched the Reinvention Academy in 2014 with a bold vision: to equip 1 billion people with skills in resilience and reinvention.
Today, the Academy serves executives, entrepreneurs, consultants, educators, and change-makers from dozens of countries, helping them build the capacity to anticipate change, design new opportunities, and lead transformation with confidence.
In 2024, Nadya co-founded the Reinvention Summit, bringing together leading thinkers and practitioners in strategy, innovation, leadership, and transformation to explore how organizations can thrive in an age of perpetual disruption.
Join 15,000+ professionals reading Reinvention Weekly
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Thought Leadership Around Reinvention
Dr. Nadya’s international bestseller, The Chief Reinvention Officer Handbook: How to Thrive in Chaos, received the Axiom Business Book Award and the prestigious Kirkus Star for exceptional merit.
Her newest book, The Reinvention Advantage: How to Survive and Monetize Volatility in the World That Won't Settle Down, is scheduled for release in 2026.
Dr. Nadya's insights have been featured in Forbes (where she is a regular contributor), Harvard Business Review, numerous podcasts and media outlets around the world.
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Get the Free 85-Page Preview
Access practical tools, real-world case studies, and exercises from The Chief Reinvention Officer Handbook — Dr. Nadya’s award-winning guide to thriving in chaos.
Today, Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva is recognized as one of the leading voices in reinvention. Standing at the intersection of research and practice, she combines the rigor of a scientist with the experience of an entrepreneur, educator, author, speaker, and fractional transformation executive.
Whether advising Fortune 500 companies, teaching executives, writing for global audiences, or speaking on stages around the world, she remains focused on helping leaders and organizations turn disruption into growth, uncertainty into opportunity, and change into a lasting competitive advantage.
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Learn with Dr. Nadya
Explore Reinvention Academy programs, certifications, and practical tools for building the skill of reinvention.
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