Career and Public Life

Prior to 1971: Werner Erhard's first job while in his teens was selling cars for Lee Iacocca. In his mid twenties he became Vice President of Parent's Magazine's Cultural Institute, a division of Grace & Co. then Division Manager at Grolier Society Inc. He then became an Instructor with Mind Dynamics

1971: Developed the est Training,(also known as est or Erhard Seminars Training) based on transformational models and applications. Director of Research and Development, public speaker and one of the founding employees for Erhard Seminars Training, Inc., an education and seminar company based on transformational models

1973: Founder, The est Foundation, (later renamed the Werner Erhard Foundation) - a charitable organization devoted to funding projects with the potential to improve the quality of human life. As well as supporting The Breakthrough Foundation, The Holiday Project, Youth At Risk, and The Mastery Foundation, the Werner Erhard Foundation sponsored public presentations that brought prominent philosophers, scientists, and theologians such as Buckminster Fuller, Douglas Harding, and the eminent leader of Tibetan Buddhism, His Holiness the XVI Gyalwa Karmapa to speak to audiences in the United States.

1977: Co-founder, The Hunger Project, a charitable organization dedicated to education and to empowering organizations that combat hunger and starvation.

1977 - 1987: For ten years Werner Erhard produced an annual theoretical physics conference that brought together leading scientists from all over the world to address the critical issues and problems confronting work at the forefront of their fields. The conferences were attended by the leading thinkers in the field. Some of the discussions later evolved into what are now leading edge theories in physics. Participants included Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, Gerard t'Hooft and Leonard Susskind.

1979: Founder, The Breakthrough Foundation, a charitable organization devoted to youths at risk

1979: Launch of the US/USSR Project - an educational exchange to explore the principles of communication, management, and creative thinking with the people of what was then the Soviet Union. After several delegate exchanges, Werner Erhard was invited to conduct the first of many courses and lectures in Moscow under the auspices of the Znaniye (All Union Knowledge) Society (the prime vehicle for education in the former Soviet Union).

1980: Founder, The Holiday Project, a charitable organization devoted to contributing to people in hospitals and other institutions during the holidays

1981: Founder, Werner Erhard & Associates, an education and seminar company based on transformational models

1983: Co-founder, The Education Network, a charitable organization dedicated to reducing the dropout rate and generating other breakthroughs in education

1983: Co-founder, Action Technologies, Inc., a business process management software company

1984: Created, along with Fr. Basil Pennington, the program Making A Difference: A Course For Those Who Minister, for the newly formed Mastery Foundation.

1984: Co-founder, Paradigm 3 Satellite Network, a satellite leasing company

1984: Founder, Transformational Technologies Inc., a management consulting technology company utilizing transformational models and applications

1990: Founder, Tekniko Inc., a management consulting technology company utilizing transformational models and applications

1991: Retired

1995: Fortune Magazine’s 40th Anniversary issue (May 15, 1995), in examining the major contributions to management thinking, recognized Werner Erhard’s creation of est as the major innovation of the 1970s in shaping modern management thinking toward empowering people. 

2007: Werner Erhard, his life and work, became the subject of a documentary titled, “Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard”.

2009: NeuroLeadership Institute, 2009 NeuroLeadership Summit Keynote Address: “How Language Shapes The World”.

2010: Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Professor Michael C. Jensen and Werner Erhard: “Being A Leader And The Effective Exercise Of Leadership: An Ontological Model", delivered at Harvard University, Harvard Business School, and at Mays School of Business, Texas A&M University

2010: United States Air Force Academy, Werner Erhard, Michael Jensen, Kari Granger and Joseph DiMaggio:  “Creating Leaders:  Mastering the Principles and Effective Delivery of the Ontological Access to Leadership” (a 4 day course for faculty). 

2010: Werner Erhard led a high level course for many of India's leading executives. This course was presented by the IC Centre for Governance in Panchgani, under the sponsorship of MW Corp

2012: Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Werner Erhard, Michael Jensen, Kari Granger and Joseph DiMaggio:  “Dean's Leadership Course”  

2013: Presented Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model at Entrepreneurship@UBC, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada in 2013

2013: Presented Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model in Cancun, Mexico to thought leaders from around the world.

2014: Creating Leaders: A New Model - Ten Years On: University of Rochester Simon Business School: Sands Leadership Lecture, February 5, 2014

2015: Presented Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model in Dubai in January 2015 at the Zayed University Convention Center to benefit the Erhard-Jensen Ontological / Phenomenological Initiative which supports the delivery of the course in Universities throughout the world.

2016: Discussion with Werner Erhard and Professor Jonathan D. Moreno at the University of Pennsylvania Bioethics Film Festival in April 2016.

2016: Presented Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model at Clemson University, College of Business in July 2016

2016: Presented Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model in Dubai in October 2016 Abu Dhabi U.A.E to benefit the Erhard-Jensen Ontological / Phenomenological Initiative which supports the delivery of the course in Universities throughout the world.

2017: Werner Erhard in a conversation on compassion with Professor James Doty at Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, November, 2017

2018: Presented Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model at The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in July 2018

Currently Werner Erhard commits his time and intellectual effort almost exclusively to the academic world. Some of his recent research, writings, lectures, and courses can be found on his Author Page in the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN).

Werner has been a guest lecturer at a wide variety of prestigious institutions and professional associations around the world, including Harvard Business School; Harvard Law School; Yale University Law School;  Center for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; USC Marshall School of Business; the American Psychiatric Association; the Soviet Academy of Sciences; UNESC; Oxford Union at Oxford University, Stanford University; MIT, the University of Rochester Simon School of Business, The United States Air Force Academy , Erasmus Academie Rotterdam , Texas A&M University Mays School of Business , Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, the University of British Columbia, Rutgers University, Clemson University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.