2026 Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors: William Brady, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

William Brady
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University 

“Professor William Brady is a dynamic and innovative educator who exemplifies next-generation MBA instruction. At Kellogg, he teaches Negotiation Fundamentals, a course highly regarded by students for its engaging, research-driven approach to real-world negotiation strategy. His lectures are clear, compelling, and grounded in cutting-edge behavioral science, translating rigorous research into practical, career-enhancing tools students can immediately apply. His dedication to intellectual rigor, practical impact, and student success makes him a transformational educator at Kellogg and an exceptional candidate for recognition as one of Poets & Quants’ 40 Under 40 MBA Professors.” – School nomination

William J. Brady, 39, is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He holds a courtesy appointment in Northwestern’s Department of Psychology, serves as core faculty in the Technology and Social Behavior program, and is a Faculty Associate of the Institute for Policy Research. At Kellogg, he sits on the advisory board of the Dispute Resolution Research Center (DRRC) and is an affiliate of the Center for Enlightened Disagreement. He directs the Mind & Technology Lab. 

His research examines how human psychology interacts with new technologies in ways that shape emotion, morality, and intergroup behavior, with the goal of designing person-centered and design-centered interventions that improve digital social interactions. He combines behavioral experiments, big data analytics, and natural language processing to study emotion at the social network level and its consequences for group behavior. 

Previously, he completed a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University, earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from New York University, and received his B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy, with distinction, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

His research has been published in leading academic journals including Science, Nature Human Behaviour, PNAS, Science Advances, and Perspectives on Psychological Science. His work has been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Wired, Scientific American, the BBC, NPR’s Hidden Brain, and Brené Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast, and was cited in a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing on persuasive technology. 

He is the recipient of the 2026 Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, the 2026 Kabiller Science of Empathy Prize, and the 2024 APS Rising Star Award. He was a finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program in 2024 and received the SAGE Emerging Scholar Award in 2021. 

BACKGROUND 

At current institution since what year? 2022 

Education: Ph.D., Social Psychology, New York University; B.A., Psychology, Philosophy,  University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. 

List of MBA/graduate business courses you currently teach: Negotiation Fundamentals 

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR 

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … I was on the academic job market and noticed that business school audiences consistently asked the most interesting questions about my research. That stuck with me. I value the emphasis on interdisciplinary work and doing research that matters beyond the assumptions of any one discipline — and business schools reward that in a way few other environments do. 

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? My current research examines how AI and algorithms in digital spaces shape the way we learn from one another. We’ve found that algorithms systematically amplify extreme content — politically extreme, bizarre, or novel posts — which leads people to overestimate how common those attitudes and behaviors actually are. Worse, people sometimes conform to these distorted perceptions of social norms. Social media companies have yet to solve this, so my work focuses on designing algorithms that reduce the outsized influence of extreme users and make our feeds more socially representative of the people around us. 

If I weren’t a business school professor… I’d probably be making music full time. I’m an experimental musician on the side and have released 12 albums since 2007 and played shows up and down the East Coast, mostly in Brooklyn, Atlanta, and North Carolina. I still haven’t played in Chicago because I’ve been too busy, but I’m working my way there. 

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? My background is in social and moral psychology, and I’ve spent years studying how people get past intractable conflicts. These are the situations where each side sees the world in fundamentally different ways. It turns out those lessons translate in a unique and surprisingly effective way to teaching negotiations. I pull back the curtain on the psychology behind where people typically get stuck, so my students never do. 

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: Sitting in a department with colleagues from wildly different disciplines  isn’t a drawback, it’s one of the biggest advantages of the job. My research and teaching have grown in ways they never would have otherwise, just from seeing talks I wouldn’t have sought out on my own. Business schools bring disciplines together in combinations that sound unlikely on paper but work well in practice. 

Professor I most admire and why: I most admire several of my Kellogg colleagues who have been mentors to me, formally and informally — in particular, Nour Kteily, Adam Waytz, and Eli Finkel. They’ve each played a big role in my success and enjoyment at Kellogg, from showing me the ropes in teaching, to supporting and collaborating on ambitious research, to giving me the confidence I needed when I first arrived. That’s the kind of colleague I aspire to be, and it’s a cool to have that example right down the hall. 

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? I’ve taught undergraduates before, and they’re wonderful, but MBA students are on another level. I’d heard the reputation that MBAs could be “difficult,” and coming from a non-business school background I wasn’t sure what to expect. But in my experience they’re simply more engaged, and I learn something from them every time I teach. I love how they challenge you to prove the practical impact of disciplinary research. 

What is most challenging? The diversity in career backgrounds is both the most exciting and the most challenging part. It pushes you to develop material that translates across different contexts, rather than teaching to one specific use case. 

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… fair and consistent 

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 

What are your hobbies? Music, surfing, and basketball. I grew up on boards of all kinds, took a hiatus while I pursued my PhD, and have fully returned to it now that I have a professor’s salary instead of a grad student’s…these days my life is basically work and traveling to hunt waves. I’ve been playing basketball for 20 years and still suit up against Northwestern undergrads at least once a week to stay in shape. I still feel athletic, though in my old age I hurt more the day after than I used to.  

How will you spend your summer? Researching and hunting waves with my brother. 

Favorite place(s) to vacation: Lately my favorite place to surf is Central America, especially Nicaragua. 

Favorite book(s): I’m a sci-fi nerd. Most recently I’ve been deep into Hugh Howey’s Silo series. 

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?  On the TV side, I thought Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth was a masterpiece. For film, I’d go with Aftersun — it hit me emotionally harder than almost anything I’ve seen recently, and the visuals were phenomenal. 

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? Mostly rap and deep house, but I also listen to a lot of weird experimental music. Every now and then when I’m lifting weights, I’ll throw on some death metal. 

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS 

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… Ethics and sustainability woven into every area of study, rather than treated as a one-off specialization. For instance, AI is going to accelerate growth at an unprecedented pace, and our students need to be prepared for both the upside and the downside of that acceleration as they build their own careers and organizations. 

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… Following evidence-based research rather than making parochial decisions. A lot of the problems we’re seeing today with social media algorithms, for example, could have been predicted years ago using basic findings from psychological science — and that’s true far beyond tech. 

I’m grateful for… My family, who have always encouraged me. And the wonderfully diverse intellectual community at Kellogg, along with the generous support I’ve had from my colleagues since day one. 

DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE 2026 ROSTER OF THE WORLD’S BEST 40-UNDER-40 GRADUATE BUSINESS PROFESSORS 

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