Dan Klein

Dan teaches improvisation full time at Stanford University where he is on the faculty of the drama department, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and teaches at the d.school. In 2009, Dan was named Stanford Teacher of the Year by the Student’s Association.

At Stanford GSB he co-teaches (with Professor Deb Gruenfeld), “Acting With Power” which explores the use of status behaviors to increase organizational effectiveness. Dan and Deb also do a version of the class for executive education programs like the Executive Program for Social Entrepreneurs. His work at Hasso Platner Institute for Design involves teaching workshops on Improv and Design for interdisciplinary graduate students studying Design Thinking. The Hasso Platner Institute for Design is a graduate program that uses design thinking to drive multidisciplinary innovation. Students from business, engineering, education, and the humanities come together to solve big, messy problems.

Beyond Stanford, Dan has lead similar workshops custom tailored for various groups, including the High Performance Leadership program at IMD Business School in Switzerland and the Kauffman Fellows Program helping to train global leaders in venture capital. Dan has also partnered with Stanford Professor Carol Dweck to create interactive workshops on her breakthrough research on Mindset.

Dan’s other clients include: Cisco, Oracle, Nestle, Visa, ING, Barclay’s Global Investments, Randstad, Nobel Biocare, and many more.