Susan Lucia Annunzio (Lucia)

President and Chief Executive Officer of the
Center for High Performance (CfHP)

Adjunct Associate Professor, Executive Education,
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

Acclaimed Leadership Coach, Author, and President and CEO of the Center for High Performance, Lucia Annunzio is known by her clients as the “CEO Whisperer.” She has spent more than 25 years observing, analyzing, and influencing C-Suite and board dynamics, experience that she applies in coaching CEOs and C-suite executives. She is the mastermind of “Elite High-Performance Coaching” – CfHP’s proprietary approach to propel leaders to greatness. She works exclusively with CEO’s, senior executives and rising stars.

Lucia’s work is based on CfHP’s proprietary global research on the factors that accelerate or inhibit profitable growth.  It achieved critical acclaim and was presented at such prestigious venues as the World Economic Forum, The International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change at the University of Greenwich, and Avature’s “Talent Economy” launch event in Belgium.

Lucia is the author of Contagious Success (Portfolio, 2004), a dynamic, award-winning management book that revealed the global standard for high performance. Contagious Success was voted Fast Company’s Readers’ Choice. Lucia also authored two additional prominent business books: Communicoding (Fine, 1990; Penguin USA, 1991) and Evolutionary Leadership (Simon & Schuster, 2001; Fireside, 2002). She is frequently quoted in the business press such as the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and CNBC. She is currently a Wall Street Journal Contributor. Recently, she published, “How Bosses Can Stop the ‘Meeting After the Meeting‘.”

Lucia is an Adjunct Associate Professor, Executive Education, at the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, where she teaches the most popular program, High Performance Leadership. She has been a guest lecturer at INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and Instituto De Empresa in Madrid. She also taught at General Electric’s Crotonville Corporate Training Center.

Lucia is a long-standing member of the Economic Club of Chicago as well as the Chicago Club. She has sat on various not-for-profit boards including the Joffrey Ballet and the Museum of Contemporary Art. She also sits on the Advisory Board of KindWorks AI and is a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council. Lucia is currently focusing her philanthropy on the National MS Society.