Suzy Wetlaufer Welch

Suzanne Rebekah Spring was born in Portland, Oregon, where her father was an architect. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and, later, in Harrison, New York. Her dad was a professor of architecture; her mother, who has a doctorate in education from Columbia, is a painter and sculptor. And there was money -- her grandfather, who started as a butcher, bought real estate in New York during the Depression and turned it into a modest fortune. She was the third of four kids -- all of whom went to Ivy League colleges. She met her future husband, Eric Wetlaufer, while attending Phillips Exeter Academy; he's now a money manager with Putnam. Suzy received her BA from Harvard College in 1981 and then joined The Miami Herald as a reporter. She left daily journalism to attend Harvard Business School, where she graduated as a Baker Scholar in 1988. After Harvard Business School, Suzy worked as a management consultant, specializing in strategy and manufacturing. She joined the Harvard Business Review as a senior editor in 1995 and was named editor-in-chief in 2001. During her tenure at HBR, Suzy was the author of numerous articles on leadership, change, creativity and organizational behavior, as well as the contributor to several books on management.