Bruno Verdini
Bruno Verdini has provided advanced executive training, keynotes, and coaching that have influenced cabinet officials, ministers, diplomats, scientists, technology officers, and C-suite decision-makers from over 80 countries.
He structured and earned the first-ever interdepartmental Ph.D. at MIT in four distinct fields: Negotiation, Communication, Diplomacy, and Leadership. This achievement was made possible through outstanding mentorship from colleagues at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT’s Department of Political Science, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
Dr. Verdini’s work focuses on enhancing high-stakes partnerships amid competing allocations of power and leverage between corporate and government decision-makers in both emerging and developed economies. He creates custom strategies and pedagogical approaches that ignite four key stakeholder synergies: curiosity, creativity, resourcefulness, and resilience.
At the core of his research is a commitment to producing mutual prosperity, with successful applications in sectors such as water, energy, environment, infrastructure, mining, and trade diplomacy. His work has been published by MIT Press and translated into Chinese in Winning Together: The Natural Resource Negotiation Playbook, which received Harvard Law School’s Raiffa Award for Best Doctoral Research of the Year in Negotiation, Mediation, Competitive Decision-Making, and Conflict Resolution.
Dr. Verdini has designed and teaches MIT’s award-winning courses on the art and science of negotiation and advanced leadership, which are recognized for their emphasis on personalized coaching and moral compass. He has received MIT’s d’Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in Education and the Teaching with Digital Technology Award. Additionally, he co-founded MIT’s Concentration in Negotiation and Leadership, where he annually mentors Schwarzman, Rhodes, Fulbright, Gates, Mitchell, Marshall, Knight-Hennessy, and Truman scholars, as well as entrepreneurs.
Dr. Verdini has a diverse heritage that includes Mexican and French backgrounds, as well as Indigenous and Italian roots. He was previously the youngest Deputy Director for International Affairs at Mexico’s Ministry of Energy. In that role, he planned and contributed to ministerial meetings for various organizations, including the International Energy Agency, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum.
As Executive Director of the MIT-Harvard Mexico Negotiation Program, he examines how key stakeholders in trade blocs—such as the one formed by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, which encompasses over 500 million people and nearly 30% of the global economy—can strategically enhance energy independence, near-shoring, infrastructure development, and climate risk resilience through agile deal-making, ultimately fostering sustained economic prosperity in the age of artificial intelligence.
Dr. Verdini is a Visiting Professor at the Asia School of Business in partnership with MIT’s Sloan School of Management, where he collaborates on innovative diplomatic initiatives and promotes cross-pollination of ideas with leading regional ministerial and C-suite decision-makers from the public and private sectors.
