Marc Hurwitz, PhD MSc MSc MBA CMC (He/Him)

Dr. Marc Hurwitz is a co-author of the best-seller Leadership is Half the Story (University of Toronto, Rotman-Press), Followership Education, and Followership In Action. He is the co-founder of FliP U Inc. - FliPing leadership on its head with innovative blended professional development.

Marc teaches leadership and followership, entrepreneurship, organizational behaviour, and consulting at U. Waterloo. He has also taught Finance at Wilfrid Laurier, neuroscience and psychology at U. Waterloo, and math and physics at a number of PSEs. Marc has many years corporate and entrepreneurial experience in product marketing, HR, actuarial and IT, including starting three separate ventures. Although, as a kid, he dreamed of being a theoretical physicist or one of the Beatles, his path in life keeps pulling him back to his love of people, learning and teaching.

• Followership

• Leadership

• Innovation

• Leadership-Followership Systems

• Collaboration

• Creativity

• Organizational Neuroscience

• Creativity

• Organizational Neuroscience

• Team Development

• Strategy

• Consulting

Marc's expertise is in the areas of followership, leadership, systems theory, organizational neuroscience, creativity, and collaboration. His current research projects include understanding collaboration and how it can be measured, identified, and improved at the interpersonal level; followership and how it integrates with leadership to create a system; the neuroscience of organizations, and techniques for improving creativity and innovation in people, teams, and organizations.

• 2011, Doctorate Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 2000, Master of Business Administration, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

• 1988, Master of Science Applied Mathematics, University of Guelph, Canada

• 1984, Master of Science Theoretical Physics, McMaster University, Canada

• 1983, Bachelor of Science Theoretical Physics, University of Guelph, Canada

• 2017, Certified Management Consultant, CMC Canada

• 1983 MacNaughton Medal, University of Guelph

• 1988 Distinction awarded to MSc thesis, University of Guelph

• 2000 Gold Medalist, School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University

• Awarded for top graduating grade point average (GPA).

• 2009 NSERC PGS-D, University of Waterloo

• 2011 Recognition of teaching excellence in finance, Associate Dean of Business, Wilfrid Laurier University

• 2017 Outstanding Performance Award, University of Waterloo

• 2019 Sandford Fleming Teaching Award

• 2022 Outstanding Performance Award, University of Waterloo

• 2025 Distinguished Teacher Award, University of Waterloo

• 2015-2025 Teaching Champion, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business

• 2016-2024 Associate Director, Undergraduate Studies, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business

• 2018-2024 Associate Director, Non-degree Programs, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business

• 2025-present Associate Director, Professional Graduate Programs, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business

• 2014-2018 Chair, Followership Community, International Leadership Association

• 2019-present Co-founder and Organizer, Global Followership Conference

• BE 600 - Management and Leadership
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• BET 100 - Foundations of Entrepreneurial Practice
  • Taught in 2026
• BET 340 - Essentials of Entrepreneurial Planning and Execution
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• BET 600 - Applied Business Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• BET 615 - Corporate Innovation and Consulting
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Koonce, R., Bligh, M., Carsten, M., & Hurwitz, M. (Eds.) (2016). Followership in action: Cases and commentaries. Bradford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

• Hurwitz, M., & Hurwitz, S. (2015). Leadership is half the story: A fresh look at followership, leadership, & collaboration. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press - Rotman Publishing.

• Thompson, R., Hurwitz, M., & Shufutinsky, A. (2026). Insights into followership: Implications for developing effective organizations. Journal of Management Development, 45(1).

• Thompson, R., Colbry, S., & Hurwitz, M. (2021). Followership. Commercial and Industrial Training, 53(2). Bradford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

• Hurwitz, M., & Thompson, R. (Eds.) (2020). Followership education. New Directions in Student Leadership vol. 167. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing.

• Hurwitz, M. & Koonce, R. (2016). Journal of Leadership Studies, 10(3), 41-44. DOI:10.1002/jls

• Hurwitz, M., & Hurwitz, S. (2026). Followership and social purpose. In W. Harvey, C. Hilton, A. Newman, & L. Ward-Christie (Eds.), Oxford handbook of social purpose (pp. xx-xx). Oxford University Press.

• Hurwitz, M. (2021). International followership. In Y. Tolstikov-Mast, F. Bieri, & J. L. Walker (Eds.), Handbook of international and cross-cultural leadership research processes (pp. 24–47). Routledge.

• Hurwitz, M. (2018). Exploring distributed leadership: A leader-follower collaborative lens. In N. Chatwani (Ed.), Distributed leadership: The dynamics of balancing leadership with followership. Springer-Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59581-8_1

• Hurwitz, M. & Hurwitz, S. (2016). A mistake in the numbers. In R. Koonce, M. Bligh, M. Carsten, & M. Hurwitz (Eds.), Followership in action. Bradford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

• Hurwitz, M. & Hurwitz, S. (2016). The acquired executive. In R. Koonce, M. Bligh, M. Carsten, & M. Hurwitz (Eds.), Followership in action. Bradford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

• Hurwitz, M. (2015). How to be a better follower. In D. DeRuyver & J. Gardiner (Eds.), Becoming a better leader: Applying key strategies (pp. 22-29). Routledge, jointly with International Leadership Association.

• Thompson, R., Hurwitz, M., & Shufutinsky, A. (2026). Insights into followership: Implications for developing effective organizations. Journal of Management Development, 45(1), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-02-2026-602

• Ao, S. I., Hurwitz, M., & Palade, V. (2025). Cognitive computing and business intelligence applications in accounting, finance and management. Big Data Cogn. Comp. 9(3). DOI: 10.3390/bdcc9030054

• Hurwitz, M. & Hurwitz, S. (2023). Leadership and followership training: Everyone, everywhere, all at once. Organization Development Review, 55(3), 61-67.

• Thompson, R., Gresh, S., & Hurwitz, M. (2021). The power of We in followership: Strategies for followership development. Industrial and Commercial Training, 53(2), 105-106.

• Hurwitz, M., & Hurwitz, S. (2020). Integrating followership into leadership programs. New Directions for Student Leadership, 167, 23-35.

• Hurwitz, M., & Thompson, R. (2020). Editors’ notes. New Directions for Student Leadership, 167, 5-9.

• Cao, T.N., Bubbar, K., Chang, W. H., Meister, D., Laguë, C., Fisher, A, Bailetti, T., Hurwitz, M., & Villaume, F. (2020). A snapshot of entrepreneurship education at Canadian Engineering Schools–A representative overview from EETI SIG Members. Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA).

• Hurwitz, M. (2017). Followership: A classroom exercise to introduce the concept. Management Teaching Review. DOI: 10.1177/2379298117717468

• Hurwitz, M., & Koonce, R. (2016). The practice of followership: From theory to application. Journal of Leadership Studies, 10(3), 41-44. DOI:10.1002/jls

• Colbry, S., Hurwitz, M., & Adair, R. (2014). Collaboration theory. Journal of Leadership Education, Special 2014, 65-75.

• Cavezian, C., Valadao, D., Hurwitz, M., Saoud, M, & Danckert, J. (2012). Finding centre: Ocular and fMRI investigations of bisection and landmark task performance. Brain Research, 1437, 89-103.

• Hurwitz, M., Valadao, D., & Danckert, J. (2011). Functional MRI of dynamic judgments of spatial extent. Experimental Brain Research, 214, 61-72.

• Hurwitz, M., Valadao, D., & Danckert, J. (2011). Static versus dynamic judgments of spatial extent. Experimental Brain Research, 209, 271-286.

• Valadao, D., Hurwitz, M., & Danckert, J. (2011). Decreasing fidelity of peripheral information modulates performance on the manual line bisection task. Journal of Vision, 11(11), 250.

• Valadao, D., Hurwitz, M., Danckert, J. (2010). Examining the influence of ‘noise’ in judgements of spatial extent. Experimental Brain Research, 207, 157-164.

• Merrifield, M., Hurwitz, M., Danckert, J. (2010). Multimodal temporal perception deficits in a patient with left spatial neglect. Cognitive Neuroscience, 1(4), 244-253.

• Hurwitz, M., Valadao, D., & Danckert, J. (2010). Do the eyes really have it? Ocular and visuomanual judgments of spatial extent. Journal of Vision, 10(7), 267.

• Hurwitz, M. & Hurwitz, S. (2009). The romance of the follower: part 3. Industrial and Commercial Training, 41(6), 326-333.

• Hurwitz, M. & Hurwitz, S. (2009). The romance of the follower: part 2. Industrial and Commercial Training, 41(4), 199-206.

• Hurwitz, M. & Hurwitz, S. (2009). The romance of the follower: part 1. Industrial and Commercial Training, 41(2), 80-86.

• Schneider, A., Hurwitz, M., Merrifield, C., & Danckert, J. (2008). It’s about time: Why right spatial neglect is mild. Journal of Vision, 8(6), 769.

• Prof recognized for innovative teaching