Oliver Fischer is a Fellow in Strategy, Leadership and Change at Saïd Business School and a member of the School’s Organisational Behaviour Group. His expertise is in leadership, HR strategy, talent management, employee engagement, innovation, consumer behaviour and decision making. 

Prior to joining Saïd Business School, Oliver was Director of the international executive education activities of Bertelsmann, Europe’s largest media company. He developed, directed and taught programmes on strategy, leadership and innovation. In his role at Bertelsmann, Oliver advised senior executives from all business units, including RTL Group (TV and Radio), Random House (books), Gruner + Jahr (magazines), arvato (services) and Direct Group (book and music clubs). Previously, Oliver also advised Deutsche Welle, an international German public broadcaster, on strategic planning and evaluation. 

Oliver’s main research interest is in leadership, with a particular focus on theories of charismatic leadership, social identity and the role of communication technology. He also has an interest in consumer behaviour and how this can inform user-centric innovation.  Oliver has published in academic and practitioner journals on strategic management development, leadership, employee engagement, employer branding and media psychology. 

Oliver holds BA degrees in economics and psychology from the University of Cologne, as well as an MPhil (Darwin) and a PhD (Peterhouse) in Management from Cambridge, where he was also a Gates Scholar. For his MPhil, Oliver was awarded scholarships by the German DAAD and the Cambridge European Trust. For his research on leadership, he won scholarships from the ESRC, the Cambridge Gates Trust and Peterhouse College.