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Strategy

Clinical Professor of Strategy

Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at Kellogg

Faculty Director of the Zell Fellows Program

Director of the Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice

Portrait of David Schonthal, Faculty at the Kellogg School of Management
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David Schonthal is an award-winning Professor of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management where he teaches courses on new venture creation, design thinking, healthcare innovation and creativity. In addition to his teaching, he also serves as the Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at Kellogg and is the Faculty Director of the Zell Fellows Program, a selective venture accelerator program designed to help student entrepreneurs successfully launch or acquire new businesses.

Along with his colleague Loran Nordgren, David is one of the originators of Friction Theory – a ground-breaking methodology that explains why even the most promising innovations and change initiatives often struggle to gain traction with their intended audiences – and what to do about it. This work is popularized in David’s bestselling book, The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas (Wiley).

Outside of Kellogg David has been practitioner in the world entrepreneurship, design, and innovation for over 20 years. He previously spent a decade working at world-renowned design firm, IDEO, and currently serves as an Operating Partner at 7Wire Ventures, a healthcare technology-focused venture capital firm. David is also a Global Advisor at Design for Ventures (D4V), a Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in design-led Japanese startups, and fromerly served as an Operaring Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, a consumer and enterprise-focused fund. David is the Co-Founder of MATTER, a 25,000-square-foot innovation center in Chicago focused on catalyzing and supporting healthcare entrepreneurship. 

He is a contributing writer to ForbesInc.Fortune, Fast Company and Harvard Business Review magazines, authoring articles on strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, design and change.  David has been honored on Crain's Chicago Business magazine's "40 Under 40" list (back when he was under 40) and was a Distinguished Achievement Award Finalist for Thinkers50, an international organization that identifies, ranks, and shares the leading management ideas of our age. He has won Kellogg’s Executive MBA Outstanding Professor award 7 times as well as a Faculty Impact Award for excellence in teaching.

David earned his MBA from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his BA in International Relations from Boston University.

As much as David would like to think he’s one-of-a-kind…he’s actually a triplet.


  • MBA, 2009, General Management, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
    Bachelors of Art, 1999, International Relations, Boston University, Boston University, Magna Cum Laude
  • Clinical Professor of Strategy and Innovation, Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2021-present
    Visting Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2015-present
    Visting Professor, Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, 2018-present
    Clinical Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2016-2021
    Clinical Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2013-2016
    Faculty Director of the Zell Fellows Program, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2016-present
    Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, 2011-2012
    Adjunct Lecturer of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2013
  • Operating Partner, 7 Wire Ventures, 2020-present
    Venture Partner, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, 2020-present
    Global Advisor, Design For Ventures (D4V), 2019-present
    Operating Partner, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, 2018-2020
    Senior Director, IDEO, 2011-present
    Co-Founder and Board Member, MATTER, 2013-2020
    Council Member, ChicagoNext, 2012-2019
    Partner, Fusion Ventures, 2010-2014
    Director, Strategy and Venture Development, The Tavistock Group, 2005-2010
    Chief Operating Officer, Iapyx Medical, 2005-2008
    Entrepreneur in-Residence, CONNECT, 2009-2015
    Manager, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP, 2004-2005
    Senior Consultant, Deloitte, LLP, 2002-2004
    Senior Consultant, Arthur Andersen, LLP, 1999-2002
    Product Manager, Arthur Andersen, LLP, 1999-2002
  • Thinkers50 Radar Honoree, Thinkers50
    Outstanding Professor, Elective Course, EMBA, Kellogg School of Management
    Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award Finalist, Thinkers50
    Outstanding Professor, Elective Course, EMBA, 2022
    Thinkers50 Radar Honoree, Thinkers50, 2021
    Thinkers50 - Most Influential Management Thinkers Finalist, Thinkers50, 2022
    Outstanding Professor, Core Course, EMBA, 2021
    Outstanding Professor, Core Course, EMBA
    Outstanding Professor, Elective Course, EMBA
    Outstanding Professor, Elective Course, EMBA, 2021
    Outstanding Professor, Elective Course, EMBA
    Outstanding Professor, Core Course, EMBA, 2020-2021
    Outstanding Professor, Elective Course, EMBA, 2020-2021
    Outstanding Professor, Core Course, EMBA
    Outstanding Professor, Elective Course, EMBA, 2019-2020
    Kellogg Impact, Award, a student initiated award that recognizes excellence in the classroom

Capstone Course (STRTX-470-0)

Phase 0: Designing, Building and Communicating Compelling New Ventures (ENTRX-475-0)

This course has been designed to demystify the "fuzzy front end" of starting a new venture and to give you the tools and confidence to build and launch something of your own. You will learn how to identify problems worth solving, test your assumptions about possible solutions, adjust your initial hypothesis based on experimentation and market feedback, and ultimately accelerate the time between inspiration, execution, operations, and growth. We will focus on the importance of achieving "Product Market Fit" - developing the right offer for the right customer - and convincing others to support you on your journey. The tools and skills learned in this class are equally as applicable to startups as they are to corporate innovation projects. The course is geared to: 1) those who want to pursue an entrepreneurial career and are taking this course to develop and pursue a business idea; 2) those interested in a career path in business innovation, whether it's in a new venture or innovating inside a larger firm 3) those who are curious about a career in entrepreneurship and innovation and want to better understand what it entails and explore if it fits well with their inherent personality traits and talents. The construct of the class is a blend of lecture, hands-on workshops, in-market research, site visits, simulations and guest speakers. We will take full advantage of being in San Francisco and do a lot of our learning outside of the classroom. Coursework will be team-based.