Victoria Woo

Victoria Woo, Ph.D. is a serial entrepreneur with almost 30 years of experience in start-ups, international management, and academia. Currently, she is the Director of the INSEAD SF Hub of Business innovation. She will be working towards higher engagement with our Alum community, increasing our presence of executive education in both custom programs and open enrollment programs as well as degreed programmes. She plans to expand INSEAD’s presence in the local ecosystem of tech and VCs and work towards building brand recognition in the Americas.

She also teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford University in the Management Science and Engineering department and at Presidio Graduate School of Sustainability. She has founded five startups and built technology firms with “exits” through acquisitions. Dr. Woo has extensive international experience having worked and lived in Asia for ten years. She has also successfully bridged the academia and business communities by co-designing custom executive programs at INSEAD and Harvard, where she helped Fortune 500 clients curate learning journeys for C-suite and senior leaders and high-potential managers. Currently, she devotes her time to teaching graduate courses at Stanford University and The Presidio Graduate School and produces podcasts at the intersection of entrepreneurship and sustainability.

Dr. Woo continues her research into factors that contribute to sustaining and attaining eudaimonia (Aristotle’s idea of designing a life well-lived). Her work identified TQ™ (Transformation Quotient) and posited the formula IQEQTQ to increase one’s resilience and thrive in the highly complex and dynamic world in which we live and work. She believes harnessing the transformative power of change can help enhance individual well-being. Her research, including TQ ™ and Thriving Transitional Experiences™, is discussed in Chapter 4 of Human Capital and Assets in the Networked World, available on Amazon. A list of other publications is available upon request.

Dr. Woo works with the startup community through mentorship/advisory work. She has been an advisor/coach/mentor for blackbox.vc, a non-profit organization serving the global entrepreneurial ecosystem, and a member of the mentoring team at FoundersHK. In both roles, she advises early-stage startups on building positive cultures and a go-to-market strategy. She also advises Artful Method and is on the advisory board of Invoking the Pause, a non-profit investing in bold ideas, cultivating collaborations, and funding strategic “pauses” to advance climate challenge solutions.

Dr. Woo is the creator of the podcast course ”Everyone is an Entrepreneur,” available on the Himalaya podcast platform. She founded the Marin Chapter of the Awesome Foundation, which funds local charitable causes in Marin County. Since 2020, she has led an international team of researchers and professionals to develop educational content to help professionals learn about high-impact, innovative collaborations to build a sustainable future. RESET, Responsible Enterprises for Social and Environmental Transformation, aims to inspire change and share stories of companies combining sustainable practices with profits with the aim of inspiring other people to do so.