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I’m Noah Askin—Associate Professor of Organization & Management at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business, where I also serve as the Faculty Director of the Leadership Development Institute. I hold a joint PhD from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and the Department of Sociology, and spent the earlier part of my career as a management consultant at Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte), an early-stage start-up, and the 2008 Obama Presidential Campaign.

My academic research sits at the intersection of networks, creativity, culture, and organizational design. I’ve built datasets spanning 20 million songs and 75 years of popular music history. I’ve published in the top journals in my field — American Sociological Review, PNAS, Administrative Science Quarterly — and my work has been covered by Rolling Stone, The Economist, Forbes, Business Insider, and The Times of London.

But I’ve never been a pure academic. I’ve spent my career moving between the research and the rooms where decisions get made. I teach MBA students, executives, and leadership teams. I consult with organizations on culture, networks, and creative strategy. I speak at corporate events and professional conferences around the world.

I’m the co-author of Orchestrating Connection: How to Build Purposeful Community in a Tribal World (August 2025), and I was named to the Thinkers 50 Radar list of emerging management thinkers.

Before UC Irvine, I was on the faculty at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. I live in Southern California.