ABOUT THE AUTHORS
WILLIAM PUTSIS
Dr. William Putsis (Bill) is CEO of Knapp Capital Management, a vertically
integrated commercial real estate capital, investment, management, and development firm. He is
also Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and teaches on
executive programs at the Yale School of Management and at DukeCE. He has held previous faculty
positions at Yale, Cornell, and London Business School.
He has published over 30 articles in top academic journals and is the author
of two previous books on strategy, Compete Smarter, Not Harder and The Carrot and the Stick:
Leveraging Strategic Control for Growth.
As CEO of Chestnut Hill Associates, he has put theory into practice by
developing strategies across 6 continents for some of the world’s leading companies such as
PepsiCo, Boeing, BASF, SAS, Knauf, Owens Corning, John Deere, Underwriter’s Laboratory, and
others.
David Edelheit
David Edelheit is a global expert in strategy and leadership, recognized for driving large-scale transformations and sustained growth at some of the world’s leading professional services firms. Over the course of his career, he has overseen multi-billion-dollar businesses, launched groundbreaking service offerings, and helped organizations around the world reshape their futures — from the US to the UK, across EMEA, and into Asia Pacific.
Known for pairing executive-level precision with a deeply human leadership style, David brings a rare ability to drive change from the boardroom to the front lines. He has studied executive leadership at Yale, earned his MBA from Northwestern, and continues to challenge conventional thinking with a future-forward, practical approach.
