Skip to main content

Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld

  • Saudi Arabia’s Sabotage of the Economy Will Backfire

    With its surprise cut in oil production, write Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian and Congressman Ro Khanna LAW ’01, Saudi Arabia has chosen to side with the Russian war machine.

    Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, speaks at a press conference on October 5 after an OPEC+ meeting.
  • Lessons on the Role of Business in Society, from a Timber Baron

    Yale SOM leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld remembers George Weyerhaeuser, who led his family’s timber business for decades. He died earlier this year at 95.

    George Weyerhaeuser with President Ronald Reagan
  • CEOs Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Politicians Who Cry ‘Woke’

    Stakeholder capitalism is not new, argues Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. Despite political backlash against “woke” CEOS, today’s leaders need to account for the broad strategic environment in which their companies operate.

    View of a corporate headquarters.
  • Loopholes Persist in the Dragnet around Russia’s Economy

    Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian, who have been tracking companies’ disengagement from Russia, write that Asian airlines, European aviation giants, and sanctions evaders are gaming the system and gaining an advantage over their American competitors.

    An aircraft from the Russian carrier Aeroflot seen through a fence in a long-term parking area at Geneva Airport in March 2022.
  • The Myth of Putin as World Energy Czar Is Running Out of Gas

    Media commentary suggests that Russia is using its energy resources to hold the rest of the world hostage. To the contrary, write Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian, Russia’s actions have devastated its own economy and undermined its status as an energy exporter.

    A Gazprom employee at the Bovanenkovo gas field on the Yamal peninsula in the Arctic circle in 2019. 
  • Are the Companies That Promised Withdrawal from Russia Following Through?

    In some cases, those pledges have not been fully honored, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld’s team has found. He writes that boards play a key oversight role in ensuring that companies genuinely end their exposure.

    A pile of broken McDonald's signs
  • Businesses Staying in Russia Are Underperforming the Market

    A new analysis from Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his team suggests that the firms cutting ties with Russia are seeing markedly better shareholder returns.

    A young woman near the Kremlin on April 27, 2022.
  • Some of the Biggest Brands Are Leaving Russia. Others Just Can’t Quit Putin.

    Since the invasion of Ukraine, Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his team have been tracking which companies have withdrawn from Russia, which are making partial moves, and which are staying put.

    A Subway restaurant in Moscow.
  • Why the Business Retreat from Russia Matters

    Yale SOM leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld writes that companies’ moves to disengage from Russia can make a difference, pointing to the withdrawal of businesses from apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.

    An empty Apple reseller store in Moscow on March 7, 2022. 
  • Temporary CEOs Can Introduce Permanent Problems

    Yale SOM's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld writes that putting off a leadership transition is usually the consequence of governance failures—and can have negative repercussions long after a permanent leader is installed.

    An illustration of a clock pushing a man with a suit off the edge of a surface