Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Lecturer, Sloan School of Management Global Programs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Visiting Professor, Asia School of Business (ASB)
Executive Director, MIT-Harvard Mexico Negotiation Program
Bruno Verdini has provided advanced executive training, keynotes, and coaching that have influenced cabinet officials, ministers, diplomats, scientists, technology officers, and C-suite decision-makers from over 80 countries.
He structured and earned the first-ever interdepartmental Ph.D. at MIT in four distinct fields: Negotiation, Communication, Diplomacy, and Leadership. This achievement was made possible through outstanding mentorship from colleagues at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT’s Department of Political Science, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
Dr. Verdini’s work focuses on enhancing high-stakes partnerships amid competing allocations of power and leverage between corporate and government decision-makers in both emerging and developed economies. He aims to create custom strategies and pedagogical approaches that ignite four key stakeholder synergies: curiosity, creativity, resourcefulness, and resilience.
At the core of his research is a commitment to producing mutual prosperity, with successful applications in sectors such as water, energy, environment, infrastructure, and mining diplomacy. His work has been published by MIT Press and translated into Chinese in “Winning Together: The Natural Resource Negotiation Playbook,” which received Harvard Law School’s Raiffa Award for Best Doctoral Research of the Year in Negotiation, Mediation, Competitive Decision-Making, and Conflict Resolution.
Dr. Verdini has designed and teaches MIT’s award-winning courses on the art and science of negotiation and leadership, which are recognized for their emphasis on personalized coaching and ethical leadership. He has received MIT’s d’Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in Education and the Teaching with Digital Technology Award. Additionally, he co-founded MIT’s Concentration in Negotiation and Leadership, where he annually mentors Schwarzman, Rhodes, Fulbright, Gates, Mitchell, Marshall, Knight-Hennessy, and Truman scholars, as well as entrepreneurs.
Dr. Verdini has a diverse heritage that includes Mexican and French backgrounds, as well as Indigenous and Italian roots. He was previously the youngest Deputy Director for International Affairs at Mexico’s Ministry of Energy. In that role, he planned and contributed to ministerial meetings for various organizations, including the International Energy Agency, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum.
As Executive Director of the MIT-Harvard Mexico Negotiation Program, he investigates how trade blocs—such as the one formed by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, which encompasses over 500 million people and nearly 30% of the global economy—can strategically enhance energy independence, near-shoring, infrastructure development, and climate risk resilience through agile deal-making, ultimately fostering sustained economic prosperity in the age of artificial intelligence.
Dr. Verdini is a Visiting Professor at the Asia School of Business in partnership with MIT’s Sloan School of Management, where he collaborates on innovative diplomatic initiatives and promotes cross-pollination of ideas with leading regional ministerial and C-suite decision-makers from the public and private sectors.
Education
- B.S., International Relations & Political Science, Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE, Mexico).
- M.S., Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA).
- Ph.D., Negotiation, Communication, Diplomacy & Leadership, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA).
Research interests
- Negotiation, Mediation, and Conflict Resolution
- Competitive and Collaborative Decision-Making
- Leadership Upscaling, Mentorship, and Coaching
- Persuasive Business and Political Communication
- International Government and Corporate Diplomacy
Selected publications
- Bruno Verdini. Winning Together: The Natural Resource Negotiation Playbook. MIT Press, 2017.
- Stephen Mumme, Oscar Ibáñez & Bruno Verdini “Extraordinary Drought in U.S.-Mexico Water Governance”. Journal of Water Law, 2018.
- Bruno Verdini. “Building a Shared Understanding in Water Management”. In Complexity of Transboundary Water Conflicts. Anthem Press, 2019.
- Co-Editors Lawrence Susskind, Bruno Verdini, Jessica Gordon, and Yasmin Zaerpoor. Environmental Problem Solving: Balancing Science and Politics using Consensus Building Tools. Anthem Press, 2020.
- Bruno Verdini. “Scales of Water Diplomacy”. In The Routledge Water Diplomacy Handbook. Editors Shafiqul Islam, Kevin Smith, Martina Klimes and Aaron Salzberg. Routledge, 2025.
Thank you for sharing Professor Verdini’s impressive accomplishments in negotiation and leadership. His contributions to the field and the impact of his work globally are truly inspiring.
Hi Bruno – I wonder if you can help me. I’m looking for direction on a topic connected to EDR that you appear particularly qualified to address. My question is related to a negotiation dilemma that occurs primarily on public land. In this scenario, a local stakeholder group negotiates an agreement with a logging company to log the forest in a way that is not ideal for each party but is one they can at least live with. They’ve in a sense split the pie. The community and company are generally happy with the outcome and the process is touted as a model. So far so good. But, along comes another company that likes what they’ve heard and wants to negotiate their own deal. So the community is being asked, in a sense, to split the pie again. Since it’s a finite resource, there aren’t many opportunities to enlarge the pie. The stakeholder group is reluctant to negotiate. Other communities get wind of it and decide that negotiation is a slippery slope. My question is, have you run across any literature describing this phenomenon? I’ve looked at lots of published research for the specific dilemma of ‘along comes another party that wants to negotiate another pie splitting deal that results in a net smaller pie with each negotiation.’ Thanks for any help you can provide.
I’m a mediator in the environmental field and graduated from the Kennedy School in ’84. I took Roger Fisher’s negotiation course and Larry’s EDR course in ’85. Larry Bacow was teaching it that semester and had just published his book with Michael Wheeler. I completed a PhD at Michigan in 2008 – with Wondolleck and Yaffee as my advisors. Thank you so much for your help.
Hello, we have forwarded your comment to Bruno Verdini.