Dr. Barry Nalebuff is a professor at Yale School of Management (SOM), angel investor, and expert in negotiation, innovation, strategy, and game theory.
After graduating from MIT with degrees in economics and mathematics, Dr. Nalebuff earned his MPhil and PhD from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
Barry Nalebuff is currently Milton Steinbach Professor at Yale SOM, where he has taught for more than 30 years. He has previously served as a Junior Fellow at Harvard University’s Society of Fellows (1982–1985) and held the position of Bicentennial Preceptorship at Princeton University (1989–1991).
Let’s explore Dr. Nalebuff’s professional background, teaching philosophy, and research to see why his classes are consistently among the program’s top attractions.
Dr. Nalebuff teaches highly rated negotiation, innovation, strategy, and game theory courses at Yale SOM. His negotiation course on Coursera has over 400,000 active learners and is the second-highest rated on the platform. His negotiation courses teach students to look beneath the surface of apparent conflicts; uncover the underlying interests; and predict, interpret, and shape the behavior of those they face in competitive situations.
He pioneered the concept of “co-opetition” (cooperating while competing) and developed a “split the pie” negotiation approach focused on creating and equitably dividing additional value through cooperation. His teaching style, which has been highly rated by students, emphasizes experiential learning, case studies, and simulations.
Dr. Nalebuff has also done media interviews to share his negotiation framework, highlighted in his book Split the Pie. His philosophy on negotiation emphasizes finding the “negotiation pie”—the additional value created by working together. He advocates for splitting that value equitably rather than haggling over positions and believes in principled, nonaggressive negotiation tactics.
Dr. Nalebuff specializes in business strategy, negotiation, game theory, and startups (consumer products). His current academic research focuses on bundling and tying.
Barry Nalebuff is the coauthor of seven books:
His books explore game theory, negotiation tactics, problem-solving, and investment strategies, with over 400,000 copies in print. In addition to authoring novels, Dr. Nalebuff has published articles in reputable journals like Harvard Business Review and the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports.
With Ian Ayres, Dr. Nalebuff has also regularly appeared in Forbes as a columnist.
Some of Dr. Balebuff’s notable journal and magazine articles include
Dr. Barry Nalebuff has received several prestigious awards, such as
Dr. Nalebuff works with many entrepreneurial firms. He cofounded Honest Tea in 1998 with his former student Seth Goldman, which was later acquired by Coca-Cola in 2011. He also cofounded Kombrewcha, a slightly alcoholic kombucha company acquired by AB-InBev in 2016. He is currently working on building the startup Real Made Foods, in addition to working with Quaker Oats to help create Maker Oats, an overnight oats product.
Dr. Nalebuff is a board member at Q Drinks, Calicraft Beer, AGP Glass, and Nationwide Insurance. He also serves on the board of Directors of Bear Stearns Financial Products and Connecticut Citizenship Fund. Further, he has consulted for over 50 multinational companies, including
He has also advised the NBA in their negotiations with the players’ association.
David White
Founding Partner
Education: BA
David studied at UC Berkeley and worked as a tech industry professional, including stints at Yahoo! and Efficient Frontier, before co-founding Menlo Coaching. He has been listed among Poets & Quants’ Best Admissions Consultants and featured for his expertise—and tell-it-like-it-is attitude—in publications like The Wall Street Journal and MBA.com.
