Professor Victoria Medvec (Kellogg)

Dr. Victoria Medvec is an award-winning speaker, consultant, and negotiation expert, who advises on critical decisions, negotiations, mergers, and acquisitions for Fortune 100 companies globally.

After getting her Bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University in 1986, Victoria Medvec went on to achieve a Ph.D. in Psychology from Cornell University in 1995 before becoming a tenured professor at the prestigious Kellogg school. 

Victoria Medvec is currently the Adeline Barry Davee Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.  

Academic Positions

Her previous academic appointments are as follows:

• Adeline Barry Davee Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2004
• Associate Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2000
• Assistant Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1998
• Lecturer, Johnson School, Cornell University, 1995

Additionally, she’s the Co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Executive Women at Kellogg and the Founder and CEO of Medvec & Associates, a consulting firm. She is also a Ringleader in Ringleader Ventures. 

Professional Experience

Victoria Medvec has extensive industry experience as a board member of public and private companies and as a consultant and adviser to CEOs, executives, and boards of directors at Fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Merck, McKinsey, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s, Bristol Myers Squibb, J.P. Morgan Chase, and others. Her clients attribute significant revenue increases to her strategies.

Further, she is an expert in high-stakes negotiations, mergers, acquisitions, customer/supplier contracts, and partnerships. 

Professor Medvec on “How to Negotiate Any Deal”

Research and Teaching Interests

On the faculty at Kellogg’s Management and Organizations department, Medvec has taught and conducted research. Her research primarily focuses on judgment and decision making, with a particular emphasis on how people feel about the decisions they have made and interdependent decisions within the context of negotiations.

More specifically, Dr. Medvec’s research interests include negotiations, executive decision making, influence, and corporate governance. She has been published in top academic journals like Psychological Review, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 

Medvec is the author of Negotiate Without Fear, a bestselling book published in 2021. Additionally, she has published several notable research articles in top academic journals. Some of her publications include: 

• “The experience of regret: What, when, and why?” (published in the Psychological Review in 1995). This paper examined the psychological experience of regret and the factors that influence when and why people feel regret.
• “The temporal pattern to the experience of regret.” (published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1994). This study explored how the temporal pattern of events impacts the experience of regret.
• “When less is more: Counterfactual thinking among Olympic medalists.” (published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1995). This influential work examined counterfactual thinking and demonstrated that bronze medalists tend to be happier than silver medalists at the Olympics.
• “When doing better means feeling worse: A model of counterfactual cutoff points.” (in press in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). This forthcoming paper proposes a model to explain when doing better can paradoxically lead to feeling worse.

Her research has made important contributions to understanding judgment and decision making, particularly in the areas of regret, counterfactual thinking, and the psychological experiences surrounding decisions and outcomes. Her work has been widely cited and has been highlighted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and Today Show. 

Dr. Medvec teaches courses such as Negotiations, Introductory Organizational Behavior, and executive education programs at Kellogg and at companies worldwide. Her teaching style places an emphasis on practical skills and strategies with immediate impact through the use of mock negotiations, peer mentorship, and real-world scenarios. 

Victoria Medvec is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Business, Women, Influential Women, Business Leadership and Professors.

Listen to Dr. Medvec on the Art and Science of High Stakes Negotiations.