Bio

Ariel (Ari) de Fauconberg’s research examines how values and identity shape entrepreneurial and organizational action under conditions of institutional complexity. She focuses on the tensions that emerge when entrepreneurs and organizations pursue transformative innovations, particularly in climate tech, energy and sustainability transitions. Her recent work explores co-founder team formation, resource mobilization for moonshot ventures and how established organizations navigate competing stakeholder demands during sustainability transitions. As an organizational ethnographer, she combines immersive fieldwork with theory building to generate insights that advance both scholarly understanding and practical action.

Before joining NC State, De Fauconberg taught at the University of Oxford, Harvard Extension School and Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She previously held a visiting position at Babson College, where she collaborated with the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship Leadership. Her research has been recognized with prestigious awards including the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, the Bracken Bower Prize from the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company, and the Impact Community Award from the Ivey PhD Sustainability Academy. She has presented her work at leading conferences including the Academy of Management and the European Group for Organizational Studies.

De Fauconberg brings an interdisciplinary perspective to her research, with training spanning anthropology, geography, engineering and business. She holds a Gates Cambridge-funded Ph.D. in Management from the University of Cambridge. She serves on the World Economic Forum Expert Network and has delivered invited talks at venues including TEDxCambridge and Mobile World Congress.