About
Dr. Kent M. Keith was born in New York and raised in Nebraska, California, Virginia, Rhode Island, and Hawaii. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Honolulu in 1966. He earned a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from Oxford University in England, a Certificate in Japanese from Waseda University in Tokyo, a J.D. from the University of Hawaii, and an Ed.D. in higher education leadership from the University of Southern California. He is a Rhodes Scholar.
Dr. Keith began his professional career in Hawaii in 1977. During his career, he has served as an attorney, state government official, high tech park developer, YMCA executive, and president of two private universities— Chaminade University and Pacific Rim Christian University. In 2007 he moved to Indiana to serve as CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (USA), and in 2012 he moved to Singapore, where he served for three years as CEO of the Greenleaf Centre for Servant Leadership (Asia).
Dr. Keith has given more than 1,200 speeches and workshops in the United States and thirteen countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia. He has been featured on the front page of The New York Times and in People magazine, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Family Circle. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal and Inc.com. He has appeared on dozens of TV shows and more than 100 radio programs in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Kenya, and Australia.
Dr. Keith is the author of a dozen books. More than 250,000 copies of his books have been sold worldwide. He is known throughout the world as the author of the Paradoxical Commandments, which he first published in 1968 in a book for student leaders. In 2002, his book, Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments, became a national bestseller in the United States and was translated into 17 languages.
Dr. Keith is a passionate advocate of servant leadership and has written a number of articles and books on the topic, including The Case for Servant Leadership; Servant Leadership in the Boardroom; Questions and Answers about Servant Leadership; The Christian Leader at Work; Discovering Servant Leadership; and Morality and Morale: A Business Tale. He edited The Contemporary Servant as Leader, a new edition of Robert Greenleaf’s classic essay, and has taught university courses on servant leadership. In 2023, Dr. Keith published his first novel, The Battle for Monquash Mountain.
Dr. Keith is married to Dr. Elizabeth M. Keith, who teaches Japanese Literature at the University of Hawaii. They have three grown children.
Dr. Keith’s websites include www.kentmkeith.com, www.toservefirst.com,
www.paradoxicalcommandments.com, and www.carlsonkeith.com.
Featured Work
The Battle for Monquash Mountain
The town of Monquash sits next to a lake and mountain that are a vision of beauty, loved by residents and visitors alike. When the local electric power company proposes to cut down trees and run a high-voltage power line down the face of the mountain, a small group of residents comes together to stop it. They risk their careers as they move through the legal and political process, losing at each turn, while the power company president attacks them relentlessly. As the final battle is fought on the mountain top, help comes from unexpected quarters. But will the help be enough?
