Holly Schroth

"People think that good negotiators are born with their ability, but that's not true. Anyone can learn to be a good negotiator."
Holly Schroth is a Distinguished Teaching Fellow and Senior Lecturer at Berkeley Haas. She teaches negotiations and Conflict Resolution and Organizational Behavior in the MBA, undergraduate, and Executive Education programs. She has won several awards from MBA and undergraduate students for teaching excellence and was voted “favorite professor” by a Businessweek online poll of undergraduates across the U.S.
In addition to teaching, she is a trainer, consultant, and keynote speaker on negotiation and leadership issues to a variety of organizations—in sectors such as technology, pharmaceuticals, financial services, health care, aerospace, and law—in the U.S. and abroad.
She has published several articles on negotiation and procedural justice in leading journals and has created several negotiation exercises in collaboration with the Dispute Resolution Research Center at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She is one of the leading authors of negotiation exercise materials that are used worldwide by educators and trainers.
Schroth received a MA in psychology and a PhD in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has also taught at Santa Clara University, Saint Mary’s College of California, and Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked in a variety of functional areas in both small and large business organizations, as well as in the nonprofit sector. She currently leads the popular Negotiation & Influence program at Berkeley Executive Education.
Holly's focus area of research and expertise is:
- Emotions and language in negotiations
- Procedural justice

- Top 40 Undergraduate Professors by Poets & Quants, 2017
- Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2018
- Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Undergraduate Program, 2009
- Club 6 – Faculty Honor Roll for Teaching Excellence, Haas School of Business, 1992-2016
- Voted America’s Favorite Professor (Undergraduates); Businessweekonline survey (2006)
- Leavey Faculty Achievement Award for Exceptional Teaching, Santa Clara University, 2003, 2004, 2005
- Outstanding Teaching Award, Santa Clara University, Summer Sessions Program, 1998
- Faculty Honor Roll for Teaching Excellence, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University
- Faculty Honor Role for Upholding the Honor Code, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University
- Western Psychological Association Best Paper Award
- Regents Fellowship, UC Santa Barbara
- Chairman’s Award in Psychology, UC Santa Barbara