Steven S. Rolfe, M.D.

Steven S. Rolfe M.D. is a Senior Associate with the Kets de Vries Institute, an international management consulting firm based in Paris, London, Asia, and now the Americas. KDVI applies a psychodynamic approach to leadership consulting and advising for CEO’s, their executive teams and their Boards. The focus of KDVI’s work is top team development, utilizing a model of group executive coaching, an approach developed by Manfred Kets de Vries over the past several decades in his role as Director of the Leadership Center at INSEAD in Fountainebleau.

Steve has been Principal of the Boswell Group LLC for the last seven years. He advises CEO’s, corporate directors and other senior business leaders on psychological and interpersonal aspects of management and leadership. Trained as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, he has more than 25 years experience in the assessment and coaching of executives. Steve has worked with investment professionals, equity, derivative and bond traders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate attorneys, and leaders of non-profit institutions. His clientele represent a wide range of fields, including finance, real estate, law, entertainment, medicine, engineering and pharmaceuticals. His current focus has been working in the health care sector coaching physicians and health care executives in health care and pharmaceutical companies and start-ups with a health care focus.

Steve’s approach offers his clients a trusted advisor who engages them in practical conversations on the dynamics and challenges of leadership and other aspects of corporate life that cannot be discussed with anyone else inside or outside of the organization. His primary expertise in human behavior, motivation and conflict management encourages leaders to be more effective and productive by enabling them to better understand and reflect on their priorities and behaviors.

Steve obtained his Certificate in Family Business Advising through the Family Firm Institute. In the family business space, he has particular interest in developing and working with family councils. His approach to family enterprises combines an individual psychodynamic and systems perspective to navigate strategic, generational and ownership transitions, while addressing the often conflicting capital requirements of the business and liquidity needs of stakeholders. He is a member of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Organizational Dynamics’s ODEN program; the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Committee on Corporate and Organizational Consultation, of which he is currently co-Chair of the Committee; and a member of Board of Trustees of the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia.

His leadership experience includes working in a wide range of settings in both for-profit and not-for-profit institutions; for many years he has been engaged in developing and supervising multidisciplinary teams, often in the context of considerable downsizing of resources. His consulting projects in healthcare have focused on systemic problems, such as issues of morale, “burnout” and performance improvement. He was previously the Medical Director of the Pre-teen Program and President of the Medical Staff of Horsham Clinic in Ambler, PA., Medical Director of the Children’s Program at Friend’s Hospital in Philadelphia; and Director of the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia’s Adult Psychotherapy Program and Division of Consultation and Evaluation Services.

He received his B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.D. at Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed Adult Psychiatry training at Tufts University Affiliated Hospitals, and a Child Psychiatry Fellowship at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, where he was Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. He completed psychoanalytic training at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, where he is currently a faculty member. He is a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Medical Association, the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations, and the Philadelphia Area Human Resource Planning Society.