Author, Anointed
Investigates social status and its spidery effects across all aspects of social, organizational, and economic life. From office meetings to the value of art to which scientific ideas and tech startups become important, Anointed shows how and why social status determines outcomes we often attribute to other factors.
Unveiling the Hidden Networks of Power
About the Book: Anointed
Why do some people win so big? In Anointed, Stuart shows that success is often less about individual brilliance and more about networks, narrative, and perception. Drawing on riveting examples from tech, politics, science, and Hollywood, he reveals the structures that turn ordinary people into icons.
Meet Toby Stuart
Biographical Sketch
Toby E. Stuart is the Leo Helzel Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. He is Faculty Director of the Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program; Faculty Director of the Institute for Business Innovation; and Distinguished Teaching Fellow. Previously, Stuart was Charles Edward Wilson Professor at Harvard Business School; Art Samberg Professor and Faculty Director of the Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University’s Business School; and Fred Steingraber-A.T. Kearney Professor of Leadership & Strategy at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He has also served on the faculty of the Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship group at MIT Sloan School of Management. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He holds an A.B., summa cum laude, in economics from Carleton College. At HBS and CBS, Stuart led the required courses in Entrepreneurship and in Corporate Strategy, respectively.
Stuart is the cofounder and on the board of directors (chair, audit committee; compensation committee) of Flock Freight, a logistics technology company that algorithmically carpools industrial freight. He is a long-time board member (audit committee) at HNTB Holdings, the largest, dedicated transportation engineering firm in the U.S. He is on the board of directors of FLYR Labs (chair, compensation committee), an enterprise AI SaaS company, and of Atmosfy, a two-sided marketplace. Stuart is the founding Chairman of Workday’s AI Advisory Board and advises Gruve.ai. Along with BlckVC, Stuart cofounded the Black Venture Institute. Previously, Stuart served as a Venture Partner at Avid Park Venture.
Stuart’s research group and his current focus is on artificial intelligence. His current book project, All the Things We Used to Know, examines how AI will change economic markets, entrepreneurship, and corporate organizations. He is the author of Anointed: The Extraordinary Effects of Social Status in a Winner-Take-Most World, published in 2025 by Simon & Schuster.
Professor Stuart won the Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship, which is granted every second year. He has received the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence at Columbia Business School; the Award for Teaching Excellence at Cornell University; and is a multiple-recipient of the Cheit Award for Teaching Excellence at Berkeley-Haas. He has won the Administrative Science Quarterly’s Scholarly Contribution (best paper) award. Stuart was the long time Department Editor for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Management Science, and has held past editorial roles at journals including Strategic Management Journal, American Journal of Sociology, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Research Policy.
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