For Mori Taheripour, WG’03, negotiation isn’t about winning. It’s about understanding who you are, communicating with confidence, and creating meaningful outcomes in every aspect of life.
That philosophy has made her an award-winning Wharton lecturer, author, and a globally recognized negotiations expert whose clients include Fortune 100 companies, professional sports leagues, government agencies, and the Goldman Sachs Foundation.
But before she was teaching Wharton EMBA students, she was one herself.
“I know exactly what they’re going through,” says Taheripour, who was a student in Wharton’s inaugural West Coast cohort. “I remember how demanding the program was and how life-changing it became.”
An Unexpected Path to Business
Taheripour’s career didn’t begin in business.
After immigrating to the U.S. from Iran as a child, she grew up expecting to become a physician. At Barnard College, she was on a pre-med track before discovering a passion for public health, particularly HIV/AIDS education and prevention.
Following college, Taheripour moved to the Bay Area to be near family and began working on public health campaigns. When she received a state grant to continue this work, she launched her own consulting firm, leading public health campaigns for organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Her experience in entrepreneurship, particularly learning management lessons through trial and error, inspired an interest in business school. “I knew an MBA would help me become a stronger business leader and create new opportunities to make a greater impact,” she says.
When Wharton launched its inaugural West Coast Executive MBA program in San Francisco, Taheripour seized the opportunity to earn the full Wharton MBA in her hometown while continuing to run her business.
At first, Taheripour was worried that her lack of formal business training would leave her behind classmates with finance and corporate backgrounds. Instead, she found an environment that challenged and inspired her.
“It felt great being back in school, except everyone had remarkable professional experience,” she says. “I learned just as much from my classmates as I did from my professors.”
Her cohort also experienced extraordinary circumstances together. Only weeks after classes began, the September 11 attacks reshaped the country. Over the next two years, classmates navigated personal hardships, layoffs, and economic uncertainty together.
“It wasn’t just an academic experience,” she says. “It became a life experience.”
The Class That Changed Everything
When Taheripour enrolled in a Negotiations class taught by Professor Kenneth Shropshire, an expert in sports business, she hoped his mentorship might help her find a career path into the sports industry.
“I was always passionate about sports and had worked on the periphery of the industry by developing social marketing campaigns and partnerships for celebrities and professional athletes,” she explains. “But what I didn’t anticipate was the impact that his Negotiations class would have on me and my life. It was the first time I understood the power of negotiations and my affinity for it.”
Seeing her potential, Shropshire encouraged Taheripour to think beyond becoming a practitioner. He invited her to become a co-founder of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative (now the Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative) and urged her to consider teaching negotiations. It was an idea she had never entertained.
“Teaching was the furthest thing from my mind,” Taheripour says. “But he saw something in me that I didn’t yet see in myself.”
At first, she followed the traditional negotiation playbook, emphasizing tactics and transactional deal-making. But after several years in the classroom, something didn’t feel right.
“I realized I wasn’t teaching the subject the way I truly believed in it,” she says. So she stepped back and reimagined her entire approach. Instead of treating negotiation as a series of techniques, Taheripur began teaching it as a leadership skill rooted in authenticity, relationships, and self-awareness.
“We negotiate every day with our colleagues, our families, our communities, and ourselves,” she says. “The most successful negotiators aren’t performing. They’re bringing their authentic selves into the conversation.”
That philosophy became the foundation of her book, “Bring Yourself: How to Negotiate Fearlessly,” and has led her to become one of Wharton’s most sought-after negotiation instructors and a globally recognized expert in the field.
Teaching Leaders at a Turning Point
Taheripour says EMBA students are at a unique moment in their careers. Many are accomplished leaders seeking greater impact, considering career pivots, or trying to balance professional ambition with personal fulfillment.
Because she once stood in their shoes, she designs her course around those realities.
“By the time they take my course, they have already learned the technical business skills,” she says. “What I want them to think about is who they want to become as leaders.”
Taheripour’s classroom challenges students to examine how they make decisions, navigate uncertainty, build trust, and lead with confidence.
Those lessons resonate far beyond negotiations. “I want them to leave believing their best years are still ahead of them.”
Negotiating Tips for Prospective Students
Taheripour offers advice for prospective EMBA students who are preparing to ask employers for financial sponsorship and/or support in terms of time off and flexibility.
The first step, she says, isn’t building a business case for your company; it’s building one for yourself.
“You have to understand why you’re making this investment,” she says. “If your only reason is that Wharton has a great reputation, that won’t sustain you through the journey.”
Instead, Taheripour encourages candidates to clearly articulate how the program aligns with their long-term goals and how the skills they’ll develop will immediately benefit their organizations.
Unlike a traditional full-time MBA format, Wharton’s EMBA allows students to bring new ideas directly back to work every other week.
“Your employer isn’t waiting two years to see a return,” she says. “They’re seeing you become a stronger strategist, a better communicator, and a more thoughtful leader throughout the program.”
Above all, Taheripour believes today’s business environment demands leaders who are comfortable navigating ambiguity.
“The world is changing faster than ever,” she says. “The leaders who thrive aren’t the ones who have every answer. They’re the ones who have the confidence to keep learning, bring others along with them, and move forward together.”
It’s a lesson Taheripour first learned as a Wharton student more than 20 years ago, and one she’s still helping the next generation of EMBA leaders discover.
By Meghan Laska
Posted: August 17, 2026
