Andi Simon PhD

Andrea J. (Andi) Simon, PhD is an award-winning author, internationally recognized corporate anthropologist, and founder and CEO of Simon Associates Management Consultants (SAMC). For more than two decades, she has helped companies, organizations, and leaders navigate change by applying the methods of anthropology to business challenges, culture transformation, and growth strategy.

Andi is the author of three acclaimed books. On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights won a 2017 Axiom Bronze Award and introduced many leaders to the power of corporate anthropology and Blue Ocean Strategy to unlock new markets. Rethink: Smashing the Myths of Women in Business won a 2022 Axiom Bronze Award and became an Amazon best-seller, challenging outdated narratives about women at work and showcasing how women are redefining success on their own terms. Her third book, Women Mean Business: Over 500 Insights From Extraordinary Leaders to Spark Your Success, co-authored with Edie Fraser and Robyn Freedman Spizman, celebrates trailblazing women leaders and the companies and movements they are building.

Across her books and consulting, Andi’s work focuses on how people and organizations rethink who they are, how they work, and what’s possible next—at every stage of life and career. Her forthcoming book on Reimagining Retirement continues this journey, exploring how individuals and couples can design their “next chapter” with meaning, purpose, and possibility.

Before founding SAMC in 2002, Andi held senior executive roles in financial services and healthcare during periods of significant disruption, including leadership positions at Citibank, First National Bank of Highland, Poughkeepsie Savings Bank, Montefiore Medical Center, and St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center.

Earlier in her career, she served as a tenured professor of anthropology and American studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey (through 1981) and later as a visiting professor teaching entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis in 2006.

Andi is also the host of the widely followed podcast On the Brink with Andi Simon, where she interviews CEOs, entrepreneurs, futurists, and change-makers to help listeners “see, feel, and think” in new ways.

She and her husband and business partner, Andrew Simon, have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and three grandchildren—and continue to “rethink retirement” by staying deeply engaged in work, family, and the causes they care about.