Ilona BONIWELL

Professor (Education Track)

Management & Human Resources

boniwell@hec.fr
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Biography

Dr Ilona Boniwell, PhD, is a leading figure in positive organisational psychology and executive coaching, with over 25 years of experience in research, teaching, and consultancy. She wrote or edited 12 books, delivered over 300 keynotes, including a TEDx talk, and has a Google Scholar h-index of 36. Passionate about applications of psychological science, Ilona taught and trained tens of thousands of business leaders, HR professionals, trainers and consultants how to optimise well-being and engagement, enhance resilience, develop talents and leadership and use insights from psychological assessment. Her approach blends experiential learning, gamification, and thoughtfully crafted pedagogical design.

Her main expertise lies in the areas of positive psychology, coaching psychology, positive organisational psychology, organisational behaviour, leadership, change management and positive education. Her specific research interests include resilience, subjective time use, time perspective, eudaimonic well-being, measuring well-being and engagement at work, tangible pedagogical tools and applications of positive psychology to business, executive and team coaching.

In addition to teaching on Grande Ecole and Open Executive Education Programmes, Ilona is teaching and provides academic directorship for many custom programmes. She has worked with Schneider, Club Med, L’Oreal, Microsoft, SNCF, EDF, Sanofi, Bull, Mars, Eric Bompard, BNP Paribas, Sanofi, Sodexo, HP, Unilever, Nestle, Fitbit, Facebook, Petit Bambou, Viatris, Tahakom, KSA Ministry of Culture, Bupa Arabia, and many others.

Ilona is a Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes and Musashino University, Faculty of VIA Institute of Character and CEO of Positran. She founded and was the first Chair of the European Network of Positive Psychology (ENPP), serves on the Board of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) and is a co-editor of the Applied Positive Psychology Journal.

Scientific articles

Correction to: Evermore Wellbeing for Teens: A Scoping Review of Stand-alone and Brief Positive Psychology Interventions for Potential Use in Educational Settings

Educational Psychology Review, August 2025, vol. 37, n° 82, (in coll. with E. Lucciarini, A. Carr, N. Bressoud, C. Audrin, P. Gay, N. Burel)

Evermore Wellbeing for Teens: A Scoping Review of Stand-alone and Brief Positive Psychology Interventions for Potential Use in Educational Settings

Educational Psychology Review, June 2025, vol. 37, n° 63, (in coll. with E. Lucciarini, A. Carr, N. Bressoud, C. Audrin, P. Gay, N. Burel)

Finding consensus on well-being in education

Theory and Research in Education, July 2024, vol. 22, n° 2, pp 117-157, (in coll. with R. Curren, R. M. Ryan, L. Oades, H. Brighouse, E. Unterhalter, ET AL.)

Positive time use: a missing link between time perspective, time management, and well-being

Frontiers in Psychology, 2024, vol. 15, n° 1087932, pp 1-17, (in coll. with E. Osin)

SPARK Resilience in the workplace: Effectiveness of a brief online resilience intervention during the COVID-19 lockdown

PLOS One, 2023, vol. 18, n° 3, pp 1-19, (in coll. with E. Osin, L. Kalisch, J. Chabanne, L. Abou Zaki)

Feeling Good Despite EDS: The Effects of a 5-Week Online Positive Psychology Programme for Ehlers–Danlos-Syndromes Patients

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 2022, vol. 52, pp 79-87, (in coll. with L. Kalisch, E. Osin, C. Baeza-Velasco)

Sensory processing sensitivity and culturally modified resilience education: Differential susceptibility in Japanese adolescents

PLOS One, 2020, vol. 15, n° 9, pp 1-17, (in coll. with C. Kibe, M. Suzuki, M. Hirano)

Engagement et bien-être au travail : Développement du Profil Organisationnel Positif

Sciences & Bonheur, 2020, vol. 4, n° 1, pp 107-139, (in coll. with E. OSIN, J. CHABANNE)

Books

Routledge International Handbook of Positive Health Sciences

Routledge, London (in coll. with J. BURKE, B. FRATES, L. S. LIANOV, C. A. O'BOYLE )

Positive psychology coaching in the workplace

Springer, New York (in coll. with W.-A. SMITH, S. GREEN )

Oxford handbook of well-being, 2nd edition

Oxford University Press (in coll. with R. TAYYAB )

Positive psychology at work in a nutshell

Oxford University Press

Scientific articles

Correction to: Evermore Wellbeing for Teens: A Scoping Review of Stand-alone and Brief Positive Psychology Interventions for Potential Use in Educational Settings

Educational Psychology Review, August 2025, vol. 37, n° 82, (in coll. with E. Lucciarini, A. Carr, N. Bressoud, C. Audrin, P. Gay, N. Burel)

Evermore Wellbeing for Teens: A Scoping Review of Stand-alone and Brief Positive Psychology Interventions for Potential Use in Educational Settings

Educational Psychology Review, June 2025, vol. 37, n° 63, (in coll. with E. Lucciarini, A. Carr, N. Bressoud, C. Audrin, P. Gay, N. Burel)

Finding consensus on well-being in education

Theory and Research in Education, July 2024, vol. 22, n° 2, pp 117-157, (in coll. with R. Curren, R. M. Ryan, L. Oades, H. Brighouse, E. Unterhalter, ET AL.)

Positive time use: a missing link between time perspective, time management, and well-being

Frontiers in Psychology, 2024, vol. 15, n° 1087932, pp 1-17, (in coll. with E. Osin)

Books

Routledge International Handbook of Positive Health Sciences

Routledge, London (in coll. with J. BURKE, B. FRATES, L. S. LIANOV, C. A. O'BOYLE )

Positive psychology coaching in the workplace

Springer, New York (in coll. with W.-A. SMITH, S. GREEN )

Oxford handbook of well-being, 2nd edition

Oxford University Press (in coll. with R. TAYYAB )

Positive psychology at work in a nutshell

Oxford University Press

Education

  • Ph.D., The Open University - United Kingdom

Academic appointments

Academic Responsibilities at HEC

  • 2025- Professor (Education Track) HEC Paris
  • 2015-2025 Adjunct Professor HEC Paris

External Academic Responsibilities

  • 2024- Visiting professor Musashino University

Scientific Activities

Membership in Academic or Professional Organisation

  • Member of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) Board of Directors
  • Co-chair of the IPPA Programme Accreditation Task Force
  • Member of the Board of Directors of the Wellbeing Education Network (WEN)
  • Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society (BPS)

Editorial activities

  • 2021- Review Editor on the Editorial Board of Positive Psychology, Frontiers in Psychology

    • Awards & honors

    • 2023 Fellow of the VIA (Values in Action) Institute
    • 2022 International Society for Coaching Psychology Fellowship, awarded for outstanding contribution to the development of coaching psychology and positive psychology