Wilferd Peterson was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1925. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1948. After serving in the US Navy, he worked for several years at Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey where he began his writing career.
His first book, The Professional's Guide to Training Programs (Human Resources, 1980), remains one of the most widely used books on human resources training and development in the world.
He is the author of numerous books on training, including Training Leaders (Pergamon Press, 1990), From Good to Great to Unbeatable (McGraw-Hill, 2001), and Leadership Lessons (McGraw-Hill, 2002)
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His other bestsellers include The Future of Human Resource Development (McGraw-Hill, 1997) and The Future of Training (McGraw-Hill 1999).
He has also published two books on leadership: Leadership Lessons for Today's Manager (McGraw-Hill 1999) and Leading the Way to Tomorrow's Business (McGraw-Hill 1999). He has written more than one hundred articles for numerous publications including Harvard Business Review, Fortune Magazine, Financial Times of London, Wall Street Journal, Training Magazine, Personnel Journal, among others. He is a fellow of the American Society for Training & Development and was honored by the U.S.
Department of Labor as an Individual with Distinction for his work in human resource development.
