Béla Heinrich Bánáthy (December 1, 1919 – September 4, 2003) was a Hungarian linguist, systems scientist and a professor at San Jose State University and UC Berkeley. Bánáthy was the founder of the White Stag Leadership Development Program whose leadership model was adopted across the United States. He was also founder of the International Systems Institute with its innovative "conversation"-oriented conference structure, co-founder of the General Evolutionary Research Group, an influential professor of systems theory and a widely-read and respected author.