Please note that faculty are subject to change and not all faculty teach in each session of the program.

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  Deborah Ancona

  Seley Distinguished Professor of Management
  
  Professor of Organization Studies
  
  Faculty Director, MIT Leadership Center
  

  Deborah Ancona's pioneering research explores how successful teams operate and the critical importance of managing both outside and inside the team's boundary. This research led directly to the concept of X-teams as a vehicle for driving innovation within large organizations and to the publication of her book, X-teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate, and Succeed (Harvard Business School Press, June 2007)... ... (more)

  Deborah Ancona's pioneering research explores how successful teams operate and the critical importance of managing both outside and inside the team's boundary. This research led directly to the concept of X-teams as a vehicle for driving innovation within large organizations and to the publication of her book, X-teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate, and Succeed (Harvard Business School Press, June 2007).

  Ancona's work also focuses on the concept of distributed leadership and the development of research-based tools, practices, and teaching/coaching models that enable organizations to foster creative leadership at every level. This work was highlighted in the Harvard Business Review article, "In Praise of the Incomplete Leader" (February 2007).

  Her studies of team performance have been published in the Administrative Science Quarterly, the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, and the Sloan Management Review. Ancona's book, Managing for the Future: Organizational Behavior and Processes (South-Western College Publishing, 1996, 1999, 2005), centers on the skills and processes needed to succeed in today's diverse and changing organization. She has served as a consultant on leadership and innovation to premier companies, such as AT&T, BP, Credit Suisse First Boston, Hewlett-Packard, Merrill Lynch, News Corporation, and Vale.

  Ancona holds a BA and an MS in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in management from Columbia University. (less)

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  Pierre Azoulay

  Sloan Distinguished Associate Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management
  

  Pierre Azoulay joined the MIT Sloan School faculty in July 2006. In his research, he investigates how organizational design and social networks influence the productivity of R&D in the health care sector. Currently, he is studying the impact of superstar researchers on the research productivity of their colleagues in the academic life sciences... ... (more)

  Pierre Azoulay joined the MIT Sloan School faculty in July 2006. In his research, he investigates how organizational design and social networks influence the productivity of R&D in the health care sector. Currently, he is studying the impact of superstar researchers on the research productivity of their colleagues in the academic life sciences. He is also interested in the topic of academic entrepreneurship, having recently concluded a major study of the antecedents and consequences of academic patenting. In the past, he has researched the outsourcing strategies of pharmaceutical firms, in particular the role played by contract research organizations in the clinical trials process. He teaches courses on strategy and technology strategy.

  Professor Azoulay is also a faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. From 2001 and 2006, he was Associate Professor of Management at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. (less)

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  Court Chilton

  Senior Lecturer
  

  Court teaches in the Essential IT for Non-IT Executives program at MIT’s Sloan School. He has helped large organizations produce business results from learning, coaching, and enterprise-wide change efforts for the last 20 years. His clients have included GE Capital, Deloitte, Fidelity, MIT, Bank of America, Ixis Asset Management, Novartis, Merck, Genzyme; Shire, TJX, Home Depot, Clifford Chance, and Baker McKenzie... ... (more)

  Court teaches in the Essential IT for Non-IT Executives program at MIT’s Sloan School. He has helped large organizations produce business results from learning, coaching, and enterprise-wide change efforts for the last 20 years. His clients have included GE Capital, Deloitte, Fidelity, MIT, Bank of America, Ixis Asset Management, Novartis, Merck, Genzyme; Shire, TJX, Home Depot, Clifford Chance, and Baker McKenzie.

  Court has worked internationally on a wide variety of business-building initiatives: creating “branded client experiences;” relationship management and service improvement; sales training and leadership development; executive education and coaching; implementing Six Sigma; professional practice management, and re-engineering the learning function. In the course of these initiatives, he has also developed computer simulations, on-line 360 feedback, and process-embedded e-learning. He is an effective facilitator and coach for senior management teams.

  Prior to working for MIT’s Sloan School, Court was a senior vice president of The Forum Corporation, based in New York and Boston. In the course of 14 years at Forum, he was responsible for the firm’s core leadership, teaming, and total quality offerings. He also managed the $20M+ mid-Atlantic region for the firm and several strategic client relationships.

  Court has worked with a number of educational institutions. He has also served as part of a “coaching faculty” for MBA candidates at Northeastern University. Through Northeastern, he has helped first year law firm associates understand their clients’ business perspectives. Through the District Management Council, he has consulted with educational institutions such as the Montclair (NJ) and Lancaster (PA) Public Schools to raise student achievement, decrease costs, and improve operations.

  Court received a B.A., magna cum laude with High Honors from Middlebury College in 1978, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School in 1986. Between college and graduate school he worked in book and magazine publishing in a variety of marketing roles. He lives outside Boston with his family. He has served on his town’s Finance Committee and currently serves on the town’s School Committee.

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  Joseph Coughlin

  Director, AgeLab
  

  Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D. is Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. His research provides insights on how demographic change, technology, social trends and consumer behavior will converge to drive future innovations in business and government. Based in MIT’s Engineering Systems Division, he teaches policy and systems innovation and is author of the on-line publication Disruptive Demographics... ... (more)

  Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D. is Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. His research provides insights on how demographic change, technology, social trends and consumer behavior will converge to drive future innovations in business and government. Based in MIT’s Engineering Systems Division, he teaches policy and systems innovation and is author of the on-line publication Disruptive Demographics. He is one of Fast Company Magazine’s ‘100 Most Creative People in Business’ and was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of “12 pioneers inventing the future of retirement and how we will all live, work and play tomorrow.” Dr. Coughlin is a Behavioral Sciences Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Fellow of Switzerland’s World Demographics & Ageing Forum advising and speaking to businesses, governments and non-profits worldwide. He has served numerous advisory boards including those for British Telecom Health, Daimler, Fidelity Investments, Gallup, Healthways, Nissan, Putnam Investments, Sanofi-Aventis, and Toyota. He was appointed by President Bush to the White House Conference on Aging Advisory Committee. Dr. Coughlin has worked with governments in Asia and the EU, the World Economic Forum, OECD, and the Council on Foreign Relations on demographic change, technology and strategic advantage. He has been featured on ABC News, BBC, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, NBC’s Today Show, Dr. Oz, News Asia, Economist, Financial Times, The Straights Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets throughout the world. Prior to MIT he was with EG&G a Fortune 1000 science & technology firm consulting to business and government worldwide. (less)
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  Jared Curhan

  Sloan Distinguished Associate Professor of Organization Studies
  
  

  Professor Curhan specializes in the psychology of negotiation and conflict resolution. He received his BA in Psychology from Harvard University and his MA and PhD in Psychology from Stanford University. A recipient of support from the National Science Foundation, Curhan has pioneered a social psychological approach to the study of "subjective value" in negotiation (i... ... (more)

  Professor Curhan specializes in the psychology of negotiation and conflict resolution. He received his BA in Psychology from Harvard University and his MA and PhD in Psychology from Stanford University. A recipient of support from the National Science Foundation, Curhan has pioneered a social psychological approach to the study of "subjective value" in negotiation (i.e., social, perceptual, and emotional consequences of a negotiation). His current research uses the Subjective Value Inventory (SVI), a measure he developed, to examine precursors, processes, and long-term effects of subjective value in negotiation. Curhan currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School, a world-renowned inter-university consortium dedicated to developing the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution.

  Deeply committed to education at all levels, Curhan received Stanford University's Lieberman Fellowship for excellence in teaching and university service, as well as MIT's institute-wide teaching award, and MIT Sloan's Jamieson Prize for excellence in teaching.

  Curhan is Founder and President of the Program for Young Negotiators, Inc., an organization dedicated to the promotion of negotiation training in primary and secondary schools. His book, Young Negotiators (Houghton Mifflin, 1998), is acclaimed in the fields of negotiation and education and has been translated into Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic. The book has been used to train more than 35,000 children across the United States and abroad to achieve their goals without the use of violence. (less)

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  Roberto Fernandez

  William F. Pounds Professor in Management
  Professor of Organization Studies
  

  Roberto M. Fernandez is an organizational sociologist who currently serves as the head of MIT Sloan’s Behavioral and Policy Sciences area, and as co-director of its Ph.D. program in Economic Sociology. His executive teaching duties include the management of innovation, change, and human resources; negotiations; networks; and power and politics in organizations... ... (more)

  Roberto M. Fernandez is an organizational sociologist who currently serves as the head of MIT Sloan’s Behavioral and Policy Sciences area, and as co-director of its Ph.D. program in Economic Sociology. His executive teaching duties include the management of innovation, change, and human resources; negotiations; networks; and power and politics in organizations. In addition, Fernandez is the chief professor in charge of MIT Sloan’s required MBA course on Organizational Processes. He has traveled extensively, lecturing in Abu Dhabi, Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Iceland, Singapore, and South Africa.

  Fernandez has extensive experience doing field research in organizations, including an exhaustive five-year case study of a plant retooling and relocation. He is continuing his research on networks and hiring by studying financial services, market research, manufacturing, and retail sales jobs. His current research focuses on the organizational processes surrounding the hiring of new talent using data collected in 14 organizations.

  Before joining MIT in 2000, Fernandez was a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business from 1994 to 2000, serving as the area coordinator in charge of the school’s organizational behavior faculty. Prior to Stanford, he was associate professor of sociology and urban affairs at Northwestern University from 1989 to 1994. His first academic job was as an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Arizona from 1984 to 1989.

  Fernandez is the author of over 40 articles and research papers published in the top academic journals in his field. A noted expert in organizational sociology, he is the recipient of numerous academic honors and awards.

  He holds a BA in sociology magna cum laude from Harvard University, and both an MA and a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago. (less)

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  Charles Fine

  Chrysler Leaders for Global Operations Professor of Management
  Professor of Operations Management and Engineering Systems
  Co-Director, International Motor Vehicle Program
  

  Charles H. Fine teaches operations strategy and supply chain management and directs the roadmapping activities in MIT's Communications Futures Program. His research focuses on supply chain strategy and value chain roadmapping, with a particular emphasis on fast clockspeed manufacturing industries. Fine's work has supported the design and improvement of supply chain relationships for companies in electronics, automotive, aerospace, communications, and consumer products... ... (more)

  Charles H. Fine teaches operations strategy and supply chain management and directs the roadmapping activities in MIT's Communications Futures Program. His research focuses on supply chain strategy and value chain roadmapping, with a particular emphasis on fast clockspeed manufacturing industries. Fine's work has supported the design and improvement of supply chain relationships for companies in electronics, automotive, aerospace, communications, and consumer products. His current research examines dynamic models for assessing the leverage among the various components in complex industrial value chains and the principles for value chain design, based on strategic and logistical assessments.

  Fine consults and teaches widely. Among his clients are 3M, Accenture, Agile Software, Alcan, BellSouth, Bombardier, Caterpillar, Chrysler, Delphi Automotive, Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, Fluor, GE, GM, Goodyear, Honeywell, HP, Intel, Kodak, Lucent, Mercury Computer, Merrill Lynch, Motorola, NCR, Nokia, Nortel, Oracle, Polaroid, PTC, Research-in-Motion, Rolls-Royce, Sematech, Teradyne, Toyota, TRW, Unilever, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Walsin Lihwa.

  He also serves on the board of directors of Greenfuel Technologies Corporation, a biotechnology company that he co-founded, which focuses on renewable energy. He is the co-director of the executive education program, Driving Strategic Innovation, which is a joint venture between MIT Sloan and IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.

  Fine is the author of Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage (Perseus Books, 1998). His work on quality management, flexible manufacturing, supply chain management, and operations strategy has also appeared in Management Science, Operations Research, the Journal of Manufacturing and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, the Annals of Operations Research, Games and Economic Behavior, the Sloan Management Review, the Supply Chain Management Review, and Interfaces.

  Fine holds an AB in mathematics and management science from Duke University, an MS in operations research from Stanford University, and a PhD in business administration (decision sciences) from Stanford University. (less)

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  Kristin Forbes

  Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Professor of Management
  Professor of Global Economics and Management
  

  Kristin Forbes' research addresses policy-related questions in international finance and economics, including financial contagion, capital flow volatility, financial crises, capital controls, foreign investment, and tax holidays.

  Forbes frequently rotates between academia and policy positions in the United States government...

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  Kristin Forbes' research addresses policy-related questions in international finance and economics, including financial contagion, capital flow volatility, financial crises, capital controls, foreign investment, and tax holidays.

  Forbes frequently rotates between academia and policy positions in the United States government. She currently serves as a member of the Governor's Council of Economic Advisors for the state of Massachusetts. From 2003 to 2005, she served as a member of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers; and from 2001 to 2002, she served as a deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Treasury Department. Before joining MIT, Forbes worked at the World Bank and Morgan Stanley. She recently was honored as a Young Global Leader as part of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.

  Forbes is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the Bellagio Group, Trilateral Commission, and Council on Foreign Relations. She is on the academic advisory board for the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Center for Global Development. She also is a founding member of Deworm the World, a nonprofit organization that has helped deworm more than one million children around the world.

  Forbes holds a BA from Williams College (summa cum laude with highest honors) and a PhD in economics from MIT. (less)

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  Andrew Lippman

  Associate Director, MIT Media Lab
  Co-Director, Digital Life
  Senior Research Scientist
  Co-Director, MIT Communications Futures Program
  
  

  Andrew Lippman has a more than 35-year history at MIT. His work at the Media Lab has ranged from wearable computers to global digital television. Currently, he heads the Lab's Viral Spaces research group, which examines scalable, real-time networks whose capacity increases with the number of members... ... (more)

  Andrew Lippman has a more than 35-year history at MIT. His work at the Media Lab has ranged from wearable computers to global digital television. Currently, he heads the Lab's Viral Spaces research group, which examines scalable, real-time networks whose capacity increases with the number of members. This new approach to telephony, sensor interconnection, and broadcasting transfers "mainframe communications" technology to distributed, personally defined, cooperative communicators. In addition, he co-directs MIT's interdisciplinary Communications Futures program. Lippman has directed research programs on digital pictures, personal computers, entertainment, and graphics, and he has served on advisory boards of technology start-ups. Currently, he is on the science councils of both non-profit and for-profit companies addressing global information infrastructures. Lippman established and directs the Digital Life consortium, which focuses on both technical invention and human understanding, and works to create a networked world where communication becomes fully embedded in our daily lives. He has written both technical and lay articles about our digital future and given over 250 presentations throughout the world on the future of information and its commercial and social impact. Lippman received both his BS and MS in electrical engineering from MIT. In 1995 he completed his PhD studies at the EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. (less)
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  J. Bradley Morrison

  Senior Lecturer
  MIT Engineering Systems Division
  

  Brad Morrison studies dynamically complex problems in organizations, organizational change, and management using the tools of system dynamics. His research centers on why organizations find it difficult to do what they want to do. Morrison focuses on implementation problems, which he has studied in several contexts, such as process improvement settings and firms adopting the practices of lean manufacturing... ... (more)

  Brad Morrison studies dynamically complex problems in organizations, organizational change, and management using the tools of system dynamics. His research centers on why organizations find it difficult to do what they want to do. Morrison focuses on implementation problems, which he has studied in several contexts, such as process improvement settings and firms adopting the practices of lean manufacturing. He tries to understand why some cases lead to successful implementation, while others lead to failures. For example, why do apparently well-intended actions often lead to outcomes that differ greatly from people?s intentions? How do the actions some managers take foster the very problems they are attempting to solve? His research is strongly rooted in organizational theory, with a methodological emphasis on interpretation through the lens of system dynamics.

  Over a 20-year career with a leading management consulting firm, Morrison has assisted dozens of organizations that wrestle with change in areas such as product development and supply chain management. His consulting clients have included agencies of the United States and other governments, global consumer products firms, major retailers, and professional services firms. He has extensive experience in Asia, having worked in 11 countries on projects for clients from North America, Asia, and Europe.

  Morrison teaches at MIT in the System Design and Management program, the Leaders for Manufacturing program, Executive Education programs at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program. He is a senior scientist in the Pre-Conflict Anticipation and Shaping research team at MIT. Morrison teaches courses in business dynamics, operations management, and supply chain management in the MBA program at Brandeis University?s International Business School.

  He holds a PhD in management (system dynamics and organization studies) from the MIT Sloan School of Management, an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and undergraduate degrees in chemistry and management science from MIT. (less)

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  Alex Pentland

  Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
  Director, Human Dynamics Lab
  Director, MIT Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program
  School of Architecture and Planning
  School of Engineering
  

  Alex `Sandy' Pentland directs MIT's Human Dynamics Laboratory and the MIT Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program, and advises the World Economic Forum, Nissan Motor Corporation, and a variety of start-up firms.

  Sandy is among the most-cited computational scientists in the world, and a pioneer in computational social science, organizational engineering, and mobile computing...

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  Alex `Sandy' Pentland directs MIT's Human Dynamics Laboratory and the MIT Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program, and advises the World Economic Forum, Nissan Motor Corporation, and a variety of start-up firms.

  Sandy is among the most-cited computational scientists in the world, and a pioneer in computational social science, organizational engineering, and mobile computing.

  He has won numerous international awards in the arts, sciences, and engineering; in 1999 he was chosen by Newsweek as one of the "100 Americans Most Likely to Shape the Next Century," in 2009 he won DARPA's 40th Anniversary of the Internet Grand Challenge, and in 2011 he was named one of the "world's seven top data scientists" by Tim O'Reilly in Forbes magazine.

  His research has been featured in Nature, Science, the World Economic Forum, and Harvard Business Review, as well as being the focus of TV features including Nova and Scientific American Frontiers. His most recent book is Honest Signals, published by MIT Press. (less)

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  Roberto Rigobon

  Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management
  Professor of Applied Economics
  

  Roberto Rigobon is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a visiting professor at IESA. Since joining MIT Sloan in 1997, he has won the "Teacher of the Year" award three times and received the "Excellence in Teaching" award three times.

  His areas of research are international economics, monetary economics, and development economics...

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  Roberto Rigobon is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a visiting professor at IESA. Since joining MIT Sloan in 1997, he has won the "Teacher of the Year" award three times and received the "Excellence in Teaching" award three times.

  His areas of research are international economics, monetary economics, and development economics. Roberto focuses on the causes of balance-of-payments crises, financial crises, and the propagation of them across countries—the phenomenon that has been identified in the literature as "contagion." He studies properties of international pricing practices, and is one of the two researchers behind how the Federal Reserve in the US determines its interest rate policy when there is a shock in the stock market index, and what is the impact of monetary policy shocks on asset prices.

  He holds a PhD in economics from MIT, an MBA from IESA (Venezuela),and his BS in electrical engineering from Universidad Simon Bolivar (Venezuela). (less)

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  Leon Sandler

  Executive Director, Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
  

  As Executive Director of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, Leon Sandler wears many hats: He is responsible for guiding the center’s strategic direction, ensuring successful execution of its mission, and managing day-today operations.

  With a strong background in the assessment of technologies for commercialization, Mr...

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  As Executive Director of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, Leon Sandler wears many hats: He is responsible for guiding the center’s strategic direction, ensuring successful execution of its mission, and managing day-today operations.

  With a strong background in the assessment of technologies for commercialization, Mr. Sandler leads a process the center calls “select, direct and connect”. Through this process, faculty research projects are chosen to receive Deshpande Center grants, based on a project’s potential commercial and social impact. Research teams then receive intensive guidance in how to bring their inventions to the marketplace and form new spinout companies.

  Among his related duties Mr. Sandler:

  Mentors faculty and student researchers

  Coaches and lectures on technology innovation and entrepreneurship at the MIT Trust Entrepreneurship Center and the MIT Sloan executive education program

  Advises organizations around the world on how to move technologies from the lab to the marketplace

  Serves as the Deshpande Center’s fundraiser-in-chief, responsible for keeping the center on a sound financial footing.

  To ensure the success of all these activities, Mr. Sandler builds and continually renews a broad network of relationships. These include connections within MIT’s well-developed entrepreneurial ecosystem and external ties with venture capitalists, corporate supporters, government agencies, and educational institutions.

  Business, Entrepreneurial and Educational Background

  Before joining the Deshpande Center in 2006, Leon Sandler held senior positions in general management, marketing, finance and business development at companies such as Boston Consulting Group, Eastman Kodak, Texas Instruments and Digital Equipment Corporation. He founded the consulting firm Monmouth Group, where he provided management, marketing and business development assistance to over twenty early-stage companies. This included co-founding and serving as the CEO of Nuvonyx, a maker of industrial laser systems; serving as CEO of several start-ups; and assisting many ventures as an interim executive or advisor.

  Mr. Sandler received his B.S. degree in 1971 and his M.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1973 from Natal University in South Africa, and his M.B.A. in 1977 from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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  Michael Schrage

  Research Fellow, MIT Center for Digital Business
  Visiting Fellow, Imperial College Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  

  Michael Schrage examines the various roles of models, prototypes, and simulations as collaborative media for innovation risk management. He has served as an advisor on innovation issues and investments to major firms, including Mars, Procter & Gamble, Google, Intel, BT, Siemens, NASDAQ, IBM, and Alcoa... ... (more)

  Michael Schrage examines the various roles of models, prototypes, and simulations as collaborative media for innovation risk management. He has served as an advisor on innovation issues and investments to major firms, including Mars, Procter & Gamble, Google, Intel, BT, Siemens, NASDAQ, IBM, and Alcoa.

  In addition, Schrage has advised segments of the national security community on cyberconflict and cybersecurity issues. He has presented workshops on design experimentation and innovation risk for businesses, organizations, and executive education programs worldwide. Along with running summer workshops on future technologies for the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment, he has served on the technical advisory committee of MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. In collaboration with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Schrage helped launch a series of workshops sponsored by the Department of Defense on federal complex systems procurement. In 2007, he served as a judge for the Industrial Designers Society of America's global International Design Excellence Awards.

  Schrage authored the lead chapter on governance in complex systems acquisition in Organizing for a Complex World (CSIS 2009). He has been a contributor to such prestigious publications as the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, strategy+business, IEEE Software, and the Design Management Journal. In his best-selling book, Serious Play (Harvard Business School Press, 2000), Schrage explores the culture, economics, and future of prototyping. His next book, Getting Beyond Ideas (Wiley), is forthcoming in 2010. (less)

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  Peter Senge

  Senior Lecturer, Leadership and Sustainability
  

  Peter M. Senge is the founding chair of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), a global community of corporations, researchers, and consultants dedicated to the “interdependent development of people and their institutions.”

  Senge is the author of the widely acclaimed book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990); with colleagues Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross, Bryan Smith, and Art Kleiner, he is the co-author of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization (1994)...

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  Peter M. Senge is the founding chair of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), a global community of corporations, researchers, and consultants dedicated to the “interdependent development of people and their institutions.”

  Senge is the author of the widely acclaimed book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990); with colleagues Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross, Bryan Smith, and Art Kleiner, he is the co-author of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization (1994). He and George Roth coauthored the fieldbook, The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations (March, 1999). Along with Nelda Cambron-McCabe, Timothy Lucas, Bryan Smith, Janis Dutton, and Art Kleiner, he coauthored the award-winning fieldbook on education, Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education (September, 2000).

  The Fifth Discipline hit a nerve deep within the business and education community by introducing the theory of learning organizations. Since its publication, more than a million copies have been sold worldwide. In 1997, Harvard Business Review identified it as one of the seminal management books of the past 75 years. There have been feature articles in BusinessWeek, Fortune, Fast Company, Sloan Management Review, and other leading business periodicals regarding the work of Senge and his colleagues at MIT and SoL.

  The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (over 400,000 copies sold) was developed in response to questions from readers of The Fifth Discipline who wanted more help with tools, methods, and practical experiences in developing enhanced learning capabilities within their own companies. The Dance of Change is based on more recent experiences of companies developing learning capabilities over many years, and the strategies leaders develop to deal with the many challenges this work entails.

  Senge has also authored many articles published in both academic journals and the business press on systems thinking in management. The Journal of Business Strategy (September/October 1999) named Senge as one of the 24 people who had the greatest influence on business strategy over the last 100 years, the Financial Times (2000) named him as one of “The World’s Top Management Gurus,” and BusinessWeek (October 2001) rated him as one of the “Top Ten Management Gurus.”

  Senge has lectured extensively throughout the world, translating the abstract ideas of systems theory into tools for the better understanding of economic and organizational change. His areas of special interest focus on decentralizing the role of leadership in organizations so as to enhance the capacity of all people to work productively toward common goals. Senge’s work articulates a cornerstone position of human values in the workplace; namely, that vision, purpose, reflectiveness, and systems thinking are essential if organizations are to realize their potential. He has worked with leaders in business, education, healthcare, and government.

  Senge holds a BS in engineering from Stanford University, as well as an MS in social systems modeling and a PhD in management from MIT. (less)

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  David Simchi-Levi

  Professor of Engineering Systems
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  

  David Simchi-Levi is a Professor of Engineering Systems at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Co-Director of Leaders for Global Operations. His research currently focuses on developing and implementing robust and efficient techniques for logistics and manufacturing systems. He has published widely in professional journals on both practical and theoretical aspects of logistics and supply chain management... ... (more)

  David Simchi-Levi is a Professor of Engineering Systems at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Co-Director of Leaders for Global Operations. His research currently focuses on developing and implementing robust and efficient techniques for logistics and manufacturing systems. He has published widely in professional journals on both practical and theoretical aspects of logistics and supply chain management.

  Dr. Simchi-Levi has been the principal investigator for more than five million dollars in funded academic research. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Operations Research, the flagship journal of INFORMS, the former Editor-in-Chief of Naval Research Logistics and a member of the board for several scientific journals including Management Science, Networks, Transportation Science and Telecommunication Systems, and a former Area Editor of Transportation for Operations Research. His Ph.D. students have accepted positions in leading academic institutes including Berkeley, Columbia U., U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, U. of Michigan, Purdue U., Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech.

  Dr. Simchi-Levi is co-author (with Julien Bramel) of The Logic of Logistics, published by Springer in 1997 (1st Edition) and in 2004 (2nd Edition) (with Xin Chen and Julien Bramel). His second book, Designing and Managing the Supply Chain (with P. Kaminsky and E. Simchi-Levi) was published by McGraw-Hill in August 1999 (1st edition), 2002 (2nd edition) and 2007 (3rd edition). It received the Book-of-the-Year award and the Outstanding IIE Publication award given in 2000 by the Institute of Industrial Engineers. The book also received the Outstanding First Edition of the Year award given in 2000 by McGraw-Hill. It was selected by Business 2.0. December 2001 issue, as the best source for slashing time and cost and increasing productivity in the supply chain. It has been translated to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese. His 3rd book (with P. Kaminsky and E. Simchi-Levi), Managing the Supply Chain: The Definitive Guide for the Supply Chain Professional, was published by McGraw-Hill in December 2003. The book serves as a reference for consultants and managers involved in any one of the processes that make up the supply chain.

  He is the founder and chairman of LogicTools (www.logic-tools.com), a company that provides Decision Support Systems and professional services for supply chain planning. These systems have been used widely to reduce cost and improve service level in large-scale logistics systems. Clinets include Caterpillar, ConAgra, Kraft Foods, Mercer Management, Ryder, SC Johnson, UPS, U.S. Postal Service, and Walgreens to name a few.

  Professor Simchi-Levi has consulted and collaborated extensively with private and public organizations. He is one of the developers of a Decision Support System for school bus routing used by New York City Board of Education to route and schedule school buses throughout the five boroughs in New York City. The system won the first place prize in the 1994 Win World Competition for the Public Sector. (less)

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  Steve Spear

  Senior Lecturer
  

  Spear is a well-recognized expert on how select organizations manage complex development, design, and delivery efforts to create unmatched rates of internally generated, broad based improvement and innovation. Resulting leadership on reliability, agility, cost, quality, safety, and so forth produces sustainable competitive advantage even in the face of intense rivalry... ... (more)

  Spear is a well-recognized expert on how select organizations manage complex development, design, and delivery efforts to create unmatched rates of internally generated, broad based improvement and innovation. Resulting leadership on reliability, agility, cost, quality, safety, and so forth produces sustainable competitive advantage even in the face of intense rivalry. Spear's book, The High Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition (McGraw Hill, 2010), has won several awards including the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research and the Philip Crosby Medal from the American Society for Quality.

  His articles, “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System” and “Learning to Lead at Toyota” have been widely read and have become part of the lean manufacturing canon. Spear's “Fixing Healthcare from the Inside, Today,” won a McKinsey Award as one of the best Harvard Business Review articles in 2005 and his fourth Shingo Prize for Research Excellence. He has published in Annals of Internal Medicine and other medical journals as well and has had op-ed pieces in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Fortune.com, and Industry Week. He has been interviewed on Bloomberg TV and radio and on CBS News and quoted in a number of magazines and newspapers and has spoken to audiences as diverse as the Association for Manufacturing Excellence and the Institute of Medicine.

  As a consultant and advisor, Spear works actively with organizations to develop their capacity for high speed sustained improvement and innovation. He played an integral role in developing the Alcoa Business System, which has been credited with saving hundreds of millions of dollars in Alcoa's annual report, and the Perfecting Patient Care system of the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative, which helped raise quality and safety of care in area hospitals and which has been credited with saving many lives and much money. His clients include organizations such as Lockheed Martin, John Deere, Intel, Intuit, Brigham Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He consulted for the MacArthur Foundation, and works with Toyota on supplier development efforts. A senior lecturer, both in MIT's Sloan School of Management and also the Engineering Systems Division, Spear teaches a course about high velocity organizations in the Leaders for Global Operations Program and in several executive education programs. He supports the Institute for Healthcare Improvement efforts as a senior fellow.

  Spear’s academic degrees include a doctorate from Harvard Business School, masters degrees – in management and mechanical engineering – from MIT, and a bachelors degree in economics from Princeton. He worked for the investment bank Prudential-Bache, the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment, and the University of Tokyo, and he taught at Harvard Business School for six years. He and his wife, Miriam, an architect, live in Brookline MA with their three children. (less)

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  Edward Steinfeld

  Associate Professor
  

  Edward Steinfeld, a China specialist, focuses his teaching and research on institutional reform and industrial upgrading in emerging economies.

  His most recent book , Playing Our Game: Why China’s Rise Doesn’t Threaten the West (Oxford, 2010), examines the political and economic ramifications of China’s integration into global industrial production...

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  Edward Steinfeld, a China specialist, focuses his teaching and research on institutional reform and industrial upgrading in emerging economies.

  His most recent book , Playing Our Game: Why China’s Rise Doesn’t Threaten the West (Oxford, 2010), examines the political and economic ramifications of China’s integration into global industrial production. The book argues that China’s participation in globalized production has induced political change within China at the same time it has accelerated industrial innovation within the United States.

  Steinfeld’s current research focuses on the development of the Chinese energy sector, as well as global efforts to develop new energy-related technologies.

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  John Sterman

  Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management
  Professor of System Dynamics and Engineering Systems
  Director, MIT System Dynamics Group
  

  John D. Sterman’s research centers on improving managerial decision making in complex systems. He has pioneered the development of “management flight simulators” of corporate and economic systems. These flight simulators are now used by corporations and universities around the world. His recent research ranges from the dynamics of organizational change and the implementation of sustainable improvement programs to experimental studies assessing the public’s understanding of global climate change... ... (more)

  John D. Sterman’s research centers on improving managerial decision making in complex systems. He has pioneered the development of “management flight simulators” of corporate and economic systems. These flight simulators are now used by corporations and universities around the world. His recent research ranges from the dynamics of organizational change and the implementation of sustainable improvement programs to experimental studies assessing the public’s understanding of global climate change. Sterman‘s research includes systems thinking and organizational learning, computer simulation of corporate strategy, and the theory of nonlinear dynamics.

  He is the author of many scholarly and popular articles on the challenges and opportunities facing organizations today, including the book, Modeling for Learning Organizations, and the award-winning textbook, Business Dynamics. His articles on the innovative use of interactive simulations in management education and corporate problem solving have appeared in Fortune, the Financial Times, BusinessWeek, as well as other newspapers and journals. He has been featured on Public Television’s News Hour, National Public Radio’s Marketplace, and CBS television.

  Sterman twice has been awarded the Jay W. Forrester Prize for the “Best Published Work in System Dynamics.” He also has won a 2005 IBM Faculty Award as well as the 2001 Accenture Award for the “Best Paper of the Year” published in the California Management Review (with Nelson Repenning). Five times, he has won awards for “Teaching Excellence” from the students of MIT Sloan, and was named one of MIT Sloan’s “Outstanding Faculty” by the 2001 BusinessWeek Guide to the Best Business Schools. (less)

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  Tavneet Suri

  Associate Professor
  

  Tavneet Suri is a development economist who studies the evolution of markets and various market failures in the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa. Her main areas of focus are agriculture and formal and informal financial access, such as the adoption of seed technologies in Kenya and the extent of informal risk-pooling mechanisms in rural Kenya... ... (more)

  Tavneet Suri is a development economist who studies the evolution of markets and various market failures in the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa. Her main areas of focus are agriculture and formal and informal financial access, such as the adoption of seed technologies in Kenya and the extent of informal risk-pooling mechanisms in rural Kenya. Suri's ongoing research includes understanding the adoption and impact of mobile money (M-PESA) in Kenya; the role of infrastructure in agricultural markets in Sierra Leone; the diffusion of improved coffee-farming practices through social networks in Rwanda; and the role of different types of formal and informal collateral in credit markets for assets in Kenya. She regularly spends time in the field, managing her various research projects and data collection activities.

  Suri is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); an affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), and the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR); and co-director of the Agriculture Research Program at the International Growth Center. (less)

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  Ezra Zuckerman

  Nanyang Technological University Professor
  Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management
  Chair MIT Sloan PhD Program
  

  Ezra Zuckerman is an economic sociologist with a focus on social network analysis. He studies how social structures of various kinds emerge and influence behavior and key outcomes for individuals, teams, and organizations. Zuckerman's current research projects include a study of industry peer networks, exclusive groups of noncompeting peer firms from the same industry that gather on a regular basis to learn from one another's experiences and to motivate one another to achieve higher performance... ... (more)

  Ezra Zuckerman is an economic sociologist with a focus on social network analysis. He studies how social structures of various kinds emerge and influence behavior and key outcomes for individuals, teams, and organizations. Zuckerman's current research projects include a study of industry peer networks, exclusive groups of noncompeting peer firms from the same industry that gather on a regular basis to learn from one another's experiences and to motivate one another to achieve higher performance.

  Prior to joining the MIT Sloan School of Management, Zuckerman taught strategic management and organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

  He earned a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago. (less)