Peter Smith, as President of The Leadership Alliance Inc. (TLA), maintains a worldwide consulting practice assisting leading public and private sector organizations enhance performance by optimizing activities related to Interactive Planning and critical sustainability and innovation drivers such as knowledge management, organizational learning, entrepreneurship, and complexity leadership. Through his research and practice in Dynamic Complexity, Network Visualization & Analysis, Social Network Analysis, Complex Adaptive Systems, and other emerging paradigms, Peter has developed unique in-depth expertise in cross-organizational learning and digitally-facilitated knowledge sharing, collaborative community development, and the identification of Opinion Leaders and Innovation Champions – keys to enhancing Social Capital and successfully implementing any significant organizational undertaking. The breadth of Peter’s practical hands-on management experience has proven invaluable in ensuring that he can relate to the problems and pressures faced by organizations in today’s complex and ambiguous global environments, and it is fundamental to framing his research interests which include Triple Bottom Line Sustainability, strategic capital, knowledge management, organizational learning, social capital, entrepreneurialism, innovation, networks, complex systems, complexity leadership, digital platforms and related emerging paradigms. Prior to establishing his consulting practice Peter held various senior positions with Exxon in New York and across North America in I/T, HR, R&D, Operations, and Mathematics. In 1990 as an Exxon representative he was one of the founding associates of Peter Senge’s Organizational Learning Center (OLC) at MIT, and during the period 1990-94, first as an Exxon representative and later as an independent consultant for TLA, he participated in various systems thinking, microcomputer simulation, and system dynamics activities and projects through the OLC. During this period he also became a TLA associate of Interact, the Philadelphia-based consultancy headed by Dr. Russel Ackoff. and Dr. Jamshid Gharajedaghi. Peter has served as Professor of Management Learning Processes with the Canadian School of Management, as Executive Director of The International Foundation for Action Learning- Canada, and as Chair of the International Community of Action Learners. He is Managing Editor of the Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, and Consulting and Special Issues Editor of The Learning Organization. He is also Associate Editor (Practitioners) for the International Journal of Sociotechnology & Knowledge Management. Peter has had published more than fifty academic papers on a broad range of topics related to performance enhancement, including chapters in “The Encyclopedia of Communities of Practice in Information & Knowledge Management”, “The Handbook of Business Strategy” and ““Handbook of Research on Socio-Technical Design And Social Networking Systems”. Peter is in demand internationally as a speaker, workshop leader and conference chair.
Tom Cockburn obtained his first degree with honors from Leicester University, England. Both his MBA and Doctorate were gained at Cardiff University, Wales. He also has several professional teaching and assessment qualifications including an E-moderator certification and executive coaching qualifications from the UK Universities of Wolverhampton, Liverpool University, the University of Ulster, the Waikato Institute of Technology (New Zealand), Hay Consulting plc (Australia), and EdExcel Foundation in London. Tom is an Associate Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management, has been a member of a number of editorial boards of international academic journals, and a review member of the Cutting Edge Awards Committee of the US Academy of HRD. Tom has 5 years of Board experience on the Standing Conference of Welsh Management Education Centers and another year in an advisory, non-voting capacity on the Board of K’Aute Pasifika Trust working with Pacific Island peoples’ Social, Health and Educational Development projects in New Zealand. In addition, he has had 8 years as Head of a UK Business school and held a deputy Head of School role in New Zealand. He has adjunct and visiting E-faculty roles on Henley Business School (UK) and Ulster University Business Schools’ MBA and MS programs. He is currently Director-Policy for the Center for Dynamic Leadership Models in Global Business formed in 2012 and a senior associate of The Leadership Alliance Inc headquartered in Canada. In 2013, Tom co-authored Dynamic Leadership Models for Global Business: Enhancing Digitally Connected Environments with Peter A.C. Smith, published by IGI Global. Tom now resides in Almeria province in Spain.