Biographies

Prof. dr. Jo Ritzen, President of Maastricht University

Before assuming his current position in February 2003, Mr. Ritzen was Vice President of the World Bank's Development Economics Department. He assumed this position in August 1999. In July 2001 he assumed the position Vice President of the World Bank's Human Development Network, which advises the institution and its client countries on innovative approaches to improving health, education and social protection. Mr. Ritzen joined the Bank as Special Adviser to the Human Development Network in September 1998. Prior to coming to the Bank, he was Minister of Education, Culture, and Science of The Netherlands, one of the longest-serving Ministers of Education in the world. During his term, he enacted a series of major reforms throughout the Dutch education system. Mr. Ritzen has also made significant contributions to agencies such as UNESCO and OECD, especially in the field of education and social cohesion.

Prior to his appointment as Minister in 1989, Mr. Ritzen held academic appointments with Nijmegen University and Erasmus University in The Netherlands, and the University of California-Berkeley and the Robert M. LaFollette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States.Mr. Ritzen obtained a master's degree in physical engineering in 1970 from the University of Technology in Delft, and a PhD in economics in 1977 from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. His dissertation on education, economic growth, and income distribution earned him the Winkler Prins prize. He has written or co-authored eleven books. Many articles written or co-authored by him are published in the fields of education, economics, public finance and development economics.

Dr. Subhas C. Misra, Harvard University, USA

Dr. Misra is currently a Visiting Scientist at Harvard University, USA. He received his Ph.D. degree from Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada, and M.S. and M.Tech. degrees respectively from the University of New Brunswick, in Fredericton, Canada, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), at Kharagpur, India. Dr. Misra has several years of experience working in the academia, and the public and private sectors in research, teaching, consulting, project management, architecture, software design and product engineering roles. His current research interests include the areas of software management, software quality management, and information systems security, which are multidisciplinary in nature, combining the fields of software engineering, information systems, organizational behavior, and technology and operations management. Dr. Misra has authored over 50 scholarly research papers and published (yet to appear) 4 books.
He has won Best Research Paper Award in an international conference held in the United States. He was also the recipient of more than 15 academic awards and fellowships such as the Achievement Award at the 2007 World Congress held in Las Vegas in the United States for "contribution and dedication" to his field, and the Canadian Government's NSERC Post Doctoral Fellowship. A mention about him and his work has also appeared in the June 8, 2007 issue of the Carleton Now newspaper in Canada. His biography has also been selected to appear in the Cambridge Blue Book, Cambridge, England, 2008.

He is the Managing Editor / Editor /Regional Editor/ Guest Editor /Associate Editor/ Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Business and Globalization (U.K.), the International Journal of Business and Systems Research (U.K), the International Journal of Information and Coding Theory (IJICoT), U.K, the International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems (IJCNDS), Computer Communications Journal (Elsevier Science),the Telecom Systems Journal (Springer), Security and Communication Networks Journal (Wiley), ICIC Express Letters (an international journal motivated to Innovative Computing, Information, and Control; published from Japan), the International Journal of Systemics, Cybernatics, and Informatics and the International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Computer Science.

Prof. dr. Geert Duysters, professorial fellow at UNU-MERIT

Geert Duysters (1966) is a professorial fellow at UNU-MERIT and a professor of Organization Science at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He obtained a masters' degree in economics from the Universiteit Maastricht. In 1995 he obtained a PhD in Economics and Business Administration at the same University.

After working at the University of Maastricht and the TU Eindhoven as subsequently, researcher, assistant professor, associate professor and full professor he is currently employed as a Professorial fellow at UNU-MERIT. UNU-MERIT was formally established on 1 January 2006 following the integration of the former United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (INTECH) and the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology, He is also a part-time full professor of Organization Science (in particular knowledge acquisition and integration strategies) at the faculty of Technology Management of the Eindhoven University of Technology. He worked as an alliance expert for the European Commission and the OECD. From 2000-2003 he has been the Director of the Eindhoven Centre for Innovation studies (ECIS). He also acted as Associate Dean of the faculty of technology Management from 2004-2006.

His academic research mainly concerns international business strategies, innovation strategies, mergers and acquisitions, network analytical methods and strategic alliances. He has published over 60 international refereed articles and book chapters in among others: Organization Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Research Policy, Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Small Business Economics and many other international refereed journals. He is on the editorial board of a number of international journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, The Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, the Serbian Journal of Management, The South East Asian Journal of Management, The Open Management Journal and the International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development. He also acts as an associate editor of the Journal on Chain and Network Science.

His interest in business strategies and innovation strategies is not only academic, as he worked as a consultant (senior manager) for KPMG Alliances at the international headquarters in Amstelveen (the Netherlands). He also acts as a founding global board member of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP). As an entrepreneur he founded three internet companies over the past decade.

Dorothea Seebode, Senior Director Sustainability, Philips Research
Dorothea Seebode is Senior Director Sustainability at Philips Research. In strong cooperation with the Philips Corporate Sustainability Office and the Philips Sectors she works globally on implementing sustainability as business and innovation driver. Before she worked for 10 years in different roles in innovation, ranging from project management in R&D, technology management, vision and strategy development, new business creation to strategic marketing. Ms. Seebode holds a PhD in Physics from the Technical University in Aachen (RWTH Aachen), Germany.

Prof. Dr. Deng Mingran, Dean of the School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, China
Professor Deng Mingran is Dean of School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, from 1999. He received his Ph.D. degree of Management Science and Engineering from Wuhan University of Technology, China. At present, he is also the leader of Accounting Science Association of Hubei Province, vice-chairman of the High Education Teaching Committee of Chinese Accounting Institute, managing director of Management Branch of Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, managing director of Administration Society of Hubei Province, secretary-general of the technological economy and modernisation of Management Research Association in Wuhan City.

His academic research mainly concerns theory and method of the capital operation, theory and practice of making the investment and optimizing, business bank running and managing, and enterprise system and enterprise operating mechanism. He has published over 100 academic articles and about 16 famous teaching books.
Prof. Deng Mingran has taken charge of or participated in finishing more than 50 scientific research tasks, including 3 National Natural Science Fund Projects, over 20 Hubei Provincial Scientific and Technological Commission Projects, and over 20 enterprises’ projects. Prof. Deng Mingran has won the 3rd grade award of the scientific and technological progresses for Hubei Province, the 2nd grade award of the scientific and technological progresses for Wuhan, the special award of great subject research results in the State’s Tenth Five-Year Plan of Hubei, and also won the first prize of scientific and technological progress of Wuhan in 2003.

Prof. Dr. Ken Kaminishi, Dean of the Graduate School of Innovation & Technology Management, Yamaguchi University, Japan
Professor Ken Kaminishi is Dean of the Graduate School of Innovation & Technology Management, Yamaguchi University. He received his Ph.D. degree of Mechanical Engineering from Kyushu University, Japan, and both his M.S. and B.Sc. from Yamaguchi University, Japan. Before becoming the dean and professor of the Graduate School of Innovation & Technology Management, Yamaguchi University, he was working at the Faculty of Engineering, Yamaguchi University as subsequently, researcher, assistant professor, associate professor and full professor.
He is the president of Japan MOT Council whose members are all graduate schools of MOT in Japan. The council's ultimate aim is to improve the MOT education level of Japan. He is also the director of Japan MOT Society, the only society publishing MOT related papers in Japan, and the representative of Western Japan MOT Consortium, a tie-up among government-local industry-academia in the Western Japan area.  He was the director of Yamaguchi Technology Licensing Organisation. He was the founding director of ECOMAS Co., Ltd., a university venture. He had several publications about computational dynamics, design engineering, synectics and R&D strategies. He also won the Yamaguchi Prefecture incentive award for promoting science and technology.

Prof. Dr. Ard-Pieter De Man, Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Principal Consultant at Atos Consulting, The Netherlands
Ard-Pieter de Man is Principal Consultant at Atos Consulting and Professor of Management Studies at the VU University Amsterdam. Both his academic work and his consulting assignments focus on alliance management and innovation. He is a prize winning author and has written ten books and over forty articles on these topics. As global board member of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, he is an internationally recognized thought-leader in his field.

Dr. Victor Gilsing, Associate Professor at Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Victor A. Gilsing (1969) is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Tilburg University. Furthermore, he is one of the Core Fellows of the Centre for Innovation Research (CIR) that forms a joint research institute with the Faculty of Business and Economics at Tilburg University.
Before joining Tilburg University, he was a Senior Researcher at the Faculty Technology Management, Eindhoven University of Technology and a Fellow at ECIS. Prior to academia he worked at Unilever, as a European Sales and Innovation Manager, and at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, as a senior policy advisor in the field of Innovation Policy.

He also acted as a member of the Scientific Council of the Dutch Aviation Industry, chaired by Prof. dr. A. Kolnaar (crown-member SER) and co-chaired by Prof. drs. Pieter Bouw (former CEO of KLM). Furthermore, he acted as the global project leader of a worldwide OECD study on biotechnology in 16 different nations.
In his research, he has a special interest in the creation of breakthrough innovations and the role of strategic (technology) collaboration herein. In addition, he has also an interest in the role of corporate entrepreneurship as a means to create important (breakthrough) innovations, possibly in combination with external strategic collaboration.

His work has been published in several international refereed journals such as Journal of Management Studies, Research Policy, Journal or Product Innovation Management and others.
Furthermore, he also teaches students and managers in the field of innovation management and strategic collaboration. He also gives lectures to companies and policy makers on a regular basis.

Prof. Dr. Arnoldo José de Hoyos Guevara, Professor at Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil
Prof. Dr. Arnoldo José de Hoyos Guevara is Professor at The Management Program of The Catholic University of São Paulo (PUCSP). He was born in México, and holds MS in Nuclear Eng PRNC and PhD in Statistics by the University of California, Berkeley. Prof. de Hoyos Guevara is a Brazilian representative of the World Future Society (www.wfs.org) and The Millennium Project of WFUNA (www.millennium-project.org). He is the Director of the Center for Future Studies NEF at the PUCSP (www.nef.org.br), and of the Educational NGO Gira Sonhos (www.girasonhos.org.br). His research areas include future studies, and knowledge and values management. His recently published books are From Knowledge to Consciousness Society (2007), Emerging Technologies for Education and Management (2008), and Consciousness and Sustainable Development (2008).