Dr Charles Despres obtained his doctorate from the University of Utah (USA) by working on the organising implications of large-scale information systems. His subsequent research has centred on the triad of information, organisation and culture, and since 1997 his academic and professional career has concentrated on the emerging field of Knowledge Management.

Charles Despres

He joined IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland) in 1991 as an ABD Research Fellow, completed his doctoral work and moved to the south of France four years later to assume research / professorial roles at the Institute d’Administration des Entreprises, Aix-en-Provence and the Theseus Institute (Sophia Antipolis). Charles was Professor of Organisation and Director of International Development at the Graduate School of Business, Marseille-Provence from 1997 - 2002. In 2003 he joined the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris as Director of Programs at its International Institute of Management.

He has authored around 75 articles, chapters, monographs, grants or proceedings, and co-authored two books, Leveraged Innovation (Macmillan, 1998, with F. Bidault & C. Butler) and Knowledge Horizons (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000, with D. Chauvel).

Dr Dan Remenyi is a Visiting Professor in Information Systems Management at the School of Systems and Data Studies at Trinity College Dublin and an associated member of Faculty at Henley Management College in the United Kingdom. His original academic interests are in the field of information systems management and he has researched and been published widely in that area. In recent years he has taken a strong interest in research methodology and the sociology of research. He now works extensively with research candidates and their supervisors at both doctoral and masters level. He conducts a number of seminars to topics related to improving effective academic research and obtaining better results. He has authored or co-authored more than 30 books and some 50 academically refereed papers. He is published in all 4 of the A rated Journals in the United Kingdom in Information Systems Management. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Acta Commercii (a general management journal) and the Journal of Information Technology. He is the editor of the Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation and advisor to a number of other electronic journals.

Dan Remenyi

Nigel Laurie
Nigel Laurie is an international management consultant, founding editor of 'Philosophy of Management', co-editor of the journal 'Practical Philosophy' and a former Chair of the Society for Philosophy in Practice. He is a Certificated Practitioner in NLP, a Fellow of the Institute for Management Consulting and has over 25 years experience as a management consultant facilitating dialogues and events in businesses, government and public sector organisations in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia.

Nigel has written on dialogue and enquiry and its uses in 'Practical Philosophy' and the Society's book 'Thinking Through Dialogue', trained others in dialogue facilitation and was invited to Japan in 2003 to facilitate a Socratic Dialogue in the Graduate Faculty of Letters at Osaka University. As a facilitator he is noted for his relaxed, rigorous and positive approach.

Nigel Laurie

Professor Geoff Erwin
Professor Geoff Erwin has worked in Australia, UK, USA and South Africa, in government (state and federal), private industry and higher education. He has been an ICT team member, project manager and senior manager/researcher for many years. He has written and co-authored several ICT books and textbooks, published and reviewed for international conferences and research journals and represented organizations in international projects and committees. In Universities he has recently been Dean of a large Business Faculty and is currently Director of an international research centre focusing on Information Society themes at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Cape Town, South Africa. CPUT has adopted the Information Society as a major theme and is positioning itself to approach e-service delivery and the social appropriation of ICT within the context of newly democratic South Africa. encouraging citizen participation following years of the majority of citizens being denied access to social and business facilities. He is a founding and institutional member of The Information Society Institute (TISI) established in South Africa as a multi-stakeholder partnership with three levels of government, using the Community Informatics discipline and membership of CIRN (Community Informatics Research Network) as platforms.

Geoff Erwin