Prof. Peter Heisig (Leeds University Business School) Germany

Peter holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin and a Diploma in Social Sciences from the University of G¨ttingen (Germany). He is Senior Research Fellow at the Leeds University Business School (UK) where his main research centres around Knowledge Management. Currently he is coordinating a global network of researchers and scholars in KM from 20+ countries. Before joining Leeds University, he was Senior Research Associate at the Engineering Design Centre, University of Cambridge (UK). Peter is working in the KM field since 1988 while being involved in a research project about “how organizations produce knowledge”. In 1990 he started working for the Fraunhofer Society, called the German MIT, in national and international research projects, e.g. about “tacit knowledge in manufacturing and engineering”. In 1996 he was appointed to establish the “Competence Center Knowledge Management” which he directed until 2004. The CCWM worked on KM projects for clients from industry (like Siemens, VOLKSWAGEN), services (SAS, German Airtraffic Control), public administration (Home office, Police) and research organization (Fraunhofer Institutes). The CEN and EU DG Information Society (Brussels) appointed Peter as KM expert for the “European Guide to Good Practice in Knowledge Management” (CWA 14924, Brussels 2004) in 2001. In 2003, Peter proposed to the German Ministry of Economics to support small and medium-sized businesses, the backbone of the German economy, by improving their strategic capabilities and developing their intellectual assets. In 2009, the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) asked him to organize and direct the “First International KM Study Tour to Germany” for foreign KM experts and in 2010 he served as European KM Expert to the APO Study Mission to Knowledge-Creating Companies in Japan. He was also invited by the IDSC to speak at the First conference on Knowledge Management under the auspices of the Prime Minister of Egypt in Cairo in 2010. In 2005 he founded eureki – European Research Center for Knowledge and Innovation – as a network of experts to help organizations to improve the exploitation and creation of knowledge for innovation. Since than we worked for companies such as Unilever, Degussa, ThyssenKrupp, sanofi- aventis, 20+ small and medium businesses from different industries and the German Ministry of Economics (BMBF). Peter lectures at the Leeds University Business School (UK), and teached at the Technical University and Humboldt University Berlin (Germany), the University of Lecce (Italy) and Donau University Krems (Austria). He published about KM and co-edited “Knowledge Management. Best Practice in Europe” (Springer 2001, 2nd 2003).