A new economic world order is based upon knowledge (not technology), innovation (not solutions), value-systems (not chains), customer success (not satisfaction) and international collaboration (not competition). There is a leap of faith and trust required to take advantage of the opportunities afforded in this new knowledge economy.

Considered an architect of the Knowledge Economy, her own specialties include knowledge management, e-learning networks, customer innovation (beyond CRM), and enterprise transformation. For the last couple of years, she has presented throughout the North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Australia and South Africa. Her advice has been sought by diverse organizations such as the National Research Council, The Agility Forum, the Industrial Research Institute, the European Union, PBS, BBC and The World Bank.

Author of many publications including – Managing the Knowledge Assets into the 21st Century (1987) – 1st national conference on the topic; Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy: The Ken Awakening (1997) – selected for Business Literacy 2000 and available in 6 languages; Creating the Knowledge-Based Business (co-authored, 1997) – considered the “KM Bible”; Collaborative Innovation and the Knowledge Economy (1998) – the monograph for finance professionals; two electronic publications - The Architectural Primer for Knowledge Innovation (2001) and The Global Knowledge Primer (2001); and the most recent described as “a milestone in the field and the best business book of the year and the best innovation book of the decade - The Innovation SuperHighway (2003).This year, a tri-volume set of books on Knowledge Economics: Principles, Practices and Policies were released as well as In Search of Innovation, a child’s book for leadership executives.

Known among her peers as a management pioneer, philosopher and visionary, she has captured the imagination of academic, government and industrial leaders around the globe. With her seminal conference in 1987, she set in motion what has evolved to an expansive 'community of knowledge practice’ - comprised of theorists and practitioners from diverse functions, sectors, industries and geographies. Her "Momentum of Knowledge Management" – and subsequent "Global Momentum of Knowledge Strategy" - is available in many languages over the Internet. Her books have also been published French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and two dialects of Chinese.

She has served in a variety of executive management positions as Assistant Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Director of a higher education consortium, was the first female dean at Babson College, established the first industrial-strength management systems research office and a variety of leadership or advisory positions, including the National Conference for the Advancement of Research, the Industrial Research Institute, and the National Science Foundation.

Among her credits is serving as a Senior research Fellow for the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas at Austin and on the faculty of Tilburg University (The Netherlands), IPADE (Mexico), the Banff Centre (Canada) and the International University of Entrepreneurship. Others often cite her progressive management concepts and methodologies in their own. She is also the Global View editor for KnowMap – an electronic journal that is distributed electronically to 35 countries and co-producer of I3 Update/ENTOVATION News – the original in the knowledge and innovation field.

Married with four children, she holds degrees from Boston University (BS), Columbia University (MA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS) where she was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. E-mail: debra@entovation.com; URL: www.entovation.com