ALI MASHAYEKHI

Dr. Ali N. Mashayekhi is professor of Management at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. He has a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering from Sharif University and a PhD in Management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

Ali has a wide range of experiences in teaching, research and management consulting in Iran and the US. His areas of interest are Systems Thinking and System Dynamics, strategic planning, and learning organizations. He is a member and a past President of the International System Dynamics Society.

Dr. John Morecroft is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Decision Science at London Business School where he teaches MBA, PhD and Executive Education programmes. Before joining London Business School he was on the faculty of MIT's Sloan School of Management where he received his PhD.

John is a leading expert in strategic modelling and system dynamics and has published widely in major academic journals. In 1990, he received the Jay Wright Forrester Award of the System Dynamics Society and in 1996, he was the Society's President. He has published two edited volumes: Modelling for Learning Organisations" 1994 (with MIT's John Sterman) and "System Dynamics for Policy, Strategy and Management Education" 1999 (with Geoffrey Coyle). His current research interests include scenario modelling and the dynamics of strategy. He has been a consultant and adviser to international organisations such as Royal Dutch/Shell, AT&T, BBC World Service, Ericsson and McKinsey & Co.

Dr. Khalid Saeed is a Professor of system dynamics and economics and Department Head of Social Science and Policy Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA. Trained at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in system dynamics and economic development, Khalid specializes in computer modeling and experimental analysis of developmental and organizational agendas. He has worked as a consultant, among other organizations, to UN-ESCAP, Asian Development Bank, McKinsey & Company and UNDP and has published extensively on economic development and system dynamics and has also authored two books, respectively, on sustainable development and the design of development policy. Khalid Saeed received the Jay Wright Forrester Award for his work on sustainable development in 1995. He has served also as the president of the International System Dynamics Society and an Associate Editor of System Dynamics Review.

Dr. Peter M. Senge is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also Founding Chair of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), a global community of corporations, researchers, and consultants dedicated to the "interdependent development of people and their institutions." Dr. Senge received a B.S. in engineering from Stanford University, an M.S. in social systems modeling and PhD. in management from MIT.

Peter is the author of the widely acclaimed book, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization" (1990). The Fifth Discipline hit a nerve deep within the business and education community by introducing the theory of learning organizations. Since its publication, more than 750,000 copies have been sold. In 1997, Harvard Business Review identified it as one of the seminal management books of the past 75 years. Dr. Senge has lectured extensively throughout the world, translating the abstract ideas of systems theory into tools for better understanding of economic and organizational change. His areas of special interest focus on decentralizing the role of leadership in organizations so as to enhance the capacity of all people to work productively toward common goals. Dr. Senge's work articulates a cornerstone position of human values in the workplace; namely, that vision, purpose, reflectiveness, and systems thinking are essential if organizations are to realize their potentials. He has worked with leaders in business, education, healthcare and government. The Journal of Business Strategy (September/October 1999) named Dr. Senge as one of the 24 people who had the greatest influence on business strategy over the last 100 years. The Financial Times (2000) named him as one of the world's "top management gurus."