Innovation Network

Debra M. Amidon
Chairman and CEO of ENTOVATION International, Ltd.

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DEBRA M. AMIDON is the Chairman and CEO of ENTOVATION International, Ltd. (Wilmington, Massachusetts) - a global innovation research and consulting network linking 80 countries throughout the world.

Author of 5 publications on the topic, including -

Managing the Knowledge Assets into the 21st Century (1987);
Global Innovation Strategy: Creating Value Added Alliances (1989);
Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy: The Ken Awakening (1997);
Creating the Knowledge-Based Business (1997); and
Collaborative Innovation and the Knowledge Economy (1998).

Considered an architect of the Knowledge Economy, her own specialties include knowledge management, learning networks, customer innovation and enterprise transformation. During the past year alone, her presentations have been heard throughout the United States, Canada, France, England, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Chili, Spain, Austria, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Venezuela and China. Her advice has been sought by diverse organizations such as the National Research Council, The Agility Forum, the Industrial Research Institute, the European Union, the BBC and The World Bank.

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 on, 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 made available in many languages over the World Wide Web. In fact, her books have been published French, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.

At Digital Equipment Corporation, she created several strategic functions in strategic human resource planning, one of the first corporate offices of planning and technology transfer and an industrial focus on management systems research in the Office of the President. Prior professional positions include serving as Assistant Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as other influential academic posts, such as the founding Executive Director of the Northeast Consortium of Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts and the first female Dean of Babson College.

A prolific writer, her progressive management concepts and methodologies are often cited in the research of others. Her articles - known to challenge traditional thinking - have appeared in Research-Technology Management, Knowledge Inc., PRISM, Journal of Customer Partnerships, Exec!, 2000 The Handbook of Business Strategy, and the International Journal of Innovation Management to mention a few. Her publications have been cited in The Financial Times, Management Service, Innovacion, The Observer, Management Today, Director, Silicon Valley North, Ottawa Citizen, KM Magazine, Singapore Business Times, the AMA Management Review et al. In May, she is featured as the Leading Light in Knowledge Inc.

Married with four children, she holds degrees from Boston University, Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.

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