Knowledge and Innovation Network

Rob Cross is the acknowledged world expert in Social Network Analysis (SNA) and how relationships and informal networks in organizations can provide competitive advantage. Rob is Associate for the KIN SNA Action Learning Group.

He is a research fellow with Babson's Working Knowledge Consortia. His research focuses on knowledge creation and sharing and specifically in knowledge-intensive work. In this program of research he has worked with more than 60 strategically important networks across a wide range of well-known organizations in consulting, pharmaceuticals, software, electronics and computer manufacturers, consumer products, financial services, petroleum, heavy equipment manufacturing, chemicals, and government.

Rob has published extensively, notably in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Academy of Management Executive and Organizational Dynamics. He is also the author of two books: Networks in the Knowledge Economy (Oxford University Press) and The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations (Harvard Business School Press). Rob holds a PhD from Boston University and a BS and MBA from the University of Virginia. He speaks, consults and conducts executive education both domestically and internationally. Rob currently lives in Charlottesville where he enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.

Richard McDermott, PhD
Richard McDermott is one of the leading thinkers, authors and consultants on designing knowledge organizations and building communities of practice. Richard is the Associate for the KIN Communities of Practice Special Interest Group.

For nearly two decades, he has worked with engineering, professional service, sales, and manufacturing firms to maximize the productivity of knowledge workers. He was the SME for two national studies of best practices in KM; one on creating a knowledge-sharing culture and another on institutionalizing communities of practice. He is also a frequent speaker at international conferences. Prior to starting his consulting practice, Richard worked in the Corporate Education department at Polaroid, where he designed career development programs for technical professionals and experienced first-hand the dilemmas of being a knowledge worker. He was a Research Assistant at the Harvard and a faculty member at Lesley College, teaching management, organizational behavior, and organizational change.

Richard's clients include Shell Oil Co., ExxonMobil, Schlumberger, Pfizer, Aventis Pharmaceutical, Hewlett-Packard, Ericsson, Northrop Grumman, The European Commission, The World Bank, The Local Initiative Support Corporation, Conservation International, and Ben & Jerry's.

Richard has a Ph.D. from Brandeis University. While there he studied the sociology of knowledge with Kurt Wolf and discovered what became his intellectual anchor, the French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Mearleau-Ponty's philosophy on how we make sense of the world, understand each other and learn still pervades his work.

Richard lives with his two daughters just outside of Boulder, Colorado. When he is not consulting, Richard spends most of his time at the barn where he and his daughters keep their horses.

Nick Milton, PhD
Nick Milton has unparalleled experience in developing and applying knowledge management for business benefit. He spent two years at the centre of the team than made BP one of the worlds acknowledged leaders in KM. Nick is the Associate for the KIN 'Learning from Projects' Special Interest Group.

Nick developed and implemented BP's knowledge of "how to manage knowledge", and coordinated the BP KM community of practice. Prior to this role he had worked for 5 years as Knowledge Manager for BP Norway.

Nick has since been instrumental in developing and delivering KM strategies and implementation plans in a wide range of different organizations in the mining, broadcasting, manufacturing and energy sectors. He has a particular interest in capturing and collating knowledge, and has managed major knowledge capture programs, particularly in the area of mergers and acquisitions.

Nick is a widely recognized coach and trainer, and has spoken at many international conferences, such as Unicom, EEMA, EBIC and the IT Directors Forum. Nick holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Wales, is directing training and product development for Knoco Ltd, and is based in Somerset, England.

Ian Corbett
Ian Corbett has extensive experience in the development of strategies for learning for performance in a southern African context. He was instrumental in the development of the De Beers knowledge management strategy. Ian regularly talks at KIN events on the topic of  'Management Buy-in'.

Carlotta Volhardt
Until recently, Carlota headed up the Knowledge Retention and Transfer team at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in New York. She has just launched her new firm Executive Knowledge International.
In her role at Pfizer she had worldwide responsibility for developing and delivering knowledge retention and transfer solution to senior leaders across divisions. Her team was part of a Corporate HR function responsible for consulting to Pfizer’s Leadership and rolling out global programs to manage talent and performance across the organization.
Prior to starting up this new function Carlota was a Director in the WW Organization Effectiveness and Consulting Services in Pfizer’s commercial division and before that in the R&D division, focusing on Leadership Development, Knowledge Transfer and Change Management.
Prior to joining Pfizer in 1998 Carlota held several management, consulting and faculty positions as organizational and clinical psychologist in the health-care arena in the US and Germany. She is a co-founder and principal of ISTOB, a Training and Consulting Institute in Munich/Germany specializing in a systems approach to management and organizational effectiveness for social and health care services.
Carlota is currently the KIN Associate for the Knowledge Retention and Transfer Special Interest Group

Jenny Ambrozek 

Jenny  Ambrozek has worked with many leading thinkers and doers in the world of Social Media, such as Euan Semple, Rob Cross and Victoria Axelrod. These days Jenny prefers the term ‘Participative Media’ to better describe the uses that organisations are making of blogging, tagging, wikis and collaborative technologies. While helping organizations implement such tools to facilitate knowledge sharing and customer exchanges, Jenny has watched essential business processes, brands and cultures challenged by the networked world. In turn, these have changed customer and employee expectations for transparency and access. Jenny frequently attends KIN Member events and reports for KIN from her travels round the world on developments in the ‘Web2’ world, commenting on the business benefits, claimed or real.