Congress Academic Advisory Committee


	University of Applied Sciences Professor Dr Peter Granig, Founder and Academic Director, Innovation Congress Innovation is his calling. Dr Peter Granig, born in 1969, is a Professor of Business Administration and Innovation Management at The University of Applied Sciences Carinthia since 2005. After completion of an in-house electrician apprenticeship and completion of an executive Higher Technical School Course, he studied Business Administration and Group Dynamics at The Alpe-Adria University of Klagenfurt, as well as Management and Marketing at The University of Northern Iowa, USA. He wrote his Doctoral Thesis regarding the theme "Assessment of innovations, with the help of risk simulations" at the Institute for Controlling and Strategic Management at The Alpe-Adria University of Klagenfurt. Dr Granig has got more than 20 years of experience in the fields of Innovation Management and Business Development in national and international companies, and he is the author of numerous professional publications regarding the themes of innovation and Innovation Management. His latest research focus is Strategic Innovation Management, Business Model Innovation and Strategy Development.




	Prof Oliver Gassmann Congress Academic Advisor Prof Gassmann is the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Institute of Technology Management at The University of St. Gallen, as well as the Professor for Innovation Management at The University of St. Gallen.Prof Gassmann is one of the most renowned Innovation Professors in the world. In 2010, he was one of the most-quoted Management Professors worldwide, in 2009 he received the award Top 50 Researcher worldwide from the International Association of Management and Technology, and in 1998 he received the RADMA Prize. He is active on the Editorial Boards of R&D Management, Creativity & Innovation Management, International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management, the main Lecturer in numerous Executive MBA Programmes, Author and Publisher of 14 books and more than 230 Professional Publications, is on the Editorial Boards of numerous international magazines and is also a Consultant for a number of Fortune 500 Companies.




	Dr Erich Hartlieb, Congress Academic Advisor The Upper Carinthia Native, born in 1969, is Professor for Innovation and Technology Management at The University of Applied Sciences Carinthia in the study field of Geo Information. He graduated from The Technical University of Graz as an Industrial Engineer, where he also worked for 4 years as University Assistant at the Institute for Industrial Business Administration and Innovation Research. Dr Hartlieb is a Founding Member and Advisor of The Knowledge Management Forum Graz. Then, he was a Strategy and Innovation Consultant for corporations and medium-sized companies. He is also the author of numerous professional publications from the field of his professional specialisation, and he also gave numerous lectures.




	Dr Hans Lercher, Congress Academic Advisor Dr Lercher, born in 1968, is one of the most prominent Consultants and Professors regarding the theme of innovation in Central Europe and is obsessed with this theme. He is the Course Director of the Executive Innovation Management Course at The University of Applied Sciences Campus02 in Graz and University Lecturer for Creative Techniques, as well as Technology and Innovation Management at numerous Universities. In 2001, he and a partner founded the Consulting Firm IMG Innovation-Management-Group with offices in Graz and Baden/Wien, where he is also the Managing Partner. Furthermore, in 2002, he founded a High-Tech Start-Up Business in Vienna with business partners, which he left in 2007 after a financial partner joined the business. He graduated from The Technical University of Graz, where he studied Telematics, as well as Business Administration, Law and Economics, and then worked for four years as University Assistant at the Institute for Industrial Business Administration of The Technical University of Graz. Up to now, he managed more than 150 Consulting Projects (for example, for AVL, Magna, EVK, Siemens, Komptech, SEZ, Ebner, Maresi, Engel, Lenzing, W&H, Brasseler, Sony, etc.), and he is the author of Professional Articles and Publications related to his area of expertise.




	University Professor Dr Kurt Matzler, Congress Academic Advisor Since 2007 he is Professor for Strategic Management at The University of Innsbruck, Visiting Professor at The University of Bozen and Academic Director of the Executive MBA Programme at The MCI University of Applied Sciences in Innsbruck. His research work is focused on the areas of Innovation and Strategy Co-Creation, Crowd Sourcing and Business Model Innovation. He studied Business Administration at The University of Innsbruck, received a Doctorate in 1997 and his Habilitation in 2001. He was Marketing Professor at The University of Klagenfurt from 2003 until 2005. He was the Director of the Institute for International Management at The University of Linz from 2005 to 2007. Visiting Professor and Research Projects at the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, Fairfield University in Connecticut, Southeast Missouri State University and at The Bocconi University in Milan. At the time of his appointment as a Professor at The University of Klagenfurt in 2003, at the age of 34, he was the third-youngest Business Administration Professor in all of the German-speaking countries. He is the author, respectively the publisher of more than 20 books, as well as the author of more than 200 scientific articles, among others, in magazines such as MIS Quarterly, Journal of Product Innovation Management, MIT Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Information Systems Journal, Technovation, Creativity and Innovation Management, Journal of Economic Psychology, Marketing Letters, Industrial Marketing Management, etc.. Kurt Matzler is the Co-Author of the German Edition of the book Innovator’s Dilemma, along with Professor Clayton Christensen of The Harvard Business School (the most influential Management Thinker worldwide and Number One in the ranking of the Top 50 Thinkers), the book is one of the 100 best business books ever published (Covert et al. 2011). In 2009, he was ranked by the German Handelsblatt Newspaper among the Top 20 up-and-coming Business Administration Experts in the German-speaking countries. In 2010, he received the Emerald Citation of Excellence Award for a paper about Avatar-based Innovation and in 2012 he received the Best Paper Award of the Creativity & Innovation Management Magazine. Kurt Matzler is regarded as (based on his research output), according to a recent study of the Schmalenbach Business Review, as one of the three best Marketing Professors of the German-speaking countries. As a Partner of IMP, an International Consulting Firm with offices in six countries, he is also closely connected to the business world as a Consultant.




	University Professor Dr Schwarz, Congress Academic Advisor In 1998, Prof Schwarz was appointed as a Professor at The Alpe-Adria University of Klagenfurt. Since 1999, he is the Department Director of the Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship Department of The Alpe-Adria University of Klagenfurt. In 2009, he became the Faculty Director of the Business Administration and Economics Faculty of The Alpe-Adria University of Klagenfurt. In 2002, he played a major role in the founding of the Business Start-Up Centre build!, and is also a Member of the Centre Advisory Committee since its foundation. Since 2010, he is also the Director of the Sports, Health and Entrepreneurship Master’s Programme at The Alpe-Adria University of Klagenfurt. His research focus is on the fields of innovation, entrepreneurship, technology management and environmental management. Prof Schwarz graduated with a Master’s Degree in Metallurgy at The University of Mining Leoben in 1990. He received his Doctorate in Industrial Engineering in 1994 at The Technical University of Graz. Prof Schwarz received his Habilitation in Business Administration in 1998 at The University of Graz. He was a Visiting Professor and a Research Professor at The Polytechnic Institute and The State University of Virginia, Clemson University in South Carolina, The Arizona State University in Phoenix, The University of Essen, The International University Institute in Zittau, The University of Maribor, as well as at The University of Mining Leoben. In 2010, he was appointed as a Management and Organisation Professor at The Technical University of Graz. He is the Author or the Co-Author of nine books, as well as the Writer or the Co-Writer of more than 140 scientific articles, that were published in leading international periodicals. Prof Schwarz received numerous awards for his lectures, as well as his research. As a Board Member of the Innovation Management Platform, as a Lecturer of various post-graduate MBA Programmes (at The Alpe-Adria University of Klagenfurt and at The Management Center Innsbruck), as well as a Consultant for, in particular, new and innovative firms, he is in constant touch with, and cooperates with, the business world.




$C:\Users\IFI2\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Word\RWa-025.jpg$	Dr Roland Waldner Congress Academic Advisor Born on the 24 November 1964. Attended Grammar School in Klagenfurt, and studied Music at The Klagenfurt Music Academy. From 1984 until 1990: Studied Plastics Engineering at The Leoben University of Mining. From 1991 until 1993: Research Associate at the Institute for Art and Composite Materials Construction of The Leoben University of Mining. In 1994, he joined Philips as a Product Developer. Since 1999, Dr Waldner managed various Product Development Teams, with a particular emphasis on the pre-development stage/Fuzzy Front End. Lecturer at The Alpe-Adria University of Klagenfurt (in the field of Creative Techniques), at The Technical University of Graz, and at WIFI Carinthia (in the field of Plastics Engineering), among others. Since 2002, he manages the Innovation & Creativity Programme at Philips Consumer Lifestyle in Klagenfurt, with a focus on Innovation Culture. From 2004 until 2008: Doctoral Thesis regarding Open Innovation at The Alpe-Adria University of Klagenfurt. In 2010, he was appointed as the Improvement Manager and Competence Team (FUNction Development) Manager at Philips Consumer Lifestyle in Klagenfurt. Since 2012, he is a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Austrian TRIZ Competence Centre. Dr. Waldner attended various courses in the fields of TRIZ, FMEA, DesignForSixSigma(DFSS)/Green Belt, as well as presentation techniques courses.