CENTER FOR BUSINESS
AS AN AGENT OF WORLD BENEFIT

David Cooperrider is the Founder and Chairman of the BAWB. Since 1991, David has served on the faculty of the department of Organizational Behavior, Weatherhead School of Management with a secondary appointment in International Health, Division of General Medical Sciences, Case School of Medicine. David’s research interests include the theory and practice of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), organization development and change, advances in “business as an agent of world benefit,” positive organizational scholarship, and qualitative theory-building methods. What has driven his work is the AI methodology for which he is best known. David’s founding theory in this area is creating a positive revolution in the leadership of change, helping companies around the world discover the power of strength-based approaches to planning and multi-stakeholder cooperation. His work is especially vital because of its ability to enable positive change in systems of very large and complex scales, for example with the US Navy, Hewlett-Packard, Parker Hannifin, Mckinsey, United Nations and Verizon. To contact David, please e-mail.

Ron Fry is the Chair of the department of Organizational Behavior and serves as the Faculty Advisor for the Center, and Chief Editor of the BAWB Innovation Bank. His research interests include organizational change and development, functioning of the executive, group dynamics and team effectiveness, whole systems change processes, management and leadership development, and applications of Appreciative Inquiry to foster human cooperation. Ron was one of the co-creators of Appreciative Inquiry at Case and heads the Institute for Advances in Appreciative Inquiry. He also directs the Case Masters in Positive Organization Development and Change Program. To contact Ron, please e-mail.

Ante Glavas is the Executive Director of the BAWB. He is also an organizational consultant who has lived in five countries and worked with close to 100 companies around the world. His work has always focused on using business as a force for world benefit. He led a team that built CBA, the first private graduate business school in Croatia and became its first CEO. Ante also established Horizon, a leadership institute in Croatia which has worked with the leadership development of thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations in South-Eastern Europe and has since become the largest consulting and education company in the region. He has also worked as a senior manager in Diageo - a Fortune 500 company, and started an organic foods company which he owned and presided over. Ante serves on the boards of various non-profit organizations such as AIESEC. He has received numerous awards for his work contributing to society such as the medal of honor from the President of Croatia for his work contributing to the development of Croatia. Ante is completing his Ph.D. in organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve University.

Chris Laszlo is the Associate Director for Corporate Strategy and Design at BAWB, and a partner and co-founder of  Sustainable Value Partners, a strategy consulting firm working with senior leaders in some of the world's largest companies to transform societal opportunities and risks into sources of competitive advantage.  He has led over 100 executive seminars and spoken widely on "Sustainability for business advantage" inside companies and at leading business schools including Case Weatherhead, Darden, Kenan-Flager, and the European business school INSEAD in the Advanced Management Seminar and CEDEP Executive Education program.For nearly ten years, he was an executive at Lafarge S.A., a world leader in building materials, holding positions as head of strategy, general manager of a manufacturing subsidiary, and vice president of business development. Prior to that he spent five years with Deloitte & Touche, where he consulted on strategy to global industry leaders. Educated at Swarthmore College, Columbia University, and the University of Paris, Chris earned a Ph.D. in Economics and Management Science. To contact Chris, please e-mail.

Nadya Zhexembayeva is the Associate Director for International Networks. Nadya’s research, teaching, and practice centers around organizational design for sustainable value creation, whole-system approaches to managing multi-stakeholder issues, and sustainability within context of emerging economies. She currently lectures at Case Western Reserve University in the US and IEDC Bled School of Management in Slovenia. In her five years with BAWB, Nadya has enjoyed a wide array of projects, ranging from strategic planning for BAWB and the World Inquiry co-directing on-line conference production and facilitation for the BAWB global community. She received a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, B.A. in Management and B.A. in Psychology from Hartwick College. A native of Almaty, Kazakhstan, Nadya and her family enjoy living on multiple continents, and sharing their lives with multiple homes. To contact Nadya, please e-mail.

Erin Christmas is the Project Manager at the Center. Erin manages the World Inquiry and is a member of the World Inquiry editorial board. She is also a staff writer for the Innovation Bank. She maintains and edits BAWB's website and manages the Colloquium Series which brings industry leaders and change makers to Case's campus once a semester. Additionally Erin conducts research and provides support for the Center’s various other projects. Erin earned her Bachelors of Science in Management with a finance concentration at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Her interests include social entrepreneurship, poverty eradication and peace building.  To contact Erin, please email.