Biography of Alan S. Gregerman

Dr. Alan S. Gregerman is President and Chief Innovation Officer of VENTURE WORKS, Inc., a consulting firm based in the Washington, D.C., area that helps leading companies to develop winning strategies and create successful new products, services, ventures and new ways of doing business. His customers are a wide range of Fortune 500 corporations, growing firms, entrepreneurial start-ups and nonprofit organizations including Discovery Communications, Raytheon, GlaxoSmithKline, Marriott, Lockheed Martin, Verizon, AMS, CSC/DynCorp, the National Civil Rights Museum, The Children's National Medical Center and CITIBANK.

Alan is a internationally-known expert on business strategy and innovation. In the past fifteen years he has helped over 300 teams to create important innovations-with a 90% success rate. He is also an award-winning teacher and public speaker who has been called "the most creative person in the Mid-Atlantic" and "the Robin Williams of business consulting." His book, Lessons from the Sandbox, provides a powerful formula for business success based on the magic of childhood. Before starting VENTURE WORKS Alan was Director of Entrepreneurial Services for a national consulting firm, Special Assistant for Operations at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the first Visiting Scholar in Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth at the Library of Congress. He has also worked as a mapmaker and a subway mechanic.

Alan earned his B.A. in geography, magna cum laude, from Northwestern University, and his M.A. in economic geography and Ph.D. in urban and technological planning, with highest honors, from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In his free time, he is President of the Board of the Human Services Institute where he is involved in efforts to break down the barriers that separate people with disabilities from leading "normal" everyday lives. Alan is also a founding member of the Passion for Learning Initiative, and an active member of Leadership Washington, the Business Roundtable for Education and The Primary Care Coalition. He is also a math and writing tutor in the public schools.