Prof. Edward D. Hess University of Virginia, USA

Professor Ed Hess spent more than 20 years in the business world as a senior executive at Warburg Paribas Becker, Boettcher & Company, the Robert M. Bass Group and Arthur Andersen. He joined academia in 2002 as an Adjunct Professor of Organization and Management at the Goizueta School of Business... read moreat Emory University where he was the Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Entrepreneurship and Corporate Growth and The Values-Based Leadership Institute. In 2007, he joined the faculty of the Darden Graduate School of Business as Professor of Business Administration and the first Batten Executive-in- Residence. He teaches in the MBA & EMBA Programs; has taught in over 21 Executive Education programs at Darden, IESE (Barcelona), the Indian School of Business, Georgia Tech and AVT Denmark and consults with businesses and governmental agencies. He is the author of 13 books and over 150 practitioner articles and over 60 Darden cases, etc. dealing with growth, innovation and learning cultures, systems and processes. The common theme of his work is high individual and organizational performance. His book Smart Growth was named a Top 25 business book in 2010 for business owners by Inc. Magazine and was awarded the Wachovia Award for Research Excellence. His current research focuses on Hyper-Learning mindsets, behaviors and processes integrating neuroscience, psychology, and elite performance research with the learnings of the great Eastern and Western philosophies.