The first 20 years of research …
Core thoughts are synthesized in The Quest: Where the Mountains meet the Library
Mountain Quest Research Associates
Dr. Alex Bennet is Professor, Innovation and Knowledge Institute Southeast Asia (IKI-SEA), Bangkok University, and Director of the Mountain Quest Research Center, part of the Mountain Quest Institute, a research and retreat center located in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. The Research program follows three quests—the quests for knowledge, consciousness and meaning. Alex is the former Chief Knowledge Officer and Deputy CIO for Enterprise Integration of the U.S. Department of the Navy and recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Award. She is the author or co-author of over 60 books, and continues to write vigorously to address the challenges of today. Alex believes in the multidimensionality and interconnectedness of humanity as we move out of infancy into full consciousness. She may be contacted at alex@mountainquestinstitute.com
Robert Turner served in the military in Army Intelligence and Organizational Development, where he founded and co-developed the U.S. Army Fusion Center, an advanced decision support center. He subsequently founded and directed the Federal Aviation Administration Team Technology Center and managed programs in support of FAA leadership development. He established the government-wide Federal KM Network and served four years as Chairman. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi whose motto is "Let the love of learning rule humanity," graduating magna cum laude from the University of Maryland in psychology and business. Robert has a EdM from Boston University where he focused on the development of Individual High Performance. In the early 1990s he attended research at the Institute for the future for three years and later participated for three years at the IBM Institute for Knowledge Management. He co-authored six books related to advancing human cognition in the rise of human intelligence. His current research interest is the use of AI augmented thoughtware to advance collaborative human intelligence. He has been an associate with the Mountain Quest Institute since its inception 25 years ago.
Dr. Annie Green is a Digital Thought Leader, Knowledge Strategist/Architect, Systems Engineer, Methodologist and Data Management/Governance Specialist. Annie is an advisor, professor, lecturer, speaker, journal reviewer, and author. She is adjunct faculty at George Washington University, an associate at Mountain Quest Institute, an associate of A. J. Rhem & Associates, Inc., (AJRA) Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AI CoE) Team, and belongs to several brain trust/think tanks. Annie has served as the lead faculty member for the KM Global Network’s (KMGN) online course “KM in AI,” the KMGN’s liaison to the International Institute for Knowledge and Innovation (IIKI), the co-founder of the Knowledge Management Education Forum (KMEF), a committee member on the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) investigative studies, and the creator of the Artificial Intelligence Management Certificate at Georgetown University, She considers herself an active learner and eternal student, which fuels her love of learning and helps her students and clients stay abreast of current and evolving trends critical to their enduring success.
Dr. Moria Levy is an internationally recognized Knowledge Management expert, combining nearly three decades of research, practice, teaching, and professional leadership. She is the founder and CEO of ROM Global and lectures on Knowledge Management in the MBA program at Tel Aviv University. Moria has led the international expert teams responsible for developing successive editions of ISO 30401, the Knowledge Management Systems standard. She is also among the leaders of the Knowledge Management Global Network (KMGN), where she launched and leads World Knowledge Management Week and actively leads many other global community initiatives. Her current work explores the evolving relationship between people, knowledge, organizations, and AI. She is the author of A Holistic Approach to Lessons Learned.
Dr. Art Murray, Human/AI Co-Evolution. Starting in the AI Lab at the George Washington University over 40 years ago, Art’s passion has been capturing, sharing, applying, and growing deeply hidden knowledge from both people and machines. He has done this for hundreds of organizations all around the world. Applications include: reducing risk by detecting and responding to weak signals in large, complex projects and organizations; building and curating digital bodies of knowledge; human and machine knowledge governance; incorporating human sensemaking into AI. He also specializes in human deep learning, a process of guided self-discovery that results in improved knowledge retention and ability to identify and solve problems systemically. This approach is currently helping students in tribal colleges in the US apply western science through thinking and storytelling in their native language and culture, while communicating their findings and discoveries in English. He is CEO of Applied Knowledge Sciences, Inc., First Fellow and Director of the Enterprise of the Future Program at the International Institute for Knowledge and Innovation, and author of: “Deep Learning Manual: the knowledge explorer's guide to self-discovery in education, work, and life,” and “Building the Enterprise of the Future: Co-creating and delivering extraordinary value in an eight-billion-mind world.” He writes the bi-monthly series in KMWorld Magazine: “The Future of the Future,” and a monthly column for business executives in CEO Clubs Magazine.
Dr. Rongbin W. B. Lee is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is the founding Director of the Knowledge Management and Innovation Research Centre and Head of the University's Partner State Key Laboratory. Professor Lee currently serves as Chairman of the Global MIKE Award Committee. He is the former President of the Hong Kong Chapter of the Institution of electrical Engineers and has also served as President of the Hong Kong Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology. Professor Lee has pioneered KM research and practice across a range of industrial and service sectors in Hong Kong, including manufacturing, trading, public utilities and healthcare. He was Editor-i-Chief of the Journal of Information and KM Systems (Emerald) and is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the International Journal of Knowledge and Systems Science (IGI Publishing). His research interests include manufacturing engineering and strategy, KM, intellectual capital management, and organizational learning. He has published more than 200 papers and recent books include Knowledge Risk and Its Mitigation: Cases and Practices (Emerald) and Future of Corporate Learning and Its Ecosystems: Embracing Whole Thought (Springer). He may be reached at wb.lee@polyu.edu.hk
Dr. Cheng Gong is the founder of Infinite Knowledge and a faculty member at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics. She received her Ph.D. in Knowledge Management and Innovation Management from Bangkok University. Her work focuses on knowledge management, innovation management, digital transformation, and the evolving relationship between human and artificial intelligence, with particular interest in tacit knowledge and innovation in complex environments. She was awarded as one of the Top 50 Most Influential People in Tacit Knowledge Management 2023 by GO-TKM and received the Young Author Recognition Award at the ITU Kaleidoscope 2020. Her academic and cross-cultural experience spans China, Thailand, South Korea, and Russia, contributing to her interdisciplinary and globally oriented perspective on knowledge and innovation.
Charles Dhewa is a proactive Knowledge Management specialist, evaluator and thought leader on African food systems, mass markets, rural development and indigenous knowledge systems. Working at the intersection of formal and informal agricultural markets across Africa, his organization, Knowledge Transfer Africa also known as eMKambo gathers trends around food systems to ensure agricultural value chains are driven by knowledge, technology and innovation. He is always clarifying opportunities and influencing policy through his thought leadership blog as well as Ted Talks. At the international level, Charles is a Core Group member of the Knowledge Management for Development as well as a communication and evaluation consultant under the IDRC-supported initiative known as Designing Evaluation & Communication for Impact (DECI). He also belongs to several professional regional and international associations.
Dr. John Lewis is a speaker and transformational coach for change, learning, and leadership. He has authored the books, The Explanation Age (beyond the information age) and Story Thinking (beyond storytelling). John teaches Innovation Management at the Knowledge Management Institute, is on the advisory board with the Lifeboat Foundation, a member of IIKI (International Institute for Knowledge and Innovation), and an associate editor for Leadership and Organizational Behavior with the Journal of Innovation Management. John has worked for several leading global organizations and his career highlights include launching GPS satellites and being recognized by Gartner with an industry Best Practice paper for a KM implementation. John holds a Doctoral degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California, with a dissertation focus on mental models and decision making. His unified model of change represents the fundamental structure of stories, and encompasses a majority of earlier models, including Kahneman, Kolb, Kotter, and Kubler-Ross. It solves for the “fragmentation” problem described by Peter Senge, and fulfills on the quote by W. Edwards Deming: “We will never transform the prevailing system of management without transforming our prevailing system of education. They are the same system.”
Dr. Joyce Avedisian partners with Christian and secular business, educational and non-profit leaders who want to be leaders in their niche, build a culture of excellence, and demonstrate extraordinary results. In partnering with these leaders, she discovered a common challenge. Leaders may have the right values and heart to serve people but are frequently overwhelmed with day to day demands and don’t know how to intentionally create a culture and translate their vision and values into daily practice. Joyce provides a proven process for equipping leaders to intentionally build the culture of their dreams. If you get all people on the same page around core values and priorities, there is nothing you can’t accomplish. Joyce holds a doctorate in Organization Behavior from Brandeis University.
Dr. Milton de Sousa is Associate Professor at Nova School of Business & Economics and Academic Director of Executive Education Programs and the Lisbon MBA. With an educational background in engineering, an MBA and a PhD in Management, he bridges technical expertise, business practice and academic research. His international career includes senior leadership roles at Nova SBE, Rotterdam School of Management and Health AI. He holds visiting professorships at TIAS in the Netherlands, SASIN in Thailand, the American University in Cairo in Egypt and Keio University in Japan. A central theme of his work is servant leadership: developing people, strengthening trust and creating meaningful organizations. Author of The Meaningful Leader (2024), he advises multinational boards and senior executives, teaches internationally and speaks on leadership, AI and talent development. His entrepreneurial activities include co-founding Frontier41, which helps organizations augment their workforce with AI.
Dr. Florin Gaiseanu, with a PhD in Solid State Physics since 1984 from the Physics Faculty, University of Bucharest, is Professor from IMT Bucharest and Centro Nacional de Microelectronica Barcelona, specialist in microelectronics and more recently in Life Science and Consciousness. He is author of 14 patents, more than 210 published scientific articles, seven chapters in Books published in USA and Europe, and author of the book “Physics of Consciousness and
Life: Informational Model of Consciousness – Information in Neurosciences, Biocomputers and Biosystems” (see Curriculum Vitae). He was member of the Electrochemical Society, Member of the Conference Committee and Chairman of the International Semiconductor Conference (CAS - Romania) and in the Micromachining and Microfabrication International Conference in USA. He is Honorary Member of the Editorial Board of the NeuroQuantology and International Journal of Neuropsychology and Behavioral Sciences, Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Information Science and Systems Science of the international Science Research Association, of the Archives of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, of the Journal of Philosophy Study (USA), and of the American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience (2018-2022). His works are indexed by PsycInfo. a base data of American Psychological Association, one of the most trusted in the world in psychological sciences
Johan Cools At 66 years young, Johan Cools doesn’t just study the human mind—he builds the tools to reprogram it. An author, subconscious researcher, and educational SaaS founder, he is dedicated to upgrading the human operating system and helping individuals reclaim the coherence that modern society has lost. With a background spanning scientific publications on subconscious mechanics to the creation of immersive mental transformation animations, Johan’s work exists at the rare intersection of clinical psychology, archetypal storytelling, and scalable technology. He has spent decades mapping the hidden architecture of the psyche, bridging the gap between rigorous science and deep, symbolic healing. Today, he channels a lifetime of research into foundational platforms like www.Equiself.app (archetypal AI coaching) and www.AuthorsLighthouse.com. These are more than digital tools; they are intentional sanctuaries designed to help users bypass societal conditioning, drop the corporate mask, and finally meet their true shape. Johan isn't here to offer just another generic personality test. As the architect behind the mirror, he provides the insights, frameworks, and technology necessary to uncover your authentic drive and build a sustainable, coherent life.
Dr. Rajat K. Baisya is Professor and Head of the Department of Management Studies at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (retired). Served as Visiting Professor at Ecole Nationale des Ponts (ENPC) International Business School, Paris; National Polytechnical University (NPU) Xian, China; and Faculty of Logistics, University of Maribor, Slovenia. Prof Baisya has held very senior positions in large corporations and multinationals including as President & CEO of Emami Group of Companies, Vice President of Reckitt Benckiser, General Manager (Projects) of Escorts Ltd, and General Manager -Corporate Planning of United Breweries Group among many other senior positions that he served in large companies. He has served as Director on the board of North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFI), Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Ltd, Booker India Ltd. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers India, Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, Institute of Management Consultants of India, and World Academy of Productivity Sciences (Canada) as well as an Academic Fellow of International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI). He is the Chairman and Managing Director of Strategic Consulting Group Pvt Ltd, and Frontier Agro Industries Pvt Ltd., President of Project & Technology Management Foundation, and Vice President of Asia Pacific Federation of Project Management. Prof Rajat Baisya is an internationally well-known business consultant executing prestigious assignments in India and abroad in large companies and multinationals. He has written 11 books and over 400 research papers and articles and 6 book chapters, 30 international and 65 national conference papers.
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