Darwinian Systems

Paul Davis is a British software developer best known for his work on audio software for the Linux operating system. Paul grew up in the English Midlands and in London. After studying molecular biology and biophysics, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1989. He lived in Seattle for seven years, before moving to Philadelphia in 1996. In Seattle, he became one of the two programmers who helped start Amazon.com. He is also an ultra-marathon and touring cyclist, occasional triathlete and ultra-runner.

Karan Girotra is on the faculty at INSEAD, where he researches and teaches issues related to business model innovation. His research has appeared in top academic journals and has been featured by the Financial Times, Businessweek, the Sloan Management Review and the Harvard Business Review. Karan was born in Delhi, India, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. He then moved to the US, where he earned a doctorate from the Wharton School for his examination of innovation processes and the early stage startups. He took some time off from his doctoral work to help start up TerraPass, a profitable firm that has helped individuals and businesses reduce over a billion pounds of carbon dioxide.

Thomas Y. Lee teaches information technology at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He was previously on the faculty at the Wharton School. His current research interests focus on information technologies to support innovation and entrepreneurship. Tom holds bachelor's degrees in Symbolic Systems (artificial intelligence) and Political Science from Stanford University and master's and doctoral degrees from the Engineering Systems Division at MIT. He has served as a visiting scientist at the Computer Security Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a research engineer at the MITRE Corporation, and as a contractor for DynCorp-Meridian researching Internet privacy and security for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Christian Terwiesch is on the faculty at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a co-author of Innovation Tournaments (Harvard Business Press, 2009, together with Karl Ulrich) which is based on the Darwinator framework. The book was featured by BusinessWeek, the Financial Times, and the Sloan Management Review. Christian has consulted for a wide range of companies, helping them to implement innovation tournaments. He is a native German, who studied in Germany (University of Mannheim) and France (INSEAD). He has competed in over a dozen Ironman triathlons and is an avid bicycle commuter.

Karl T. Ulrich is the Vice Dean of Innovation at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His research is focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, and product development. He is the co-author of Product Design and Development (4th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2008), a textbook used by a quarter of a million students worldwide and a co-author of Innovation Tournaments (together with Christian Terwiesch). In addition to his academic work, Karl has led dozens of innovation efforts for medical devices, tools, computer peripherals, food products, web-based services, and sporting goods. As a result of this work, he holds more than 20 patents. He is a founder of Terrapass Inc. and Xootr LLC and he currently serves on the boards of several technology-based companies. Professor Ulrich holds bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT.