Plenary Speakers

The International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organisations will feature plenary sessions by some of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators in the field, as well as numerous parallel presentations by researchers and practitioners.

Frank Habermann
Nuzhat Jafri
Mildred A. Schwartz
Emma Stenström

Garden Conversations

Plenary speakers will make formal 30-minute presentations. They will also participate in 60-minute Garden Conversations – unstructured sessions that allow delegates a chance to meet the speakers and talk with them informally about the issues arising from their presentation.

Please return to this page for regular updates.


The Speakers

Frank Habermann

Frank Habermann is the founder of Becota – The Berlin Consulting & Talent Association and a Professor of Business Science at Berlin School of Economics and Law. Frank has over fifteen years academic and professional experience in business process management and organizational learning.

After completing his business education at Mercedes Benz and his degree in Business Studies Frank was a senior researcher at the German Institute for Artificial Intelligence. He gained a visiting Professorship at Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business in Dublin, Ireland, and appraised the accreditation of educational programs for leading business schools and corporate universities for the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) in Brussels, Belgium. Over many years as a consultant Frank oversaw the implementation of business applications in public sector institutions as well as in multinational corporations in the private sector. As a member of the extended Board of German IMC AG he co-headed the consulting unit and was responsible for the firm’s international business. In 2009 Frank founded Becota – The Berlin Consulting & Talent Association (www.becota.com). Since early 2010 Frank holds a professorship for Business Science, particular Business Process Management at Berlin School of Economics and Law (www.hwr-berlin.de). His consulting as well as his research is focusing the organizational impacts of information technology.


Nuzhat Jafri
Nuzhat Jafri became the first executive director of the Office of the Fairness Commissioner in September 2007.

She has wide leadership experience in both public and private sectors. She directed diversity initiatives at Scotiabank and previously at the Bank of Montreal, where she delivered awardwinning leading-edge programs. In the Ontario government, Ms. Jafri developed a cultural policy framework at the Ministry of Culture. She oversaw the passage of amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act and the development and implementation of key regulations. Earlier, she was a director at the former Employment Equity Commission. Most recently, Ms. Jafri was the manager of Global Experience Ontario, the information and referral centre for internationally trained persons at the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.

The Office of the Fairness Commissioner is an independent agency of the government of Ontario. Its goal is to make sure that people are treated fairly when they apply to become licensed professionals in one of Ontario’s regulated professions, no matter where they were trained. This goal is widely supported in Ontario, and reflects the principles and core values of its people. www.fairnesscommissioner.ca


Mildred A. Schwartz
Mildred A. Schwartz was educated at the University of Toronto and Columbia University and is currently professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago and visiting scholar at New York University. Trained in sociology, her interests are in all things political; born and raised in Canada, her career has been largely in the United States. These formative influences are reflected in her publications on Canadian national identity and, with Canada and the United States as settings, on regionalism, public opinion, voting behavior, public policy, and political parties. The work she will be presenting continues a longstanding concern with applying organizational theory to the study of political parties and movements.


Emma Stenström
Emma Stenström holds a PhD from Stockholm School of Economics, is Program Director for the Master in Management, and also Visiting Professor at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts, and Design. She conducts research and teaches subjects at the crossroads between arts, business and design, such as cultural entrepreneurship, arts and talent management, business humanities, and the creative economy. In 2005, she was voted "Teacher of the year" at Stockholm School of Economics.

Emma defended her thesis "Konstiga företag" in 2000, and has since conducted research about arts, design, contemporary circus and dance, cultural policy, aesthetic labour, the body industry, and networking in contemporary society, among other things.

In addition to her academic work she has been a bi-weekly columnist for the daily Swedish business paper, Dagens Industri, since 2000, hosted Arty, a TV-show for Swedish Television, and served on numerous boards, including the Swedish Arts Council, the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design, and several commercial organizations.