Leif Edvinsson best known as the first Chief Knowledge Officer in the world as he served as Corporate Director for Intellectual Capital, Skandia AFS and architect of the Skandia Future Centre. He currently serves as Professor of Intellectual Capital, University of Lund, and the founder and CEO of UNIC - Universal Networking Intellectual Capital AB.
Originating his studies at Enköping, Uppsala and the University of Lund, he received Master of Business Administration, University of Berkley, California, he is currently a member of the Board of two stock listed, knowledge intensive companies as well as other IT and IC companies. He serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees for Brain Trust, which in 1998 awarded him the ‘Brain of the Year’. Most recently, he was listed among the top 20 list of Most Admired Knowledge Leaders in the World.
Mr. Edvinsson is a well-recognized keynote speaker in the most influential global seminars and conferences at Harvard Business School, Stanford, London School of Economics, INSEAD, HHS, HHG, University of Stockholm, University of Lund, American Marketing Association, Conference Board, USA, Business Intelligence, Economist.
He is the author of several articles and books, most notably Intellectual Capital: Realizing Your Company’s True Value By Finding Its Hidden Brainpower (1997) and his new release - Corporate Longitude: Navigating the Knowledge Economy (2002). He is well known and cited in the knowledge literature for his ground-breaking series of Intellectual Capital Supplements to the Annual Reports with titles such as Human Capital in Transformation, Intelligent Enterprising, Customer Value, Power of Innovation, Value-Creating Processes, Renewal & Development Intellectual Capital, Visualizing Intellectual Capital.
Taking the knowledge and innovation agenda to the national level, he initiated a Coalition of Service Industries, Sweden. He has served as Special advisor to the Swedish Cabinet on Service Trade, as well as Impact of Digital Economy. He produced the first national Intellectual Capital (IC) Report for Sweden and has helped advise similar projects in other countries, such as Israel and Denmark.
Often cited and/or participating in seminal reports on IC such as: Fortune, Economist, Fast Company, Wall Street Journal, Forbes ASAP, Financial Times, CIO, and Computer World, Edvinsson is now engaged as advisor on Intellectual Capital at Brookings Institute, USA and European Commission.
Edvinsson sets the style and then refuses to conform. Always pushing the limits of the application of new concepts, he is the most adept practitioner at knowledge visualization - one of the core competencies of future management. For all practical purposes, Leif is the future of IC - and the accounting thereof.
Since 2000 he has been the Honorary Chairman of the UK based Henley College, KM Forum. and the Professor, adjunct at Lund University on Intellectual Capital. In January 2006, he was also appointed Professor, adjunct at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and later promoted to Chair Professor in 2007.