Professor Daniel Diermeier
Daniel Diermeier is the IBM Distinguished Professor of Regulation and Competitive Practice, a Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences at the Kellogg School of Management, and also a Professor of Political Science at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (by courtesy), prior to which he spent three years as an assistant professor of political economy at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He is the founding director of the Center for Business, Government, and Society at Kellogg and a founding co-director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). He is also the founding director of the Social Enterprise at Kellogg program (SEEK) and served as the acting director of Kellogg’s Ford Motor Company Center for Global Citizenship from 2001-2002.  Professor Diermeier has co-created and serves as the academic director of the CEO Perspective Program, Kellogg’s most senior executive education program. He is a Research Associate at the Institutions, Organizations & Growth (IOG) Program, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and is a Faculty Associate at both the Institute for Policy Research and the Center for International and Comparative Studies, Northwestern University. In December 2004 he was appointed to the Management Board of the FBI.

Professor Diermeier is a leading researcher in the study of political institutions and their consequences of policy choice, mathematical modeling of political systems (both game-theoretic and behavioral), reputation and crisis management, non-market strategy, and the study of complex social systems. He has also conducted research on structural estimation in political economy and the use of experiments in negotiations and bargaining. His work in both economics and politics has been published in leading journals including the American Economic Review, the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, Econometrica, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Professor Diermeier’s teaching focuses on integrated strategy, the interaction of business and politics, crisis leadership, reputation management and strategic aspects of corporate social responsibility. He has lectured and consulted globally on media and issue management, integrated strategy, activists and consumer boycotts, political strategy and regulatory management. He has led workshops and customized programs in biotechnology, energy, financial services, manufacturing, medical marketing, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, media management, regulatory management, security management, and transportation management for a variety of clients including AON, BP, the City of Chicago, Ernst and Young, Exelon, the FBI, GE Medical Systems, the International Security Management Association, the Medical Marketing Association, the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society, the World Presidents’ Organization, the Young President’s Organization, and the Chief Executive Network. Since his arrival at Kellogg in 1997, he has been the recipient of the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award (Kellogg, 1999, 2003), the Best Teacher Award (WHU, Kellogg Executive MBA Program, 2000) and the L.G. Lavengood Professor of the Year Award (Kellogg, 2001).

Professor Daniel Diermeier is the founder and managing partner of Diermeier Consulting LLC, based in Evanston, Illinois, providing clients with analysis and strategy advice in crisis leadership, reputation management, stakeholder management, regulatory and political strategy.  Recent clients include Abbott Laboratories, Allianz AG, Baker & McKenzie , BP, the City of Chicago (Office of the Mayor), CIBC, Exelon, the FBI, W. W. Grainger, Household International (now part of HSBC), Intercontinental Exchange, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Metro AG, Nicor, People’s Energy, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Roche Diagnostics, Shell, and State Farm.

Professor Diermeier serves as the President of Evolve24, LLC, based in St. Louis, Mo., a reputation and issue analytics company, and is also a member of the advisory board at Quantum Secure, a security management technology company.

Email: d-diermeier@kellogg.northwestern.edu
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/diermeier/

Professor David Kelso
David M. Kelso is Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.   He has been a leader in the school’s expansion of its engineering design curriculum which has resulted in the Engineering Design and Communications (EDC) courses for freshmen, the Institute of Design Engineering and Applications (IDEA), and the Masters in Product Development (MPD) program.   Prof. Kelso recently introduced medical device design projects for the developing world into the senior biomedical engineering design course, and he has started an engineering design study abroad program in South Africa.

Before joining Northwestern, Prof. Kelso developed a number of medical devices for the healthcare industry.  He was Chief Scientist at Baxter Healthcare’s  Pandex Division from 1986 to 1992 and directed the team of engineers and scientists which developed the first high-throughput, multi-channel blood screening system which detected HIV, hepatitis and other infectious diseases.

In 1981, Prof. Kelso founded Pandex Laboratories and served as its president until 1986 when it was acquired by Baxter.  The company developed, manufactured and sold analytical systems for biomedical research which included instruments and reagents for performing fluorescence immunoassays, cellular analysis and other research procedures. 

Prior to his biotech venture, Prof. Kelso was a cofounder of an intrapreneurial group at Abbott Laboratories which developed the TDx system and created the company’s  therapeutic drug monitoring business.  At Abbott, he also develop the first microprocessor-controlled enzyme immunoassay analyzer, Quantum, which lead the industry away from radioactive assays which had been the standard for decades.

Email: kels@northwestern.edu
Web: http://www.bme.northwestern.edu/faculty/
fac_core_kelso.shtml

Kara Palamountain
Kara Palamountain is a Research Associate Professor at the Kellogg School of Management where she serves as the Executive Director of the Global Health Initiative. Kara's research focus is centered on medical diagnostics for infectious diseases in the developing world. In 2003, she began working with Dave Kelso on an initiative to develop and produce affordable HIV diagnostics for the developing world which later obtained funding in 2006 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Prior to her work at Kellogg, Kara worked as a management consultant in Deloitte's Healthcare practice for over six years where she specialized in Medicare Part D strategy and implementation, pharmacy benefit management, and medical injectable strategy.

Kara was awarded "2003 Ford Center Honorable Mention" for a white paper on "Sustainable Foundations for HIV/AIDS Care in South Africa" which was later published in the "Kellogg Anthology on Corporate Social Responsibility."

Email: k-palamountain@kellogg.northwestern.edu