Michael Porter

United States

Michael E. Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School, is a leading authority on competitive strategy and the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states, and regions. Professor Porter's 1990 book The Competitive Advantage of Nations developed a new theory of how nations, states, and regions compete and their sources of economic prosperity, which has guided economic policy throughout the world. His ideas on strategy are taught in virtually every business school in the world and he currently leads Harvard's programs for chief executive officers of billion dollar and larger corporations. In 2001, Harvard Business School and Harvard University jointly created the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, led by Professor Porter, to further his work. He co-chairs the Global Competitiveness Report, an annual ranking of the competitiveness and growth prospects of 80 countries. Professor Porter has served as an advisor to numerous foreign nations and groups of neighboring countries. He has led major studies of the economy for the governments of such countries as India, New Zealand, Canada, and Portugal, and advised national leaders in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, among others. His ideas have inspired national competitiveness initiatives and programs in more than a dozen other countries including Ireland, Finland, and Norway and subnational regions such as Catalonia, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. His thinking about economic development for groups of neighboring countries has led to a long-term initiative with the heads of state of the Central American countries to develop and implement an economic strategy for that region, including the formation of the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS), a permanent institution based in Costa