Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies

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SEED Team

Prof. Hau LeeHau Lee

  • Faculty Director, SEED
  • Director, SEED Research
  • Thoma Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at the Graduate School of Business

A supply chain expert, Hau Lee will lead the Institute. A winner of the MBA Distinguished Teaching Award, he recently helped to transform the Gambian and Zambian health care delivery systems through the comprehensive management of national fleets of vehicles. Lee also will head the Institute’s research function. His research focuses on supply chain management, work that addresses how to get products or services to their destination by managing the flow of materials, information, and money. His research has resulted, among other things, in the building of computer models for industrial implementation, as well as the development of strategies and operational concepts for practitioners. He has also consulted on the logistics of hazelnut distribution from Bhutan.

Jesper Sørensen

  • Director, SEED Education and Dissemination
  • Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Professor of Organizational Behavior
  • Susan Ford Dorsey Faculty Fellow

Jesper Sørensen will lead the education and dissemination function at SEED, which will design courses and cases for both students and on-the-ground entrepreneurs. Sørensen is a faculty director of the Center for Social Innovation at the Graduate School of Business and teaches Poverty, Entrepreneurship, and Development, among other courses. His work specializes in the dynamics of organizational and strategic change and their implications for individuals and their careers. His research on firm outcomes has focused on the impact of organizational structure and culture on organizational learning, performance, and innovation. Currently, Sørenson is engaged in a large-scale project on the determinants of entrepreneurial behavior that examines, in part, how work environments shape rates of entrepreneurship.

PatellJames Patell

  • Codirector, SEED On the Ground
  • Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management
  • Katherine and David DeWilde Faculty Fellow

Jim Patell, a winner of the MBA Distinguished Teaching Award, will colead the on-the-ground area with lecturer Bill Meehan. Building on his years of teaching Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability, Patell will manage programs aimed at partnering Stanford students with in-country organizations to develop new products and services. Following a period of coursework and preparation at Stanford, students will provide manpower and management support by working with startups, NGOs, and companies in-country. Students will investigate needs and execute solutions with partner entities on the ground. Patell’s research and teaching centers on business process and product design, operations management, manufacturing, and cost accounting. A popular and demanding teacher, Patell has been a champion of the Public Management Program, which focuses on government, nonprofit organizations, and public service. He codirects the Product Realization Network at Stanford, and he is a founding faculty member of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school), where he teaches Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability.

MeehanBill Meehan

  • Codirector, SEED On the Ground
  • Raccoon Partners Lecturer in Strategic Management

A director emeritus of McKinsey & Co., Bill Meehan will colead the on-the-ground area with Professor Jim Patell. He will focus primarily on supporting existing business leaders to scale and grow their enterprises through a combination of training, consulting, mentoring, and online courses. Meehan is a regular writer and speaker on nonprofit strategy, governance, and performance measurement. At Stanford, he is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Social Innovation; member of the Board of Advisors of the Stanford Social Innovation Review; and a founding member of the advisory council of the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society. He retired in 2008 after more than 30 years at McKinsey & Co., where his focus was working with chief executives and senior leaders in technology, private equity, retail, financial services, and media on topics of top management strategy, organization, and leadership.

SpenceA. Michael Spence

  • Chairman, SEED Advisory Board
  • Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean Emeritus, Stanford Graduate School of Business
  • William Berkley Professor in Economics and Business, NYU Stern School of Business

Nobel laureate A. Michael Spence will chair the Institute’s advisory board, which is now forming. Spence, who is the Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean Emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is an authority on global economics in the developing world. He is also the William Berkley Professor in Economics and Business at New York University.