Verna Allee, Founder (California)
With more than twenty years of deep experience in value networks, intangibles, knowledge management, intellectual capital, and new business models, Verna has been a trusted advisor to more both large and small companies, government agencies, civil society organizations, and startups, focusing the power of intangible value for increased efficiency and competitive advantage.
She began her management career in the late 1970s as co-founder of a networked sign manufacturing company. Frustrated by organizational complexity in her early corporate experiences, she organized the new company as a value network – a radical idea at the time. Within five years, the company was handling large installations from Alaska to Florida and revenue had grown to match some of the largest companies in the industry.
Determined to carry her insights into global companies, and drawing on consulting experience in the early 1990s, Verna developed the ValueNet Works® methodology and is now a recognized global leader in value network analysis.
She is the author of three books and more than 50 industry articles and papers on value networks and knowledge management, and is a popular keynote speaker at business conferences around the world. She is a Fellow of the World Business Academy, an advisor to the European Commission, and sits on a number of Advisory Boards including the Enterprise of the Future project at George Washington University, the Norval Morris Project with the U.S. Department of Justice, and Hazel Henderson's Ethical Markets television series.
She holds a B.A. in Social Science and International Business from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.A. in Organizational Leadership and Human Consciousness from JFK University. She lectures at top universities such as Oxford and the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. More on Verna's background and a complete list of her publications can be found on her personal website.
