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Iris Firstenberg, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at UCLA, teaching in the Department of Psychology and in the Anderson Graduate School of Management. Her Ph.D. is in Cognitive Psychology. Dr. Firstenberg has developed techniques for creative problem solving and innovative thinking and has taught these techniques both in courses at UCLA and in seminars for executives and professionals in numerous organizations, including IBM, TRW, Sony Pictures, Times Mirror, Braille Institute, Los Alamos National Laboratories, Raytheon, the Judicial Council of California, the Los Angeles Police Department, and NASA. In addition to her teaching and consulting, Dr. Firstenberg has written articles and papers on memory dynamics, problem solving, and creative thinking, and is co-author with Moshe Rubinstein of two books, Patterns of Problem Solving (Prentice Hall, 1995) and The Minding Organization (John Wiley and Sons, 1999).

Kathleen Hevert, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Finance at Babson College, where she designs and delivers academic programs for graduate students and executive education clients. In addition, she is the faculty director for the Masters of Science in Management program currently delivered for Lucent Technologies. She specializes in long-term strategic capital investment decisions, including mergers and acquisitions. She has a particular interest in the application of option pricing models to real-asset acquisition decisions. Her research has been published in Financial Management, The Journal of Portfolio Management, The Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, and others. She received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

Laura Kray, Ph.D., is the Harold Furst Associate Professor of Management Philosophy and Values at the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. She holds a doctorate in Psychology from the University of Washington and has been on the Berkeley faculty since 2002. Professor Kray is an expert on topics pertaining to gender and negotiations, how counterfactual thinking, or thoughts about "what might have been" influence creative and analytical problem solving, team processes, and organizational justice.

Kathryn C. Mayer, M.S., has over 20 years of experience as an executive coach with expertise in leadership and management development, communication and interview skill building, performance management, political savvy, consultative sales, team building, train-the-trainers, women and diversity issues. Kathryn has honed a unique approach to leadership and developed a proprietary strategic leadership model called Collaborative Competition. Her model is founded on the principle that competition is first and foremost an opportunity to learn, evolve and excel, and it can be an enjoyable experience. Collaborative Competition takes a compelling approach to fostering growth and advancement as well as teamwork and company loyalty. She received a BA in Sociology with Phi Beta Kappa honors from St. Lawrence University and obtained an MS in Counseling Psychology from SUNY at Albany.

Moshe Rubinstein, Ph.D., is a professor at the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and is Director of the A-B-C Corporate Network at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA. He is an internationally renowned authority on problem solving and creativity in organizations. He is widely respected for his insights, expertise, and ability to infuse organizations with tools for decision-making and innovation. He has been a consultant to many major corporations and has been invited to lecture all over the world. Professor Rubinstein is a Fulbright Hays Fellow and has received numerous awards for his outstanding teaching, including the UCLA Academic Senate Award, the UCLA Alumni Award, and the Anderson School Executive Education Teaching Award. He has published over 100 articles and ten books, including Patterns of Problem Solving, Tools for Thinking and Problem Solving, and Concepts in Problem Solving. His book, The Minding Organization, published by John Wiley & Sons in 1999 has been translated into five languages.

Melissa C. Thomas-Hunt, Ph.D., is an ssociate Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern University. Her research activities focus on conflict management, negotiation, and team management processes. Her current research examines the contribution of expertise within diverse groups and the effects of relationships on negotiation processes and outcomes. Her publications have appeared in Research on Organizational Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Social Justice Research, and Research on Managing Groups and Teams. She received her master's and doctoral degrees from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked as an account marketing representative at IBM.