Shawn Cunningham

Dr. Shawn Cunningham is a process consultant working in the field of innovation and competitiveness improvement of the private sector. He supports a range of institutions, leaders and advisors around on topics such as making decisions under conditions of uncertainty or complexity, strengthening organisations or conducting learning processes through ongoing search, discovery and adjustment. He has conducted diagnoses and supported improvement processes in various industries and locations around the world.

Appointed as a Professor of Practice with the DST/NRF/Newton Fund Trilateral Chair in Transformative Innovation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Sustainable Development that is hosted by the College of Business and Economics at the University of Johannesburg. He is a faculty member of the University of Stellenbosch Business Schools Executive Education unit. He serves as an advisor to several think tanks, universities, development organisations and government departments both locally and abroad.

Main fields of expertise

• Advisory support to leaders in government, business and academia to make decisions despite complexity and uncertainty
• Meso resilience and how societies form and adapt meso organisations
• Industry modernisation, technological capability development, knowledge intensification
• Science, technology and innovation systems promotion
• Process consulting, discovery and process facilitation

In the past, he worked on the following topics

• Local and regional economic development
• Knowledge intensive business services
• Private sector promotion
• Value chain, cluster and industry promotion

Working experience

• 2008: Partner in Mesopartner
• 2015-current: Part time Faculty Member (Innovation, Strategy & Technology Management), Stellenbosch Business School, Executive Education
• 2017-2019: Member of the external faculty (Innovation and technological change), Monash University South Africa
• 2010-2017: Research Associate (Innovation Systems & Policy) at the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
• 2003-2007: Senior expert in the GTZ South Africa Local Economic Development and Business Development Services Programme
• 2001-2002: Worked in South African development agency NAMAC (National Manufacturing Advisory Centre Programme)
• 1996-2001: Own business in the IT sector. Involved in trade promotion, business chamber management and entrepreneurship promotion.

Personal background

• PhD. (Business Administration), 2009, Potchefstroom Business School, North West University, South Africa.
• Master in Business Administration (MBA), 2001, North West University, South Africa
• Certificate in Strategic Leadership, Change Management and Project Management, 1998, Graduate Institute of Management Technology (GIMT), South Africa

Born in 1973. Shawn lives in Pretoria, South Africa.