Robert DeFillippi, PhD, Director
Professor of Management 

Robert DeFillippi is Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Innovation and Change Leadership at the Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University.  Additionally,  Dr.  DeFillippi is Academic Director for the Innovation and Design Management concentration in the Executive MBA program, Suffolk University. Dr. DeFillippi is an international scholar in innovation and he has held visiting scholar appointments at  Imperial College of London, Cass Business School (London),  the Center for Research in Innovation Management at University of Sussex and Polytechnico di Milano. Dr. DeFillippi holds an MA, M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University in Organization Studies.

His research, teaching and consulting practice focuses on creative collaborations and knowledge-based perspectives on innovation.  DeFillippi’s most recent scholarly book Knowledge At Work:  Creative Collaborations in the Global Economy  (2006, Blackwell Press, Oxford, UK) draws upon his past research on these topics.  He is the author of over forty scholarly journal publications and seven scholarly books and numerous book chapters and conference papers.  He is currently Associate Editor for the International Journal of Management Reviews, the official journal of the British Academy of Management. 

His current research is focusing on several broad themes:  How can organizations co-produce knowledge and innovative solutions with their customers? How can innovation service projects be organized to maximize the sharing of relevant knowledge by project teams and their clientele and how can the knowledge created from past project engagements be leveraged in future project engagements with the same customer or new customers? Dr. DeFillippi is participating in several major international and local  research projects in a wide variety of business to business service industries  to address these questions.

Colette Dumas, PhD, Director
Professor of Organizational Behavior

Colette Dumas, Ph.D., is Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Sawyer Business School and the Director of the Center for Innovation and Change Leadership at Suffolk University. Dr. Dumas holds a Ph.D. in Human and Organization Systems and an MA in Organizational Development from The Fielding Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California. Dr. Dumas also trained in the prestigious Organization Development Program at National Training Laboratories, in Bethel, Maine.

Dr. Dumas has served as a consultant to and/or has trained personnel in a variety of organizations, including American Express, Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, The Institute of Canadian Bankers, The Canadian International Development Agency, Bell Northern Telecom, The Boston Globe, Gillette, Sovereign Bank, Boston Scientific, Harvard University, MIT, and John Hancock, among others.      

Dr. Dumas’ research interests include organizational change, creativity and innovation, adult learning, and collaborative action inquiry. Dr. Dumas has received numerous research grants to pursue her scholarly inquiry. She has written extensively, publishing over 30 articles, a book and four book chapters