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Paul F. Levy
Cultivating Leadership for Learning Organizations

The February 25th virtual presentation in the MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series, entitled "Leadership for Learning Organizations", will feature author Paul F. Levy, former president and CEO of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIMDC), former executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and soccer coach for over 20 years. In this webinar, Levy will draw on commonalities from these seemingly disparate environments, discuss challenges in each, show how they were addressed, and share thoughts on how to apply the concepts and tools in a wide variety of venues, from the workplace to the playing field.

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 Paul F. Levy

Paul F. Levy

Ayman Ismail, PhD
Cultivating Egypt's Social Entrepreneurs

When Professor Ayman Ismail went to visit his home in Egypt early in 2011, he had no idea he was walking into a revolution. Three weeks after he arrived, however, demonstrations began in Tahrir Square, and Ismail saw he had a positive role to play.

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 Ayman Ismail

Ayman Ismail, PhD
Nahdet El Mahrousa

Elon Musk
Innovation, Global Impact, and Achieving Success

Elon Musk is a company creator—and an excellent one at that. In addition to being co-founder of Zip2 Corporation, Tesla Motors, and PayPal, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). He currently serves as CEO and CTO at SpaceX and as CEO and Product Architect at Tesla. In short, he is no stranger to entrepreneurial success. From conceiving the world's largest Internet payment system, to constructing the first private spaceship to successfully return from Earth's orbit, to designing the first electric sports car, it would seem that Musk has company creation down to a science.

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 Elon Musk

Elon Musk
SpaceX, Tesla

Devon C. Campbell and Michael C. Little, PhD
Systems Thinking in Personalized Medicine

Personalized medicine — the concept of targeting drugs to address an individual's biomolecular makeup — is reshaping drug development at pharmaceutical companies around the world. A key aspect of personalized medicine is the creation of diagnostic tests which can determine whether patients will respond to certain drugs, including how much to take and if the drug is effectively working as intended. The process of developing a new drug and designing its companion diagnostic test is a complicated process in which systems engineering has an opportunity to become standard practice in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Devon C. Campbell
Michael C. Little, PhD

Devon C. Campbell
Head (Director) of Engineering and Systems, Novartis Molecular Diagnostics (MDx)

Michael C. Little, PhD
Global Head of Diagnostics Development, Novartis Molecular Diagnostics (MDx)

Julian Goldman, MD
Systems Thinking and More Efficient Healthcare

To illustrate one of the healthcare industry's most vexing problems, Dr. Julian Goldman describes the hypothetical case of a nurse administering medication to his or her patient. After slipping a needle into the patient's arm, the nurse warns him that the medication may trigger a sharp decrease in blood pressure — then reassures the patient that if his vital signs change, a monitoring machine will produce a loud beep to alert hospital staff.

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 Julian Goldman

Julian Goldman
Medical Director, Biomedical Engineering, Partners HealthCare

Bob Smith, Honeywell CTO/VP
SDM Alum Offers Insight on Innovation

Innovation is the lifeblood of the aerospace industry, and MIT's System Design and Management Program (SDM) provides many of the tools needed to inspire and foster innovation, said Bob Smith, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering and technology at Honeywell Aerospace, in speaking to a gathering of SDM fellows on March 7, 2011.

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 Bob Smith

Bob Smith
Honeywell VP

Joan Rubin Appointed Industry Codirector of MIT's System Design and Management Program

MIT's System Design and Management (SDM) Program announced today that Joan Rubin has joined SDM as industry codirector. Rubin comes to MIT from Covidien, a leading manufacturer of medical devices and supplies, diagnostic imaging agents and pharmaceuticals, where she served as vice president of business development.

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 Joan Rubin

Joan Rubin
SDM Industry Codirector

Photo by Kathy Tarantola Photography

SDM Aids Instrumentation Lab's Health-Care Mission

Instrumentation Laboratory (IL) develops, manufactures, and markets in vitro diagnostic (IVD) systems. IL looks to the SDM program to help us develop people who are well trained in systems thinking and the enlightened use of modern tools for system design and management.

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 Gene Achter

Gene Achter
Vice-President of Advanced Development and Technology and Chief Technology Officer

Photo by L. Barry Hetherington

SDM Helps EMC Build Bridge to Innovation

As a company founded in Massachusetts, EMC has long-standing partnerships with universities in the Boston area. One partnership we've particularly benefited from is with MIT's System Design and Management Program (SDM). Over the years, nine employees from EMC have completed the program, bringing valuable skills in technology management into the company at the systems level. The knowledge gained at SDM not only serves to advance the individual employee's career, but also helps the company as a major producer of hardware and software systems for managing information. The participants, in effect, build bridges between MIT SDM and their organizations to transfer new insights about systems thinking into the company.

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 Burt Kaliski

Burt Kaliski
Director, EMC Innovation Network

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