Larry Prusak, a Managing Principal with IBM Global Services, is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Knowledge Management (IKM), a global consortium of member organizations engaged in advancing the practice of knowledge management through action research. Larry has extensive consulting experience, within the U.S. and internationally, in helping firms leverage and optimize their information and knowledge resources. He has also consulted with many U.S. and overseas government agencies and international organizations (NGO's).

A respected authority in his field, Larry has lectured and been published widely. His most recent book (co-authored with Don Cohen) is In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work (Harvard Business School Press, 2001). He has co-authored two books with Tom Davenport: Information Ecology (Oxford University Press, 1997), and Working Knowledge (Harvard Business School Press, 1998). Working Knowledge has sold over 60,000 copies and has been translated into 12 languages; the paperback edition with a new Preface was published in 2000. Managing Information Strategically (John Wiley & Sons, 1994), co-authored with James McGee, is a basic text on the role of information in gaining competitive advantage. Larry's more recent articles include "Preserving Knowledge in an Uncertain World" (Sloan Management Review, Fall 2001, with E. Lesser), "Where did Knowledge Management come from?" (IBM System Journal, VOL 40, NO 4, 2001), "How to Invest in Social Capital?" (Harvard Business Review, June 2001), "Eleven Sins of Knowledge Management" (California Management Review, Spring 1998), "Knowledge and Risk Management" (California Management Review, Spring 1996), and "Information Politics" (Sloan Management Review, Fall 1993). Larry is frequently quoted by such business periodicals as The New York Times, Fortune, Financial Times, Business Week, CIO, and many others.

Prior to joining IBM, Larry was a Principal and founder of Ernst & Young's Center for Business Innovation, specializing in issues of corporate knowledge management. While there, he was responsible for helping to build a consulting practice centered on organizations managing their knowledge resources. Larry's professional background also includes work as a researcher and librarian at Baker Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, and as a teacher of social and economic history at several universities.