John Seely Brown is a visiting scholar and advisor to the provost at the University of Southern California (USC) and the independent co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge. Prior to that, he was the chief scientist of Xerox Corp. and the director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) - a position he held for nearly two decades. While head of PARC, John expanded the role of corporate research to include such topics as organizational learning, knowledge management, complex adaptive systems, and nano/mems technologies. He was a co-founder of the Institute for Research on Learning (IRL).

John - or as he is often called, JSB - is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and of AAAS, and a trustee of the MacArthur Foundation. He serves on numerous public boards (Amazon, Corning, and Varian Medical Systems) and private boards of directors. He has published over 100 papers in scientific journals. In 2004 he was inducted in the Industry Hall of Fame. His current book, The Power of Pull, co-authored with John Hagel, was released April 13, 2010. With Paul Duguid, John co-authored the acclaimed book The Social Life of Information (HBS Press, 2000), which has been translated into nine languages, with a second addition in April 2002. In addition, his book The New Culture of Learning, co-authored with Professor Doug Thomas at USC, will be released in late 2010.

JSB received a BA from Brown University in 1962 in Mathematics and Physics and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1970 in Computer and Communication Sciences. He has received five honorary degrees, including: Doctor of Science, Brown University (May 2000); Honorary Doctor of Science in Economics, the London Business School (July 2001); Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Claremont Graduate University (May 2004); Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Michigan (May 2005); and Honorary Doctor of Science, North Carolina State University (May 2009).