Lawrence Cooley

Founder and President Emeritus of Management Systems International, Mr. Cooley has more than 40 years' experience in the fields of strategic management, public sector reform, and international development. Currently serving as President of the Society for International Development and Chair of Steering Committee of the Rotary-Carter School Collaboration for Peace, he is the author or co-author of widely used methodologies for managing policy change, scaling innovation, entrepreneurship development, and results-based management. Mr. Cooley has served as Project Director or Principal Investigator for numerous high-visibility domestic and international public management initiatives, as facilitator for three Cabinet-level working groups in the United States, and as advisor to the leaders of more than a dozen governments and international agencies.

Mr. Cooley is a non-resident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution, and a Trustee or Advisory Board member for a wide range of foundations, non-profit organizations, and global initiatives. He helped to establish the professional discipline of “development management” and was Chairperson of the Development Management Network of the American Society of Public Administration for 15 years. He is a founder and continues to serve as chair of a 5000-member global community of practice on scaling up development outcomes.