Syncho's Network

Raul Espejo

 

Professor Espejo has an engineering degree from the Catholic University of  Chile and a doctorate from Aston University in Birmingham, UK.

 

 

From 1970 to 1973, during the Allende’s Government in Chile, he worked for the National Development Corporation, first as a systems engineer and later as project leader of the Cybernetic Project for the organisation and management of the nationalised industrial sector of the country.

 

After leaving Chile he worked at several academic and research institutions in Europe, in particular at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria and  the universities of Aston in Birmingham and Lincoln in the UK. 

 

He has published extensively in books and journals; is the author of over 70 academic papers, co-author of the books Organization for Programme Management (Wiley 1979) and Organizational Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic Approach to Management (Wiley 1996) and co-editor of  the books The Viable System Model (Wiley 1989), Organizational Fitness: Corporate Effectiveness Through Management Cybernetics (Campus Verlag 1993) and To be and not to be, that is the System (Auer Verlag, 1997) . See selected list of publications.

 

He has lectured and run seminars worldwide.

 

In 1985 he created Syncho Ltd, an enterprise in the field of organisational cybernetics, in the Science Park of Aston University. From there he has done research in collaboration with a wide range of institutions worldwide, mainly in aspects of organisational diagnosis and design, with a focus on social transformation, organisational learning, democratic processes and environmental responsibility.

 

From 1993 to1996, he was a leading participant of the SYCOMT project, a UK government funded research project on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).  From 1995 to 1998 he was Scientific Director of a programme for the institutional strengthening of the Colombian National Audit Office. During 1999- 2000 he was advisor to the Colombian Minister of Education in the introduction of a ‘New Educational System’. From 2000 to 2002 he led a research network on ‘Systems and the Information Society’, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. From 1996 to today he has been working in issues of democratic participation and transparency of policy processes, particularly focused on the management of nuclear waste in Europe, initially in the context of the Swedish Nuclear Waste Programme, then in the context of RISCOM 2, a European Union Framework 5 project, and currently in the context of COWAM 2, a European Union Framework 6 project.

 

He is Director of Syncho Ltd. and Visiting Professor at University College Worcester, UK. He is also member of several groups, such as Gaian Democracy and Valdoc, focused on promoting democratic values in society.

 

Nigel Howard

Nigel has worked as a consultant to many firms and several governments, including HMG, and the US State Dept. His projects have mainly been in the area of negotiation strategy, and confrontation analysis, where his development of Game Theory and Drama Theory has provided new insights into the management of conflict and negotiation. Nigel has been a professor at four universities, and is currently a visiting research professor at Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University. He is Managing Director of ISCO Ltd., and a non-executive Director of Syncho. He has published extensively.

 

Alfonso Reyes

Alfonso's original background is in physics, mathematics and computer science. After working with the Colombian government for two years (from 1984 to 1985) in a project seeking to define a strategy to use IT in the Judicial Courts he went to USA to do an MSc in Computer Science. From 1988 to 1992 he worked as a researcher in the Instituto SER de Investigacion, a not-for profit private institution in Bogota. Here he helped develop an applied research programme to discover feasible ways to improve the effectiveness of the Colombian Justice System. The scope of the research program included the use of IT, in particular Information Systems, in the Justice System and its relationship to organisational change. He did his PhD in Management Cybernetics at the University of Humberside. The aim of the thesis was to develop the concept of social accounting in terms of a language of complexity and to show a practical application to the Colombian Criminal Justice System. His current areas of interest are second order cybernetics, Giddens' Structuration Theory and their relationship to Beer's Management Cybernetics. A problem that keeps him going all the time: What does social justice mean from the point of view of cybernetics and how we may achieve it?

 

Anthony Gill

 

 

is a director of Phrontis Limited (www.phrontis.com). Over the last fifteen years, he has applied systems thinking techniques within a range of multinational organizations to help them structure themselves and manage their information flows to support a more dynamic and empowering way of operating. Recent assignments have spanned the distribution, manufacturing, telecommunications and nuclear industries. He has held a number of industrial marketing, operations and supply chain management positions in the building services industry where he worked for some 17 years. As export manager for one of the operating companies of Carrier Corporation, he had autonomous international area responsibility for a $ multi-million budget covering sales, after-sales service and licensee manufacturing. Tony has an M B A (Aston University) and is currently undertaking research at Warwick University on a part-time basis. He has worked extensively with Raul Espejo and was a Director of SYNCHO Limited between 1990 and 1996. He is co-editor with John Mingers of a book entitled ‘MultiMethodology: The Theory and Practice of Combining Management Science Methodologies’ (John Wiley & Sons, 1997).

 

Osvaldo García de la Cerda

Osvaldo García de la Cerda is a professor at the Industrial Engineering Department of the Universidad de Santiago de Chile, where has created diverse innovative programs for student education during 25 years. His research explores innovative methodologies to improve organisational learning through creativity and a ludic observatory.

His current research is on human re-engineering for action, enaction and communication in high management and in areas of poverty. More than two thousands students have participated in this program in the last five years, as well as people responsible for high management, CEO`s and policy makers in the transformation of their organizations.

He is the creator of LHEA (Hermeneutical Laboratory for emotion and action) and CIGAR Ltda. a meta-management boutique dedicated to organizational diagnosis and the design of high-level managers. He has consulted for actors with high responsibilities in Government in Chile and other Latin American countries, and also consulted for a variety of large public and private enterprises.

At the moment, he is working for an educational program for engineers integrating theatre as an element for designing organizational observation and action in top management. He is also involved in an educational program on conflict management for Chilean mediators. . He is frequently invited to talk about creative design management at academic centres in Chile, Latin America and Europe.

 

Piers Milne

A retired Chartered Accountant, Piers has had an extensive and varied career working in both manufacturing and services industries as both an accountant and an internal consultant, with projects in setting up management, administrative, and information systems. He has held a number of positions, including as Financial Director of a manufacturing group. Piers joined Syncho in 1997, and acts as Syncho’s Administration Co-ordinator.  

Losscher Associates

Losscher Associates is a partnership based at the University Science Park in Nijmegen. It is a licencee of Team Syntegrity and specialises in Viplan.

 

Hans Losscher

Hans did his PhD in management science at the Radboud University Nijmegen. He is a part-time lecturer in System Theory at that University. His background is in the audio-visual field, insurance and (inter-)national commercial banking.

 

Karin Losscher

Karin is trained as a (school)teacher. She was employed in banking as a branch manager and held functions in telemarketing, computerisation, executive secretarial and office management. 

 

 Leonid Ototsky

His activities are focused on Stafford Beer’s work and modern Information Technology.