Peter T. Knight

Prior to co-founding Knight-Moore in March 1997, Dr. Knight was Chief of the Electronic Media Center at the World Bank from June 1994 through February 1997, and before that, Division Chief of the National Economic Management Division in the Bank's Economic Development Institute (EDI), now known as the World Bank Institute (WBI). In 2001 he founded a Brazilian corporation, Telemática e Desenvolvimento Ltda. in Rio de Janiero and in 2004 he was named to the Board of the Journal of E-Government.

Before joining the World Bank in 1976 he held positions at Cornell University, the Ford Foundation and the Brookings Institution.

Peter's clients include include The World Bank; Inter-American Development Bank; International Monetary Fund; EzGov, Science Applications International Corporation; Nathan Associates, SRI International/National Science Foundation; US Department of State; United Nations Development Programme, Pakistan and Bahrain; United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA); Rio de Janeiro State Data Processing Company (PRODERJ); Ascom PLC, Encore Software Ltd. (Bangalore), Choice, EzGov, TrustWorks Systems, Fundação Rede Amazônica, EBC, the State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC), the Secretariat of Education, Paraná State, Brazil, Instituto Fernand Braudel de Economia Mundial, and Nathan Associates/Presidência del Consejo de Ministros del Perú. His World Bank experience includes developing training programs in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, China, Vietnam, Eastern Europe and States of the former Soviet Union, as well as leading work on macroeconomic analysis, financial sector development, and poverty and basic needs in Brazil. He also managed two of the first eight projects of the World Bank’s new infoDev program (telematics for learning in South Africa and telematics policy reform in Russia). He speaks French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian as well as his native English.

Peter is the sole, principal, or contributing author of e-Desenvolvimento no Brasil e no mundo: subsídios e Programa e-Brasil (São Caetano do Sul, SP: Yendis and Câmara Brasileiro de Comércio Eletrônico, 2007); e-Brasil: Um programa para acelerar o desenvolvimento socioeconômico aproveitando a convergência digital (São Caetano do Sul, SP: Yendis, 2006); Rumo ao e-Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Garamond, 2006); e-gov.br – a próxima revolução brasileira (São Paulo: Financial Times Prentice Hall,  January 2004); 11 published World Bank studies (two published in book form in Portuguese in Brazil); the author of books on new forms of economic organization in Peru (1975) and Brazilian agricultural technology and trade (1971), and over 100 published articles and book chapters, as well as numerous unpublished reports and papers.

Michael Grahme Moore

Professor Moore is a world-class specialist on teaching, studying and practicing distance education, nowadays with the main focus being on the design and delivery of “e-learning” courses delivered online.  At the Pennsylvania State University, where he is Professor of Education, he teaches graduate courses on campus as well as online and supervises doctoral research students. He is now in the twentieth year as editor of The American Journal of Distance Education and continues to travel widely as a consultant and to make conference presentations, workshops and seminars.

As a consultant, Michael specializes in setting up, evaluating and training in large distance education systems, as well as program-level needs analysis, course design and development, training the trainers, and evaluation. Originally trained as an economist and grounded in an early adult education career of seven years in East Africa, Moore maintains a special interest in economic and social development, undertaking various research, evaluation and training projects for the World Bank, the IMF, UNESCO, Commonwealth of Learning, several national governments as well as public and business organizations. For more detailed résumé see: www.ajde.com/experience.htm, which includes a list of his major consultancies.

Besides the American Journal of Distance Education Michael has served on the editorial boards of similar scholarly journals in Canada, India, and Australia, and currently serves on the boards of Open Learning, (United Kingdom), Open Education (Greece),  and the Italian Association of E-learning’s new publication, SIe-L.

With approaching a hundred publications. including a much-used textbook, Distance Education: a Systems View (co-authored with Greg Kearsley and issued in a second edition in 2005), and a larger number of major presentations in more than 30 countries, Moore also has down-to-earth practical knowledge of teaching and training in all technologies and for most client groups. In recent years he has designed and teaches graduate courses on-line for Penn State's World Campus. Information on Michael’s graduate courses (available on-line) can be found as follows: Introduction to distance education,  Course design and delivery of distance education, and Research & evaluation in distance education.

Tom P. Abeles, Associate

As a futurist and strategic planner, Dr. Abeles has consulted, internationally, for over 25 years on sustainable and environmentally sound technologies, services, and products. A former tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, he has also consulted to public and private sector clients on the future of higher education, including the use of technology for distance education as well as for enhancing on campus programs.

Clients have ranged from community economic development organizations to Wall Street investment bankers, from entrepreneurs to multinational corporations and from local governments to international agencies. In addition to his consulting, he is on the editorial boards of scholarly publications and is a frequent plenary or invited speaker on a variety of topics from education and work to agriculture and renewable energy.

Philip R. Christensen, Associate

Dr. Christensen is Director of the South African office of the Academy for Educational Development, an independent, non-profit service organization committed to addressing human development needs throughout the world. He also consults internationally in education and training, with particular emphasis on instructional systems development, technology-enhanced learning, strategic planning, and monitoring and evaluation.

James W. Miller, Associate

James Miller is a systems integration professional with more than 25 years of senior and executive experience in telecommunications and computer integration industries. Jim has been recognized for his leadership in development and dissemination of leading edge technology to practical client solutions. He has extensive global experience in large project engineering and management, including data, voice and image communications networks, operational support systems, regulatory affairs and marketing and management strategies. He has special expertise in network and satellite systems deployment, management, design and development of support systems, derivative communications and data applications. Jim's history includes developing and implementing communications strategies for major US and international clients as well as providing training, marketing, management and maintenance plans to support these strategies. Jim has been a presenter at several national and international conferences, and has experience with projects in US, Russia, Jordan, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, and Brazil.

Before launching his own company, Synectics in 1990, he held a series of positions at  US West (1984-89, and Bell operating Company (1971-1984). He was President and COO of Real Time Communications, a Seattle startup company that developed major communications strategy for Middle East networks and developing ICT markets, 2000-2003.

Michel Menou, Associate

Dr. Menou, has played a leading role in an international research program on the impact of information on development (1992-present). He adapts easily to new environments; can conduct fast analysis of complex situations; and has the ability to facilitate change processes and learning; operating in virtual organizations through use of electronic media; systems approach and good organizational, language, and communications skills.

He contributed to the formulation of a national strategy toward a learning society in El Salvador (1998-1999) and to the design of new curricula for information studies in Botswana, East-Africa, Mexico, Namibia, Senegal, Tunisia, France (1970-present) and of syllabi for a variety of courses in information work.

Francisco Polatschek, Associate

Francisco Polatscheck is a linguist, psychologist, translator and interpreter, who mediates international contacts between English- and Portuguese-speaking> representatives of government and diplomatic agencies, businesses, universities, research institutions, training providers and consulting firms. Having lived in California and attended the University of California at Berkeley, he is in position to provide a cultural interface to facilitate bi-national group integration and cooperation. 

His work experience includes consecutive and simultaneous translation of numerous conferences, seminars, lectures, press interviews, training programs, meetings and negotiations, as well as consulting and auditing sessions.  A former Professor of English and a trained Cambridge Examiner, he has also translated countless texts of  widely varying nature. His clients have included World Bank consultants, the Minas Gerais Secretariat of Education, the United States embassy in Brazil, local consulates of Canada and New Zealand, local universities, and large corporations such as Petrobrás, Mannesmann, and others.

William G. Tyler, Associate

Dr. Tyler, a Senior Fellow at the Boston Institute for Developing Economies (BIDE), is a professional economist with more than 30 years of experience conducting, participating in, supervising and managing policy oriented research and programs of assistance.
His career has involved academics, government service, the World Bank and consulting. 
His professional interests and concerns, while covering a wide area, have had a focus on the following: (a) the impact of trade policy reform on the development of private markets and the private sector in general; (b) macroeconomic policy management, including debt, fiscal, monetary and exchange rate questions; and (c) structural reform and adjustment in developing and transition economies.  As a Lead Economist for the World Bank, Dr. Tyler was responsible for the Bank’s economic work first on the Southern Cone countries of Latin America and then on the Middle East.  He conducted economic policy discussions and provided economic advice at high levels, including at the presidential level, with a number of country governments.  His scholarly and professional publications, covering a wide range of topics in international economics and development, include seven books and more than forty articles in refereed journals.