Thornton May
Futurist, Educator, Anthropologist and Author

Thornton May Bio:
 Thornton May is a futurist, educator, anthropologist and author. His extensive experience researching and consulting on the role and behaviors of state and local government IT executives in creating value with information technology has won him an unquestioned place on the short list of serious thinkers on this topic. Thornton combines a scholar’s patience for empirical research, a stand-up comic’s capacity for pattern recognition and a second-to-none gift for storytelling to address the information technology management problems facing public sector executives. The editors at eWeek honored Thornton, including him on their list of “Top 100 Most Influential People in IT.” The editors at Fast Company labeled him one of the “Top 50 brains in business.” Thornton May is also the author of The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics. Thornton May has established a reputation for affordable, time-compressed, collaborative problem solving. He designs the curriculum that enables the mental models which allow public sector organizations to delight citizens and extract maximum value from tools and suppliers. Thornton’s insights have appeared in the Harvard Business Review (on IT strategy); The Financial Times (on IT value creation); The Wall Street Journal (on the future of the computer industry); the M.I.T. Sloan Management Review (on the future of marketing), American Demographics (on the evolving demographics of citizens), USA Today (on the future of the consumer electronics industry) Business Week (on the future of CEO direct reports), and on National Public Radio (debating the future practice of strategy with Professor Michael Porter). Thornton has been a columnist at Computerworld for twenty-eight years and has served as an Advisor to the Founding Editors of Fast Company Magazine.