Kalevi Rantanen is a Finnish TRIZ expert who successfully combines many different experiences and areas of knowledge in his work. In the 1970s, he worked with youth organizations, mainly on the problems of education and training. In the early 1980s, he studied in the former Soviet Union, earned his MS in mechanical engineering, and discovered for himself an unexpected, very exciting new world: TRIZ. He has worked in industry since 1985, and since 1991, he has been an independent entrepreneur. From 1991 to 2001, he has concentrated mainly on TRIZ training and, from 2002, on science and technology journalism.
David Conley is a TRIZ Specialist who began his career as an Air Force Officer performing plasma physics and space nuclear propulsion research and served at Los Alamos and Brookhaven National Laboratories and on NASA's Nuclear Safety Review Panel. At Intel Corp. from 1995 until 2012 David held a variety of engineering and management roles and during his last five years with the company chaired Intel's world-wide innovation program supporting the expansion and execution of TRIZ in the areas of product development, manufacturing process improvement, computing systems advancements and business operations innovation. In 2013 he started Innomation Corp. and later joined the PQR Group as their Managing Partner. As a consultant, he has supported a wide base of organizations in contributing to quantum computing hardware development at Sandia National Lab, satellite super-structure and control systems at the AF Research Lab, crop breeding, pharmaceutical advancements, hospital operations, consumer electronics innovations, automotive design and polymer manufacturing to name a few. He lives in New Mexico with his wife Carole and sons Dante, Roan and Shane.
Ellen Domb is emeritus president of The PQR Group, a U.S. consulting firm specializing in helping organizations maximize customer satisfaction, productivity, and profits through strategic management of quality and technology. Formerly a director of the Aerojet Electronic Systems Division with specific responsibility for Total Quality Management implementation, she is a founding board member and judge for the California Council on Quality and Service. She is a charter member of the Quality Function Deployment Institute, cofounder of The TRIZ Institute, editor of The TRIZ Journal (www.triz-journal.com) from 1996-2006 and chair of the first English language International TRIZ Symposium. Ellen is a popular speaker at TRIZ conferences world-wide, and has developed many techniques for training TRIZ trainers and incorporating TRIZ into quality improvement systems. Between trips she lives aboard a boat in Florida and scuba dives in the Bahamas with husband Bill.
