Lawrence S. Cooley

Founder and president emeritus of Management Systems International, Larry Cooley has more than 40 years of experience in the fields of strategic management, public sector reform, and international development. Currently serving as board chair of the Society for International Development and of World Learning Inc., he is the author or co-author of widely used methodologies for managing policy change, scaling innovation, entrepreneurship development, and results-based management. 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. Cooley is an elected fellow and board member of the National Academy of Public Administration, 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, nonprofit organizations, and global initiatives. He was chairperson of the Development Management Network of the American Society of Public Administration for 15 years and is a past recipient of the Society’s National Award for Training Excellence; and he is a founder and co-curator of a global community of practice on scaling up development outcomes. Prior to establishing MSI in 1981, Cooley worked for the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, Practical Concepts Incorporated, and as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Colgate University and participated the International Honors Program. He also holds advanced degrees in economics from Columbia University , public policy from Princeton University, and management from the Cranfield Institute of Technology in the UK.