Prof. Dr. Rolf Blumentritt

Prof. Dr. Rolf Blumentritt finished his Mechanical Engineering degree in Berlin specialising in Production Management. After a further degree in Quality Management and some years in the industry he took up a Ph.D. position at the University of Sydney with the research area of knowledge management and published widely. After another interlope in higher management positions in the automotive industry in Europe and Asia, Prof. Dr. Rolf Blumentritt changed from the industry world to start an academic career and become a Professor at the University of Applied Science in Heilbronn, Germany. He is now head of the Master program of Technical Management and teaches in a wide range of courses on management subjects in Bachelor and Master programs. His main field of research is the area of quality and knowledge management.

Borut Likar
University of Primorska–Faculty of Management

Borut Likar is a Full Professor at the University of Primorska–Faculty of Management. He is also the Head of the Institute for Innovation and Technology. Likar’s research and applicative work is oriented in the management of creativity, innovation processes, R&D and technology in companies. He has also developed some new methods regarding mastering the front end of innovation. Likar is also strongly focused on encouraging creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship in educational system, especially elementary and secondary school. He has developed a comprehensive concept of the national association of innovative youth and was invited to present it at the United Nations’ and at the Closing Conference of the European Year of Creativity in Stockholm. Likar is also one of the founders of the incubator of the University ofPrimorska.

Moreover, Likar is the author of hundreds of scientific and professional publications. He is an innovator and a recipient of many awards for his innovations also a golden medal at the most important innovation fairs in South Korea and Kuwait. In addition, he has received many other sound invention medals and awards worldwide (Germany, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia). He also received the “Prometheus of Science for Excellence in Communication” awarded by the Slovenian Science Foundation and the business results based award “Mind of Primorska” and the “Award of Merit” by the largest Slovenian association of innovators ASI. Furthermore, he is the initiator and the head of over 100 successful basic research, applied, technological and other national and EU projects. In addition, he is the author of ten patents, countless models and copyright works, many of which proved to be extremely marketable. He is also active as an evaluator of the EU projects, guest speaker, reviewer of scientific publications, and a chair/editor of numerous (inter)national scientific conferences and publications. Among numerous lectures he has given, the talks at the United Nations’ headquarters in Geneva and twice at the European Parliament in Brussels were met with a particularly wide response. Likar is also the amateur photographer, where he is particularly interested in creative and innovative approaches to photography. He also engages in writing aphorisms, which were published internationally.