Erik Simanis

Co-Director, BoP Protocol
Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise
Johnson Graduate School of Management
Cornell University

Erik Simanis is Senior Research Associate at the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at CornellUniversity’s Johnson School of Management and a Ph.D. Candidate in Management. Erik co-founded with Professor Stuart Hart the Base of the Pyramid Learning Laboratory in 2000, a consortium of multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, and multilaterals that explore market-based approaches to serving the four billion people at the base of the income pyramid. Erik currently co-directs the BoP Protocol Project, a ground-breaking initiative to develop and refine a business process that enables large corporations to co-create new businesses in deep partnership with income-poor communities. As Co-Director, Erik has led successful BoP Protocol field implementations in Kenya in partnership with SC Johnson and in India with Dupont’s Solae subsidiary.

Erik's unique action research approach gets him on the ground working closely with managers and communities. His research focuses on developing organizational strategies and new managerial capabilities that enable corporations to create culturally “embedded” business models that creatively fuse the company’s knowledge, resources, and capabilities with those of income-poor communities. Erik's diverse work experience includes leading a manufacturing start-up in Latvia during the post-Soviet transition, serving as a manager in an SME in the US wood products industry, and interning with Monsanto Corporation’s Smallholder Farmer Team in the company’s former Sustainable Development Sector. He has consulted extensively to corporations and NGOs across industries on integrating sustainability and BoP concepts into strategy and business development and has been a frequent speaker on the topic.

Erik has taught undergraduate, masters, and executive level courses in strategy and sustainability. He holds a BA in Spanish from WakeForestUniversity and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business, where he received the Norman Block Award for highest academic achievement.