Harrison Owen is President of H.H.Owen and Co. His academic background and training centered on the nature and function of myth, ritual and culture. In the middle '60s, he left academe to work with a variety of organiza­tions including small West African villages, urban (American and African) commun­ity organizations, Peace Corps, Regional Medical Programs, National Institutes of Health, and Veterans Administration. Along the way he discovered that his study of myth, ritual and culture had direct application to these social systems.

In 1979 he created H.H.Owen and Company in order to explore the culture of organiza­tions in transformation as a theorist and practicing consultant. Harrison convened the First International Symposium on Organization Transformation, and is the originator of Open Space Technology. He is the author of Spirit: Transformation and Develop­ment in Organizations, Leadership Is, Riding the Tiger, Open Space Technology: A Users Guide (3rd Edition. Berrett-Koehler), The Millennium Organization, Tales From Open Space (editor), Expanding Our Now: The Story of Open Space Technology (Berrett-Koehler), The Spirit of Leadership (Berrett-Koehler), The Power of Spirit: How Organizations Transform (Berrett- Koehler) and The Practice of Peace (Human Systems Dynamics Institute), Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self Organizing World (Berrett-Koehler) .