Michael E. Porter a leading authority on competitive strategy, the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states, and regions, and the application of competitive principles to social problems such as health care, the environment, and corporate responsibility. He is generally recognized as the father of the modern strategy field one of the world’s most influential thinkers on management and competitiveness. Porter has served as a strategy advisor to top management in numerous leading US and international companies, among them Caterpillar, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, Royal Dutch Shell, Scotts Miracle-Gro, SYSCO, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and currently serves on the board of directors of Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation and Parametric Technology Corporation, as senior strategy advisor to the Boston Red Sox, and has advised numerous educational and community organizations on strategy. Porter is a founding member and member of the Executive Committee of the Council on Competitiveness and chairs the selection committee for the annual Corporate Stewardship Award of the US Secretary of Commerce. Porter is also involved in assisting governments in the US and abroad, including Armenia, Canada, Colombia, India, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Libya, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Portugal, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the UK.

Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School. In 2001, Harvard Business School and Harvard University jointly created the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, dedicated to furthering Porter’s work. He is the author of 18 books and numerous articles and has been widely recognized for his work. Some of these honors include the Harvard's David A. Wells Prize in Economics, the Graham and Dodd Award of the Financial Analysts Federation, the George R. Terry Book Award of the Academy of Management for his book Competitive Advantage, the Adam Smith Award of the National Association of Business Economists, the International Academy of Management’s first-ever Distinguished Award for Contribution to the Field of Management, the James A. Hamilton Award for Redefining Health Care as the outstanding health care book of the year, and received the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the United States Department of Commerce for his contribution to economic development. He has also been awarded national honors including the Creu de St. Jordi from Catalonia (Spain) and the Jose Dolores Estrada Order of Merit, the highest civilian honor awarded by the Government of Nicaragua.