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Shawn Cunningham


Shawn Cunningham's Weblog
Shawn Cunningham's Weblog
LATEST POSTS
Thinking out loud about economic development

UNCTAD releases Economic Development in Africa report 2010
01. July 2010
Interesting reading
UNCTAD release. Two weeks ago the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released the “Economic... read more
What is the effect of Finland declaring broadband a basic right?
01. July 2010
Innovation
The news services are alive with reports that Finland has declared broadband of 1mb/s a basic right for all Finns... read more
Stimulating demand led innovation in Africa
29. June 2010
Innovation
To do business in Africa is not easy. I am not being pessimistic with this statement. I am based in Africa because I... read more
The Worldcup of graphs
23. June 2010
Thinking out loud
Gapminder has realised some fantastic graphs about the FIFA Worldcup. For instance, for a view on how uneven the... read more
Connecting innovation systems with local and regional economies
23. June 2010
From the field
Many of you have asked me how I connect my current focus on innovation systems and technological upgrading with... read more

Shawn Cunningham

Areas of expertise:

  • Private sector development
  • Innovation Systems and technology transfer
  • Local and regional economic development
  • Cluster and value chain promotion
  • Small enterprise promotion
  • Business service market development
  • Process design and process facilitation
  • Expert development and coaching

Contact me:

I have a personal weblog page where I share some ideas, new insights and experiences.

You can also reach me via E-Mail

Personal background:

PhD. (Business Administration), 2009, Potchefstroom Business School, North West University, South Africa.

MBA (2001, North West University, South Africa)

  • 2007-present - Joined Mesopartner as a partner, working with various customers in Africa and Asia
  • 2003-2007 - Senior expert in the GTZ South Africa Local Economic Development and Business Development Services Programme
  • 2001-2002 - Worked in South African development agency NAMAC (National Manufacturing Advisory Centre Programme)
  • 1996-2001 - Own business in the IT sector.

Networks

I am a founding member of the LED Practitioners Network in South Africa, and serves on the executive committee of the LED Network. He is also an external board member of the Advisory Committee to the Agency Development Support unit of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in South Africa. Since January 2009 Shawn is serving on the advisory committee to the University of Johannesburg's Department of Entrepreneurship. I am also a member of The Competitiveness Institute, the Institute for Business Advisors in South Africa, and the Economics Society of South Africa.

Current activities:

Most of my current assignments are in the field of technology and innovation management. The main research issue I am working on is finding ways to stimulate or improve the innovation in industries or regions of a country. So I am not looking so much at innovation inside a firm, but more at innovation in industries or regions.

But many people know me for my work in Local Economic Development. I have not completely abandoned this topic. At the moment I am co-authoring a Red Tape Reduction manual. I know that in development everything is connected, so I know that I will bring the innovation and technology topics into the mainstream LED thinking soon!

Personal

Shawn lives in Pretoria, South Africa.