OvationNet is the result of a close collaboration between David Cooperrider and the founders of iCohere, Pascal Kaplan and Soren Kaplan. The goal of OvationNet is simple: to provide consultants, change agents and organizations with leading edge capabilities in Appreciative Inquiry that advance AI practice in the field. OvationNet makes available tools and resources that harness the power of online learning and web community technology in ways that support individual, group, organizational and whole system change processes.

• How can we most effectively capture, share and use stories to highlight the core strengths of a system?
• How do we most effectively engage the whole system in AI, even when time constraints exist and part of the system is unable to meet together face-to-face?
• How do we sustain and grow the momentum created through AI Summits so it leads to true innovation and inspired positive change?
• How do we expand the positive impact of Appreciative Inquiry in corporations, non-profits and non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, and the world?

• Access a suite of online AI learning modules
• Extend the impact of face-to-face AI summits by engaging hundreds or thousands of virtual participants
• Support project teams following AI summits to help drive and monitor implementation
• Deliver a virtual online summit that draws on the strengths of the whole system
• Create and embed a new capability for AI that connects together social networks and organizational resources in ways that drive innovation and positive change

David Cooperrider, Ph.D.

David L. Cooperrider is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Professor Cooperrider is past President of the National Academy of Management's OD Division and has lectured and taught at Stanford, University of Chicago, Katholieke University in Belgium, MIT, University of Michigan, Cambridge and others.

David has served as researcher and advisor to a wide variety of organizations including, for example, Yellow Roadway Corp., Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, McCann-Erickson, Nutrimental Foods, World Vision, Cleveland Clinic, American Red Cross, and United Way of America. Most of the projects are inspired by the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) methodology for which Professor Cooperrider is best known. His founding work in this area is creating a positive revolution in the leadership of change; it is helping companies all over the world discover the power of the strength-based approaches to planning and multi-stakeholder cooperation. Admiral Clark, the CNO of the Navy, for example recently met with David to bring AI into the Navy for a multiyear project on Bold and Enlightened Naval Leadership. And in June 2004 Cooperrider was asked by the United Nations Global Compact to design and facilitate a historic, unprecedented Summit meeting between Kofi Annan and 500 business leaders to unite the strengths of markets with the authority of universal ideals to make globalization work for everyone. Cooperrider's work is especially important because of its ability to enable positive change in systems of very large and complex scale.

David often serves as meeting speaker and leader of large group, interactive conference events. His dynamic ideas have been published in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Human Relations, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The OD Practitioner, and in research series such as Advances in Strategic Management. More popularly, Professor Cooperrider's work has been covered by The New York Times; Forbes Magazine; Science, Fast Company, Fortune, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle and others. He has been recipient of Best Paper of the Year Awards at the Academy of Management and top researcher of the year at Case and numerous clients have received awards for their work with Appreciative Inquiry. Among his highest honors David was invited to design a series of dialogues among 25 of the world's top religious leaders, started by His Holiness the Dalai Lama who said, "If only the world's religious leaders could just know each other, the world will be a better place." Using AI, the group has had meetings in Jerusalem and at the Carter Center with President Jimmy Carter in Atlanta. David was recognized in 2000 as among the top ten visionaries in the field by Training Magazine and in 2004 received a prestigious award in Washington D.C. for distinguished contribution to the field of organizational learning from the American Society for Training and Development.

David has published nine books and authored close to 50 articles. Cooperrider's volumes include Appreciative Inquiry Berrett-Kohler (with Diana Whitney); Organizational Courage and Executive Wisdom and Appreciative Leadership and Management (both with Suresh Srivastva). David is editor of a new academic book series Advances in Appreciative Inquiry (with Michel Avital) published by Elsevier Science. David's wife Nancy is an artist and Hannah and Matt are in high school in Chagrin Falls Ohio with oldest son Daniel in college at University of Chicago.

Pascal Kaplan, Ph.D.

Pascal leads the product design and technical strategy teams for OvationNet and iCohere, including software development, support and implementation services. Pascal possesses a unique background that blends education, business and technology. Before starting OvationNet, he founded The Kaplan Consulting Group, a software and consulting services firm that works with Fortune 500 companies, designing and building software to support enterprise business processes. Prior to becoming involved in technology, he served for ten years as professor of Consciousness Studies and Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California. Pascal also spent two years consulting with the Leadership Communications Department at Bank of America, working with the bank's Executive Committee to develop and implementation a mission and values initiative for the organization's 90,000 employees. Pascal serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profit organizations. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Soren Kaplan, Ph.D.

Soren provides overall leadership for OvationNet's and iCohere's business development, marketing and client services activities. As a speaker and authority on the use of technology in organizational development and online communities, Soren has presented at conferences, institutes and universities including the Organization Development National Conference, the American Society of Training and Development, the e-Learning Forum, the Creative Education Foundation, Alliant University, and the Harvard Business School. Quotes and articles from Soren have appeared in numerous publications including Fast Company, Collaborate, ASTD's Learning Circuits, Strategy & Leadership, the Journal of Creativity and Innovation Management, and the Journal of Strategic Change. Soren has written numerous articles and papers on using collaborative technologies for learning, knowledge-sharing and community-building, including the first-ever chapter on Technology and Organizational Development in the best-selling book Practicing Organizational Development.

Prior to co-founding OvationNet and iCohere, Soren held numerous positions at Hewlett-Packard Company including Manager of Business Strategy Services where he led an internal consulting group that assisted management teams across the company with strategic planning and strategic organizational change. Before joining HP, Soren was a consultant with Cambridge, MA based IdeaScope Associates and consulted to global 500 companies, including Kodak, Siemens, Nestle, Avery Dennison, and 3M. Soren holds Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Organizational Psychology.