Director of the Institute

Rainer Michaeli

ICI’s founder and Director, Managing partner “DIE DENKFABRIK, Gesellschaft für Technologie und Wirtschaftsberatung mbH” - "Advisory Services in Business and Technology“.

Mr Michaeli is an aeronautical engineer (Technical University of Brunswick, Germany) and an MBA (INSEAD, France) by profession. In 1993 he founded DIE DENKFABRIK GmbH, a consultancy that specializes in competitive intelligence services. Prior to this he worked in various industries in marketing, sales and R&D. In 2004 Mr. Michaeli founded the "Institute for Competitive Intelligence (ICI)". He is a lecturer at the University of Darmstadt on “Competitive Intelligence” and “Competitive Dynamic Strategies”.
Mr. Michaeli is author and co-author of several publications covering Competitive Intelligence topics, his text book “Competitive Intelligence”, published in 2005, achieved instant acclaim and become a Financial Times Germany Top 3 best-seller in 2006. He is a frequent speaker at conferences in Europe and the USA.
Rainer Michaeli was an elected member of the board of SCIP (Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals), the global organization for market and competitive researchers from 2003 to 2005. In 2003 he received the SCIP Catalyst award.

Advisory Counsel

Prof. Dr. C. S. Fleisher

Dr. Craig S. Fleisher is Chair of Business and Public Affairs and Professor of Management, College of Coastal Georgia, USA and Docent, Business Information Management, Tampere University of Technology, Finland. He has been President of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), inaugural chair of the Competitive Intelligence Foundation, Editor of the Journal of Competitive Intelligence & Management, and is a SCIP Meritorious Award winner and Fellow. A former MBA director, dean, area head, and endowed research chair, he is or has been a member of university faculties in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK. A recognized global expert who has helped many leading multinational companies and institutions improve their Competitive Intelligence, public affairs, performance measurement and/or analysis processes, Craig has authored or edited a dozen books and published scores of refereed papers. He has facilitated workshops or keynoted meetings in over three dozen countries, supervised dozens of graduate theses, and has received numerous executive and graduate teaching awards/recognitions.

Prof. Dr. Utz Schäffer

The main research of Prof. Dr. Schäffer are controlling instruments, controlling theory, plan­ning and control as well as early warning. He is one of the authors of the definitive book "Bal­anced Scorecard & Controlling, Implementierung - Nutzen für Manager und Controller". Further­more, he is an author of many articles in jour­nals, conference proceedings and trade publica­tions.

Sheila Wright

Principal Lecturer in Strategic Marketing and Competi­tive Intelli­gence, Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, UK and elected Board member of SCIP (2004-2005).