Alfonso Montuori

Alfonso Montuori is Professor and Department Chair of the Transformative Studies Ph.D. and Transformative Leadership M.A. at California Institute of Integral Studies. In 2003-2004, he was Distinguished Professor in the School of Fine Arts at Miami University, in Oxford Ohio, and in 1985-1986 he taught at the Central South University in Hunan, China. A former professional musician, he is the author of several books and numerous articles on creativity, complexity, and education. Alfonso is also a consultant focusing on creativity and executive development. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Kitty Margolis, the noted jazz singer, and has co-produced her award-winning recordings.

Alfonso Montuori is Professor and Department Chair of the Transformative Studies Ph.D. and Transformative Leadership M.A. at California Institute of Integral Studies. A graduate of the University of London, he is the author of several books and numerous articles on creativity and improvisation, complexity, and education. Alfonso also consults with organizations and individuals on professional and personal development.

Born of an Italian father and Dutch mother, Alfonso grew up trilingual (because his parents insisted on speaking to him in their mother tongue), and spoke five languages by age 12. He was born in Holland, and grew up living in Lebanon, Greece, and England before coming to the United States in 1983. In London Alfonso worked as an interpreter for Scotland Yard and as a professional musician on saxophone and flute, making numerous recordings with his own band and as a session-man, and gigging extensively throughout England for several years. Today, Alfonso continues his passion for music through his collaboration with his wife, the jazz singer Kitty Margolis, as producer of her award-winning recordings.

He has taught at the College of Notre Dame, the Saybrook Institute, and South-Central University in Changsha, Hunan Province, in the People’s Republic of China (1985-86), where he developed and taught the first course in management and organization theory. In 2003-2004 he was Wiepking Distinguished Professor in the Fine Arts department at Miami University. His books include Evolutionary Competence (Gieben, 1989); From Power to Partnership (co-authored with Isabella Conti, Harper San Francisco, 1993); Creators on Creating (co-edited with Barron & Barron, Putnam, 1997); and Social Creativity, vols. 1-2 (co-edited with Ronald E. Purser, Hampton Press, 1999). Alfonso is presently working with Ron Purser on a graduate textbook on creativity and innovation in organizations due to be published by Southwestern/Thomson in 2005. He has written articles in publications such as Academy of Management Review, Human Relations, Journal of Management Education, Pluriverso, and Journal of Humanistic Psychology. His translations include Constraints and Possibilities (Gordon & Breach, 1996) by Mauro Ceruti; Solidarity or Barbarism: A Europe of Diversity against Ethnic Cleansing (Peter Lang, 1997); and The Narrative Universe (Hampton Press, 2002), both by Gianluca Bocchi and Mauro Ceruti.

Alfonso has consulted on executive and management development and creativity and innovation with numerous international corporations, including Procter & Gamble, Network Appliance, Training Vision (Singapore), Pacific Bell, Stentor Group (Canada), Kaiser Permanente, Interstate Insurance, Omnitel-Olivetti (Italy), ENEL (Italy), U.S. Department of Labor, University of Missouri Kansas City, Nestle Beverage, Pilkington Barnes Hinde, 3Com, Progressive Insurance, and others.

He started, and is General Editor of, Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences at Hampton Press, which has published important works by Gregory Bateson, Gianluca Bocchi & Mauro Ceruti, Edgar Morin, Ervin Laszlo, and other leading thinkers; he is Associate Editor of World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution; and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Transformative Education; Tamara: The Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Theory; Pluriverso (Italy); Narrare il Gruppo; Integral Review, and Elites (Italy). Alfonso is also a member of the General Evolution Research Group.