Dr. Leslie P. Willcocks has an international reputation for his work on automation, global management, outsourcing, e-business, information management, IT evaluation, strategic IT and organizational change.

He is Professor in Technology Work and Globalization at the Department of Management at London School of Economics and Political Science. He also heads the LSE’s Outsourcing Unit research centre. He has been for the last 28 years Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information Technology. He is co-author of 55 books including Nine Keys To World Class BPO (2015), Moving to The Cloud Corporation (2014), and The Rise of Legal Services Outsourcing (2014) and has published over 230 refereed papers in journals such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, MIS Quarterly and MISQ Executive. He has delivered company executive programmes worldwide, is a regular keynote speaker at international practitioner and academic conferences, and has been retained as adviser and expert witness by major corporations and government institutions. Forthcoming books include Global Outsourcing Discourse: Exploring Modes of IT Governance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). His research into the management of cloud business services appears as Cloud and The Future of Business: From Cost to Innovation (www.outsourcingunit.org).
Email: l.p.willcocks@lse.ac.uk

Dr. Mary C. Lacity is Walton Professor of Information Systems and Director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at The University of Arkansas. She was previously Curators’ Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She has held visiting positions at MIT, the London School of Economics, Washington University, and Oxford University. She is a Certified Outsourcing Professional ®, Industry Advisor for Symphony Ventures, and Senior Editor for MIS Quarterly Executive.

Mary's recent research focuses on improving business services using Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Cognitive Automation (CA), and Blockchain technologies. She has conducted case studies and surveys of hundreds of organizations on their adoption journeys, has given keynote speeches and executive seminars worldwide, and has served as an expert witness for the US Congress.

Mary was inducted into the IAOP’s Outsourcing Hall of Fame in 2014 - one of only three academics to ever be inducted. She was the recipient of the 2008 'Gateway to Innovation Award' sponsored by the IT Coalition, Society for Information Management, and St. Louis RCGA. She has published 28 books, most recently, A Manager’s Guide to Blockchains for Business (https://sbpublishing.org/blockchain.html), SB Publishing, UK. Mary's publications have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, MIS Quarterly Executive, IEEE Computer, Communications of the ACM, and many other academic and practitioner outlets.