Gerald Harris-Quantum Planning Group

Summary Professional Bio—January 2015

Gerald Harris is the president of the Quantum Planning Group, which he founded in 2010. His company specializes in assisting businesses and non-profit organizations in a wide range of strategic planning tasks including: scenario development, focused research and analysis, leadership team facilitation and writing planning documents.  He is an expert in helping teams and organizations manage risk and uncertainty using tools of economic analysis and scenarios to move from strategy formulation to implementation plans.

Most recently Gerald has been the lead consultant on a multi-year scenario analysis project for the Western Electric Coordinating Council (WECC).  WECC is responsible for electric reliability and electric transmission planning for the Western Interconnection of the United States.  From 2011through 2014, Gerald led a team of six consultants in providing scenario analysis for the Scenario Planning Steering Group (SPSG) created by WECC.  The SPSG was composed of over 20 representatives from the electric power industry, private transmission and generation companies, related NGOs and energy industry regulators.  

From 1993 to 2008 Gerald served as a senior consultant with Global Business Network (GBN) where he became an expert in scenario analysis.   GBN merged with the Monitor Group which is now a part of Deloitte Consulting.  While with GBN, Gerald worked with a wide range of organizations in the business community and non-profit sector applying the tools of scenario analysis.  He was a lead consultant for many of GBN's electric utility industry scenario projects and is a published expert in this area. A partial list of organizations Gerald has led scenario development projects includes the following: Kennecott Utah Copper, Chevron, Iberdrola (Spain), Vattenfall (Sweden), Pertamina (Indonesia), TXU (Texas Utilities), Monsanto, Xstrata, BHP Petroleum (Australia),The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Energy Commission, and the Electric Power Research Institute.

Gerald’s work outside the corporate sector has included working with non-governmental organizations in community development, regionalism, environmental policy, and public education.   A partial list of organizations he has worked with include: The Schott Foundation for Public Education, the Public Education Network, The Nature Conservancy, The Chicago Urban League, The MacArthur Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Prior to joining GBN, Gerald spent 13 years at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, northern California's largest utility. As director of business planning for the engineering and construction division, he was responsible for providing strategic and business planning services to a 4700-person business unit.   He started at PG&E in the Corporate Finance Department where he specialized in project and asset based financing. Before joining PG&E, Gerald was a financial analyst in the international project finance group at Bechtel Corporation.

Gerald received a BA in economics from Morehouse College, where he graduated magna cum laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a MBA in finance and business economics from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.   Gerald is an especially skilled facilitator, having trained with Interaction Associates, and based on his international experience and work across a wide range of industries and issues.

Gerald is the author of, The Art of Quantum Planning, Seven Ideas from Quantum Physics for Breakthroughs in Creativity, Innovation and Leadership, which was published by Berrett-Koehler Publishing in August, 2009.  In June, 2013 his article, “A continuous-learning process that updates and enhances planning scenarios,” was published in Strategy & Leadership (and Emerald Insight publication).  In December, 2014 Strategy & Leadership published his article, “Four Blind Alleys of Scenario Analysis.” 

Gerald has been an active volunteer serving as a Board member or Trustee for several organizations.  He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Hoffman Institute Foundation (Hoffmaninstitute.org).  He also currently serves as the Chair of the Science and Technology member-led –forums group for the Commonwealth Club of California (headquartered in San Francisco, CA). Gerald is a single father with two adult sons.  He lives in San Francisco, CA.

Further information about Gerald and the Quantum Planning Group can be found at www.artofquantumplanning.com.

For the past 29 years, William Bennett Turner has taught course on freedom of speech and the press at the University of California at Berkeley.  He has also taught First Amendment courses at OLLI@Berkeley and at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco.

Mr. Turner practiced law for 45 years. As a San Francisco lawyer, he specialized in unusual litigation, including constitutional law.  He argued three cases before the United States Supreme Court (including two First Amendment cases) and more than 40 cases in lower appellate courts, and he served as lead counsel in many notable state and federal trials.

He graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1963 and, after a Fulbright fellowship in comparative law, he spent three years with a New York law firm.  This was followed by nearly ten years with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund doing civil rights law.  He returned to teach at Harvard in 1977.  He founded his own law firm in San Francisco in 1978 and served as its senior partner until 1992.  He was of counsel to the firm of Rogers Joseph O'Donnell from 1992 to 2008.

Mr. Turner has published more than 40 articles in various magazines, newspapers and law reviews. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Politico, Wired, the San Francisco Chronicle, Harvard Magazine, The Threepenny Review and many other publications. He also served as Legal Affairs Correspondent for KQED television, winning numerous awards for news and documentaries on legal subjects.  He was Legal Consultant to the PBS ""We The People"" series on the Bicentennial of the Constitution. He is the author of Figures of Speech: First Amendment Heroes and Villains.

To learn more about William B. Turner, visit his website.

The Collaborative Work System Design Group consists of Dr. Michael Beyerlein (Center for Collaborative Organizations), Dr. Sarah Bodner, Dr. Cheryl Harris, Jeremy Tekell, Jon Turner, and Sydney Weinman-Barcus. The group, located in Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas, strives to unleash the power of collaboration through research and consultation with client companies. Members of the group approach collaboration as practitioners, consultants, researchers, and scholars.

Contributor to The Change Handbook - Available as article-length Fast Fundamentals whitepaper (PDF download): Collaborative Work Systems Design

The Collaborative Work System Design Group consists of Dr. Michael Beyerlein (Center for Collaborative Organizations), Dr. Sarah Bodner, Dr. Cheryl Harris, Jeremy Tekell, Jon Turner, and Sydney Weinman-Barcus. The group, located in Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas, strives to unleash the power of collaboration through research and consultation with client companies. Members of the group approach collaboration as practitioners, consultants, researchers, and scholars.

Contributor to The Change Handbook - Available as article-length Fast Fundamentals whitepaper (PDF download): Collaborative Work Systems Design

The Collaborative Work System Design Group consists of Dr. Michael Beyerlein (Center for Collaborative Organizations), Dr. Sarah Bodner, Dr. Cheryl Harris, Jeremy Tekell, Jon Turner, and Sydney Weinman-Barcus. The group, located in Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas, strives to unleash the power of collaboration through research and consultation with client companies. Members of the group approach collaboration as practitioners, consultants, researchers, and scholars.

Contributor to The Change Handbook - Available as article-length Fast Fundamentals whitepaper (PDF download): Collaborative Work Systems Design