About John

John P. Girard, Ph.D. is a retired professor who, for the last 10 years of his career, held the Peyton Anderson Endowed Chair in at Middle Georgia State University’s School of Computing. During his career he enjoyed the privilege of speaking to leaders on six continents about technology, leadership, and culture. John has traveled to more than 115 countries investigating globalization and innovation in action. His international adventures with students include three Semester at Sea voyages and visits to 22 countries.  John is an avid birder, active walker, and constant explorer – three hobbies he shares with his wife, best friend, and traveling buddy JoAnn.  

For more than a decade, John traveled the world speaking on subjects such as knowledge management, social media, transformation, and innovation. He has spoken at events in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America at such events as KM World, APQC’s Knowledge Management Conference, the World Congress on Intellectual Capital, KM Australia, InfoVision India, KM Asia, KM Middle East, KM Russia, and many other events. John has undertaken training and consulting assignments for clients such as the Department of National Defence, Canadian Forces College, Canadian International Development Agency, US Department of Labor, Job Corps, Ark Group Australia, Success Steps Saudi Arabia, Saline Water Conversion Corporation (Saudi Arabia), Sultan Qaboos University (Oman), High Commission for the Development of Riyadh, and the Dubai Municipality.

John’s books in the domains of technology, leadership, and culture, include: Knowledge Management Matters: Words of Wisdom from Leading Practitioners (2018), Strategic Data-base Wisdom in the Big Data Era (2015), Social Roots: Why Social Innovations are Creating the Influence Economy (2014), Business Goes Virtual: Realizing the Value of Collaboration (2011), Social Knowledge: Using Social Media to Know What You Know (2011), A Leader’s Guide to Knowledge Management: Drawing on the Past to Enhance Future Performance (2009) and Building Organizational Memories: Will you Know what you Knew? (2009).

After 24 years as an officer in the Canadian Forces, John and his wife JoAnn moved to North Dakota. Throughout his military career, John had the pleasure to serve in a variety of command and staff positions in Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, gaining experience as a leader, trainer, policy officer, human resource manager, and project manager in the Public sector environment. In 2004, whilst acting as Director of Knowledge Management at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, he joined the faculty at Minot State University, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

Prior to returning to his passion for teaching, John gained experience as a university administrator and demonstrated his ability in a variety of senior positions including Dean of Enrollment Management, Director of Enrollment Services, and Director of an Executive Management Program.

John is a graduate of Touro University International where he completed a Ph.D. in Business Administration and an MBA, and of the University of Manitoba where he achieved a BSc with a Computer Science major. In addition, John is a graduate of Canadian Forces College, Toronto, and the Royal Military College of Science in the United Kingdom.

The City and Guilds of London Institute awarded John their Insignia Award for his research into the application of robotic technology and subsequently appointed him a member of the City and Guilds Institute (MCGI). In 2003 John received the Chartered Manager (F. CIM) designation from the Canadian Institute of Management. In 2004 John earned the Best Academic Paper award at the 7th Annual World Congress on Intellectual Capital and Innovation. In 2013 the students of Minot State University honored John with the College of Business Professor of the Year award. In 2015 he received the Award for Outstanding Scholarship at Middle Georgia State University. In 2016, John was a Fulbright Specialist working with Al Ain University of Science of Technology in the UAE. In 2021 he received the Award for Excellence in Full-time Teaching at Middle Georgia State University.  In 2024, John was a Fulbright Specialist working with Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule (OTH) Regensburg in the Germany.