He has been labelled a Kiwi “braniac” and an economic rock star. His intellectual clout is such that he has, by his own description, risen to the top tier of global business as an academic and entrepreneur. We call him one of our own, although Professor David Teece is domiciled in the US. One of three sons of a businessman who started the first daily freight service between the west coast and Nelson before World War II, Dr Teece went on to gain his Phd in economics and began teaching at Stanford University in 1975. From there he went on to have a glittering carerr as a researcher, consultant and professor in corporate strategy and innovation.

Though now nearing his mid-60s he is still at his peak with a 2011 article “Innovation in Multi-Invention Contexts,” (co-authored with Deepak Somaya and Simon Wakeman), selected as the winner of the 2012 California Management Review Best Article Award. The article is designed to help guide managers when seeking to bring an innovation to market in a multi-invention context. He was also named among the “A-List of Management Academics 2011,”an honorary group of 30 accomplished and distinguished US business professors.

Drr Teece continues to head the Berkeley Research Group in California, which consults to major law firms, Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. He retains business interests in New Zealand through venture capital company Endeavour Capital. With wife Leigh, Professor Teece owns the 70ha Mt Beautiful vineyards in Canterbury, which began exporting wines to the UK in 2009. 

He is also a director (with Sir Stephen Tindall) of Highland Resorts, a company that owns Cardrona’s Branches Station.