BEER, Stafford

BEER, Stafford. British, b. 1926. Genres: Poetry, Administration/ Management, Business/Trade/Industry, Information science/Computers. Career: Head of Operational Research and Cybernetics, United Steel, 1949-61; Managing Director, Science in General Mgmt., 1961-66; Development Director, International Publishing Corp. Ltd., 1966-69; Visiting Professor of Cybernetics, Manchester Business School, 1969-94; Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Professor of Statistics and Operations Research, 1972-81, Adjunct Professor of Social Science Systems, 1981- 87; European Business Management School, University College Swansea, research professor of Managerial Cybernetics, 1990-. Director, Metapraxis, 1984-87. Chairman, Syncho Ltd., since 1986. World Organization for Systems and Cybernetics, president, 1981-. Member, U.K. Automation Council, 1957-69, and General Advisory Council, BBC, 1961-69; President, Operational Research Society (U.K.), 1970-71, and Society for General Systems Research (US), 1971-72. Publications: Cybernetics and Management, 1959, 1967; Decision and Control, 1966; Management Science, 1967; Brain of the Firm, 1972, 1981; Designing Freedom, 1974; Platform for Change, 1975; Transit (verse), 1977; The Heart of Enterprise, 1979; Diagnosing the System for Organizations, 1985; Pebbles to Computers: The Thread, 1986; To Someone or Other, 1988; How Many Grapes Went into the Wine, 1994; Beyond Dispute: The Invention of Team Syntegrity, 1995. Died 2002.