Pete Birkeland

Business Development Manager

Pete Birkeland has spent the past twenty years spanning the boundaries of the academic and business worlds. His work extends across multiple business models including service, global manufacturing, distributorships and dealers, franchises, and online. He has worked in multiple industries including retail development, energy, biopower, technology, consumer products, beverages, community banking and steel fabrication. Birkeland integrates diverse perspectives into his approach based on academic teaching and research,and practical consulting and executive leadership.

Birkeland earned his Master's and Ph.D. in economic sociology from the University of Chicago, where he continues to lecture on Business Model Innovation at the Graham School.

Birkeland was Research Director with Accenture's Change Management Practice, spearheading a large-scale, multi-industry effort to understand the catalysts of change in global companies. He learned strategy from the world's foremost business thinker, Gary Hamel, as Hamel's Research Associate. Birkeland was CEO of a steel fabrication and erection company in the petroleum industry responsible for all operational and managerial responsibilities in the course of a turnaround and rebuilding effort.

In addition to his work focused on strategy and productivity improvement, Birkeland is a leading expert in franchising and distribution strategies. His book, Franchising Dreams, has won accolades from franchisors, franchisees, and academics.

Birkeland has been named as "one of the top ten minds in small business" by Fortune Small Business.