Ken Herold
Former Chief Knowledge Officer - HOK
Previous to his current role as an advanced technology consultant, Ken served as CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer) for HOK, one of the world’s largest international architecture and engineering firms. He worked with diverse clients in markets such as HealthCare, Science & Technology, Government, Aviation, Universities, Corporate Clients and others. As the CKO, he functioned as an intrapreneur focusing on using design thinking, biomimicry, innovation, and creativity to transform ideas for clients into patentable technology products for licensing or creating new revenue streams to optimize HOK.
With the insight of future technology and a creative and innovative spirit, Ken Herold has kept companies 5 to 10 years ahead of current trends. He has 30 years of experience as a catalyst for change, turning software technologies and information into knowledge as a competitive advantage. Ken blends his design education in Architecture, a technical background in computer science, and an advanced education in Artificial Intelligence to keep clients on the cutting edge.
In the mid 90’s, Ken led an industry-wide effort as the Executive Director of the IAI, currently known as the buildingSMART Alliance. The alliance is a global effort by the building industry to define a shared object model (the IFC’s) to facilitate information interoperability. Ken’s responsibilities included the initial startup, technology leadership, building an international identity, and forming the global chapters and membership including AEC firms, vendors, product manufacturers, corporations, universities along with national and international government agencies.
Ken is involved with ideation in the St. Louis community. As part of the Saint Louis University MBA Entrepreneurial effort, he is a guest lecturer for MBA students and a judge in the I2P, Idea to Product Competition. Ken guides students through an ideation session to define and refine their class projects. He has also judged the “IdeaBounce” mentors student projects at SLU and Webster and is currently a lead mentor for startups in the St. Louis county incubators through S3.
