Kevin Werbach is a professor and the department chairperson of Legal Studies & Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his influential work on telecommunications and internet policy, he is a pioneer in the emerging field of gamification: applying digital game-design techniques to business. His book, For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business (with Dan Hunter) was published in 2012, and over 220,000 students worldwide have registered for his Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). He was named Wharton’s first “Iron Prof” in 2010.
Outside of his academic role, Professor Werbach is the founder of Supernova Group, a technology analysis and consulting firm. For nine years, he organized the Supernova conference, described by former Xerox PARC head John Seely Brown as “one of the must-attends of the digerati and forward thinkers of the networked age.” He co-led the review of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the Obama Administration’s Presidential Transition Team in 2008, and was employed as an expert advisor by both the FCC and the Department of Commerce in 2009.
Prior to joining the Wharton faculty, Professor Werbach was the editor of Release 1.0, a renowned technology report for senior executives, and co-organizer, with Esther Dyson, of the annual PC Forum conference. Before that, he served as counsel for New Technology Policy at the FCC during the Clinton Administration. Called “one of the few policy wonks who really got it” by Wired, he helped develop the U.S. government’s e-commerce policies, and authored Digital Tornado, the first comprehensive analysis of the implications of the internet on telecommunications.
A sought-after speaker and commentator, Professor Werbach has appeared in print and broadcast media including CNN, PBS NewsHour, CNBC, NPR, ABC News, USA Today, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Financial Times, and the Economist. His writing has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Wired, IEEE Spectrum, Harvard Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, and Slate, among other publications, and he has testified before the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and FCC.
Professor Werbach is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where he served as publishing editor of the law review, and a summa cum laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.
