Etienne Wenger is a globally recognized thought leader in the field of communities of practice, who was featured by Training Magazine in their "A new Breed of Visionaries" series. A pioneer of the "communities of practice" research, he is author and co-author of seminal articles and books on the topic, including Situated Learning, where the term was coined, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, where he lays out a theory of learning based on the concept of communities of practice, and Cultivating Communities of Practice: a Guide to Managing Knowledge, addressed to practitioners in organizations. His work as researcher, author, and consultant has influenced both thinking and practice in a wide variety of fields, including business, education, government, and social theory. His new research project, Learning for a small planet, is a cross-sectoral investigation of the nature of learning practices and institutions at the dawn of the new millennium.