Kenneth Younge Advisory

About

Kenneth A. Younge, Ph.D.

Economist, manager, entrepreneur, builder.

For more than three decades I have worked on one question from different angles: how organizations turn new technology into real work. First as a strategy consultant re-engineering processes, then as a serial founder, then as a professor researching and teaching innovation. Today I advise executives and teams putting AI agents to work, and I am the author of the open-source Axis Workflow.

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Kenneth Younge speaking at a lectern
Fig. 01 Kenneth Younge at EPFL.

Career

Consultant, founder, professor, advisor.

Seven companies founded or co-founded across three decades - several sold, all instructive.

Download CV

PDF, 5 pages, October 2026

  1. 2026–now

    Kenneth Younge Advisory

    Founder and Principal. Independent advisory on AI-driven knowledge work: setup and training, evaluation and audit, leadership and strategy.

  2. 2026–now

    The Axis Workflow™ · Director, lead developer

    An open-source project to coordinate workflows and AI agents.

  3. 2020–2024

    Quant AI · founder, Scientific Director

    A consultancy on data science and AI. Sold in 2024.

  4. 2015–2022

    EPFL · Associate Professor

    Chair of Technology and Innovation Strategy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Founder and director of the Data Science for Managers executive program.

  5. 2017–2019

    Stanford Law School · Affiliated Faculty

    CODEX Center for Legal Informatics.

  6. 2015–2018

    Patent Research Foundation · co-founder

    Vector-space models to predict patent trends, value patent portfolios and assess freedom to operate.

  7. 2013–2015

    Purdue University · Assistant Professor

    Strategic Management, Krannert School of Management.

  8. 2005–2007

    Total Patient Health Systems · co-founder

    A disease-management platform, piloted with Kaiser Permanente.

  9. 2002–2005

    Total Trainer · co-founder, President

    Training software developed with the US Olympic Training Center. Sold to private equity in 2005.

  10. 1997–2002

    Ideal Computing Solutions · co-founder

    IT projects and web applications through the dot-com years.

  11. 1994–1997

    Expert Connection · co-founder, President

    An online marketplace for hiring technical experts. Sold in 1997.

  12. 1992–1993

    Mercer Management Consulting

    Process re-engineering for a major US railway; the privatization of the Polish State Railway.

Academic record

Research and teaching, on the record.

Education

  • Postdoc, Technology & Innovation, UC Berkeley2013
  • Ph.D., Strategy & Entrepreneurship, University of Colorado2012
  • M.A., International Policy Studies, Stanford University1995
  • B.A. with honors, Economics & IR, Brown University; magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa1991

Teaching awards

  • Best Teacher Award, MTE program, EPFL2021
  • Best Teacher Award, MTE program, EPFL2020
  • Best Teacher Award, MTE program, EPFL2017
  • Distinguished Teacher Award, MBA program, Purdue University2015
  • Distinguished Teacher Award, MBA program, Purdue University2014
  • Distinguished Teacher Award, undergraduate program, Purdue University2014
  • Outstanding Teaching Award for a Doctoral Student, University of Colorado2011

Research and academic honors

  • Outstanding Dissertation Award, Academy of Management (BPS)2013
  • Best Conference Paper Award, Strategic Management Society2011
  • M&E Faculty Research Excellence Award, University of Colorado2011
  • M&E Doctoral Research Citizen Award, University of Colorado2010
  • Susan Colver Rosenberger Prize, Brown University1991
  • Departmental Honors in International Relations, Brown University1991

Published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, the RAND Journal of Economics, the Strategic Management Journal and IEEE ICMLA, among others.

Papers and PDFs

An executive-program participant reads a statistics textbook at her desk while others follow the lecture
Fig. 02 Data Science for Managers at EPFL.

Teaching

Hundreds of managers, one standard.

At EPFL I created and ran Data Science for Managers, an intensive executive program that taught managers, engineers and executives to put machine intelligence to work: the concepts, the hands-on practice and the judgment about where it fails. I also taught Data Science for Business and Technology and Innovation Strategy at master’s level.

Advisory work today follows the same pattern: real material, hands on keyboards, and no pretending that it is magic.

What participants said

Off the clock

The same habit, outdoors.

Rock climbing to 8a / 5.13 and big walls, including El Capitan, and winter ascents of the Diamond on Longs Peak. Expeditions in Nepal, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Long-distance cycling across Mongolia, Bolivia, Russia, the United States and much of Europe. Ski marathons at the Engadin and the Transju.

Climbing teaches the same lesson as good project work: the hard part goes well when the preparation, the checks and the partner are right.