David Flynn is Professor Emeritus at King’s University College – an affiliate with the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.

Before his thirty-year teaching and research position at King’s, he was employed by the Government of the Northwest Territories, responsible for the development of local government throughout the NWT.

He was born in rural Saskatchewan and holds a B.A. in Mathematics and a BSc. in Engineering Physics from the University of Saskatchewan, and an MSc. (Rural Sociology) and a Ph.D. (Development Sociology) from Cornell University.

He began his career in 1962 as the technical officer in charge of the geomagnetic laboratory for the Dominion Observatory in Baker Lake, NWT, before becoming the Area Administrator in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT. From there he became the Chief of Development in the Department of Local Government in Yellowknife, NWT. When he left the Territorial government in 1972 to complete his graduate studies, he also served as Acting Director of Local Government.

His prime responsibility was to help local communities in the NWT develop local government institutions, followed by the organization of regional councils, as a necessary step in preparation for the decentralizing of government from Ottawa to Yellowknife in the Western Arctic, and the formation of Nunavut in the Easter Arctic.

During his tenure at King’s University College, beginning in 1974, he was chair of the Department of Sociology, as well as serving on a variety of committees including various academic ones, president of the Faculty Association, the executives of Faculty and College Councils, as well as faculty representative on the Board. In addition to supervising and examining theses and dissertations, he was instrumental in forming a provincial association of sociology chairs, for which he conducted surveys on various policies. He also edited a newspaper for the Sociology department for three years after his retirement.

His research interests include the study of small groups, cooperative housing, social movements among Mennonites and indigenous people, and social change in towns in south-western Ontario, Manitoba, England and the Netherlands. As well, he has presented and published on narrative theories of community. His primary research interests since his retirement in 2004 have been with James Hay on the application of complexity science to social change, to groups, organizations and art history.

In the city of London he has served on various groups and boards including a planning committee for downtown development, and the position of Board Chair of the Cross Cultural Learner Centre. He has served as a facilitator, trainer and consultant on a variety of projects including student community problem solving, student housing, and survey research and analysis, He is also active in First-St. Andrew’s United Church in London where he currently is editor of their magazine, and a member of the Communications and Marketing committee.

He has travelled extensively throughout the world to do research, to present papers, and as a tourist, beginning with a hitchhiking trip around the world in 1959/60 when he was still an undergraduate student

Click here to view a list of past presentations and publications by David Flynn.

Jim Hay

James Miller (Jim) Hay is an Honorary Professor, Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering and former President and CEO of Dow Chemical Canada Inc. prior to his retirement from that firm.

He was born in Regina, Saskatchewan; he holds a B.E. (Chemical Engineering), University of Saskatchewan, an M.P.E. (Petroleum Engineering), University of Tulsa, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of Toronto.

His first job was with Refinery Engineering Co., Tulsa, Oklahoma and Toronto as a process engineer. He joined Dow Chemical Canada in 1957 as a process engineer in Sarnia. He became Supervisor of Process Engineering in 1959 and later Manager of Development. In 1968, he transferred to The Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan, where he held several management positions in various departments. He returned to Dow Chemical Canada in 1973, where he became a Director and Vice President Operations, responsible for all of Dow Canada's manufacturing, engineering and research. In this capacity he was the executive responsible for process design, engineering, construction and operation of Dow Canada’s major petrochemical investments in Alberta in the 70’s.

Hay was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in May, 1980 and Chairman of the Board in January, 1983. In 1985 he was appointed Vice President Corporate Product Department of The Dow Chemical Co. Retired 1988. He remained associated with Dow Chemical Canada as non-executive Vice Chairman of the Board until 1994.
He is a member of Professional Engineers of Ontario and the Canadian Society of Chemical Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada. He received the Canada Medal in 1985 from the Society of the Chemical Industry and is a University of Saskatchewan College of Engineering Distinguished Graduate(1985). He received the Industrial Practice Award from the Society of Chemical Engineering (1998). He is a charter member of the Univ of Sask. Athletic Wall of Fame. He received the Twenty Achievers for the Twentieth Century Award from the Canadian Society of Chemical Engineering. In 1999 he gave the Gzowski Society Lecture at the University of Western Ontario. In 2000 he became a charter member of the “Wall of Distinction” of the Engineering Faculty at the University of Saskatchewan.

He was Director of The Mutual Group of Waterloo and The Mutual Group (U.S.) of Brookfield, Wisconsin.

He served on a number of Boards and Committees including the Canadian Chemical Producers Association where he served as chairman, ICST ‑ Institute of Chemical Science and Technology where he also served as chairman, Corporate Higher Education Forum and Canadian Centre for Creative Technology. He was a member and a former chairman of the Faculty of Engineering Advisory Board of the University of Western Ontario and served on the Committee of Ontario Deans of Engineering Advisory Council.

In 1992 he joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Western University as an adjunct professor and later as an Honorary Professor where his work was centered on applying chaos theory to chemical engineering. He was active as a research advisor and taught a graduate course on chaos in chemical engineering until 2005.

From 2000 to the present he has worked with David Flynn on the development of the theory presented on this website based on chaos and complexity theory. This includes application of this theory to real social systems and testing the ideas of this theory on computer models.

Click here to view a list of past presentations and publications by Jim Hay.

Richard Hill

Richard Hill has degrees in chemistry, biology, and mechanical engineering. Prior to setting up his own company – Hill Polymer and BioScience Inc. – he led a variety of businesses at DuPont, INVISTA/KOCH Industries, and Radici.

He was born in Sarnia, Ontario and holds B.Sc. (Chemistry, Biology), Queen’s University as well as a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario.

Throughout his career as a business leader, he has been working to develop the theory and application of organizational effectiveness, strategic planning, leadership development, and the dynamics of being. Over the years, this work has ultimately led to developing the capacity to objectify thinking in a way that integrates and synergizes mental energy of the whole in order to energize people toward consciousness of a common purpose.