Dr. Bo Stjerne Thomsen is Vice-President, Chair of Learning Through Play, and member of the Leadership Team at the LEGO Foundation. As Chair and senior expert on how children and adults learn through play, he provides consultation at a bilateral, regional and multilateral level to international partners and leaders. He represents the LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Brand Group at international forums, and advises leadership teams across the LEGO entities, to attain the overall LEGO Brand Vision of becoming a global force for Learning Through Play.
Over the years, Bo lead the international research agenda and organizational expertise on children’s development, play and learning for the LEGO Foundation and supporting the LEGO Group. In his previous roles as Director of the LEGO Learning Institute, Head of the Centre for Creativity, Play and Learning, and Global Head of Research, he built more than 15 international research partnerships and supported the implementation of evidence into projects across 20+ countries, to raise awareness around the role and impact of play on creativity and lifelong learning.
Bo Stjerne has published widely on Creativity, Play and Learning, most recently on the integrated role of technologies in everyday life, and the systems change needed in schools and education to achieve equitable outcomes with learning through play. He is a frequent contributor and advisor to international forums like OECD, WISE, UNGA and WEF, and provides research directions for projects worldwide, to bring attention to the quality of childhood and the power of learning through play.
He holds a master’s degree in design, architecture and engineering, and a PhD on performative technologies and learning environments. He has been a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab in Boston, studied research management and leadership at Copenhagen Business School and IMD in Switzerland, and an advisor to various international research organizations including the Torrance Centre for Creativity, the University of Cambridge PEDAL Research Centre, WISE, OECD, Design for Play in Denmark, World Innovation Summit for Education, and the Lifelong Learning Lab at Tsinghua University.
You can follow him on Twitter: @BoStjerne