Ralph Poole

Ralph W. Poole is a lecturer in Information & Knowledge Strategy at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies. He is an expert business strategist, technology consultant, and academic leader with over four decades of global operating experience. 

Poole serves as the Managing Partner at Semantic Modeling LLC, leading a consultancy focusing on implementing Large Language Models (LLMs), constructing semantic models, and building graph databases. His expertise includes taxonomy, ontologies, metadata strategies, text analysis, computational data classification, and cognitive search.

Mr. Poole is also Partner and Engagement Director at Iknow LLC, a knowledge management consulting firm. In this role, he leverages his expertise in knowledge management to lead projects for diverse entities, including corporations, professional service firms, NGOs, and government organizations.

Prior to his current responsibilities, Poole held leadership positions at Capgemini and Ernst & Young as Chief Knowledge Officer and a Director role at Bain & Company. He was a Partner at Bridge Consulting International and worked as a manager in the Boston Consulting Group.

Complementing his consulting business, Poole has significantly contributed to academia as a lecturer and author. He teaches Digital Product and Innovation, Findability, Semantic Modeling, and Computational Classification, and Knowledge Processes, Practices, and Governance. 

Poole's work has been recognized and featured in prestigious publications such as the Harvard Business Review, CIO, Fortune, and Harvard Business School. He holds an M.S.L.S. from Simmons College and a B.A. from Ithaca College. He continues to shape future leaders in the field through Columbia University's Information & Knowledge Strategy (IKNS) program.