Ralph Poole

Ralph W. Poole is a lecturer in Information & Knowledge Strategy at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies. With over four decades of global operating experience, he is known for his expertise in business strategy, technology consultancy, and academic leadership.

Poole currently serves as Managing Partner at Semantic Modeling LLC, where he leads initiatives in implementing Large Language Models (LLMs), constructing semantic models, and building graph databases. His work spans taxonomy, ontologies, metadata strategies, text analysis, computational data classification, and cognitive search. Additionally, as a Partner and Engagement Director at Iknow LLC, Poole leverages his profound knowledge in knowledge management to lead projects for diverse clients, including corporations, professional service firms, NGOs, and government organizations.

Prior to his current roles, Poole held significant leadership positions at Capgemini and Ernst & Young as Chief Knowledge Officer and Director, respectively. He was also a Partner at Bridge Consulting International and served as a manager at the Boston Consulting Group. Earlier in his career, he worked at Bain & Company, establishing a solid foundation in strategic consultancy.

In academia, Poole has made substantial contributions as a lecturer and author. He teaches courses on Digital Product Innovation, Findability, Semantic Modeling and Computational Classification, and Knowledge Processes, Practices, and Governance. He is an active member of the Program Curriculum Committee for the Information & Knowledge Strategy program, where he helps shape the program's direction and content. His research focuses on enhancing precision and consistency in AI-generated outputs by combining LLMs with structured data and curated knowledge sources. His work has been featured in prestigious publications such as the Harvard Business Review, CIO, Fortune, and Harvard Business School.

Poole holds an M.S.L.S. from Simmons College and a B.A. from Ithaca College. Celebrating his twelfth year at Columbia, he continues to shape future leaders in the field through his dedication to teaching and innovative research.