Michael West is Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at Lancaster University Management School, Senior Fellow at The King's Fund in London, Senior Fellow of The Work Foundation and Emeritus Professor at Aston University. He was formerly Executive Dean of Aston Business School. He graduated from the University of Wales in 1973 and received his PhD in 1977 for work on The Psychology of Meditation. He has authored, edited or co-edited 25 books including The Psychology of Meditation (1987); The Psychology of Work and Organizations (2010); The Essentials of Teamworking: International Perspectives (2005);; Effective Teamwork (2012) the first edition of which has been translated into 12 languages; The International Handbook of Organizational Teamwork and Cooperative Working (2003). He has also published over 200 articles for scientific and practitioner publications, as well as chapters in scholarly books. He is a Fellow of the BPS and the APA