Meredith Belbin graduated in Classics and Psychology at Clare College, Cambridge and gained his second degree for his doctoral dissertation on Older Workers in Industry. After training at the Institute of Engineering Production at Birmingham and a Research Fellowship at Cranfield, he became a management consultant working in a wide range of industries. Later he returned to Cambridge to become, in turn, Chairman of the Industrial Training Research Unit, Director of the Employment Development Unit, the first lay member in Cambridgeshire of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Panel on the Appointment of Magistrates and Senior Associate of the Institute of Management Studies in Cambridge. After three years as Visiting Professor in Leadership at Exeter, he is currently External Examiner for the Department of Engineering Management in the University of Bristol.
Dr Belbin is the author of the widely read Management Teams — Why They Succeed Or Fail (1981), The Job Promoters — A Journey to a New Profession (1990), Team Roles At Work (1993), The Coming Shape Of Organization (1996), Changing The Way We Work (1997), Beyond the Team (2000) and Managing without Power (2002). His eighth book, The Origins and Future of Mind, is now in preparation; and should be published in the first half of 2003.
In a consulting capacity Dr Belbin has advised the OECD, the US Department of Labor, the Commission of the EEC and many manufacturing companies and public service organisations. In his role as a lecturer and seminar leader he visits many countries. He is a partner in BELBIN ASSOCIATES, mainly known as producers of INTERPLACE®, a computer-based Team-Role Advise System used worldwide. Dr Belbin invented, and is currently engaged in developing, Work Roles, a new way of organising and setting up work.