My condolences, Dave. I had the privilege of being taught by both of you at Warwick and am glad that your encounter via Yasmin was so rich and fruitful both personally and professionally.

It's clear to anyone who's followed your work that Max Boisot was an important person in your life; the deep respect you held for him both personally and professionally is evident in your presentations, lectures, papers and publications. I'm sure that respect was also mutual. You seemed to be intellectual kindred spirits.

I never had the honor of meeting him, but through your work I was introduced to his thinking and publications, and his influence on Cynefin. I've been enriched and inspired by it.

Learning that Max, like your mother, died of cancer also strikes home; I lost my father to cancer only in April. My thoughts, too, go to Max Boisot's family, and I'm also sorry for your loss.

Thanks Dave. For lots of things as well as these lovely remembrances of Max. JC

My condolences. I'm an owner of two of his works, Knowledge Assets and Exploration in Information Space. Brilliant works!

Dave, my condolences - I knew what great friends you were. I was shocked when I saw the news.

My condolences, Dave. I know you were quite troubled by Max's illness and I am very sorry to hear that you lost him.

Dave - this is a very fine tribute to a very fine man. I well remember Max from the conference in Hong Kong in 2010 and years earlier when I first met him. He was a giant of an intellect. I am sorry you have lost such a great friend. His contribution to discourse, however, will never be lost.

Dave,

Thank you for your heartfelt tribute. It brought so many similar memories and emotions to mind. I only knew Max for a fraction of the time that you did, yet I can also attest to his incredible generosity in sharing the largess of his intellectual gifts and gut-splitting humor. I am privileged to have called him a friend, colleague and mentor.

He changed my life forever.

Best,
Sherry

My condolences! I first met him in Hong Kong last year and found him a great thinker. May he rests in peace!

Thank you for this lovely tribute to a lovely man. I first met him through his wonderful book Knowledge Assets and treasure the precious little time I spent with him in person. This is a very great loss.

Thanks Dave for this heartfelt tribute. I never got to know Max personally, but treasure my copy of Knowledge Assets, and when I re-read or refer to it, I always marvel at his insightful intellect.

Max was a pioneer and I am sure will be sadly missed. Now it's up to us to make him proud!

Warm regards

Goodness that was a shock and thanks Dave for such a wonderful tribute. Like others who have responded, I only scratched the surface of his ideas - but they helped me change the ways I engaged with situations.

Your words are exactely those we would have expected for Max "in memoriam".

All those who received the privilege of working with him at some point (it was my case many years ago), use the same words : extraordinary eclectism which made him a modern renaissance man, outstandingly brilliant teacher and speaker, deep intelligence, extreme humour and warmness in human relations, in addition to speaking fluently in several languages, (his French in particular was of "académie" class)

I had not met again Max for years but a couple of hours before his death last Tuesday, by a strange coincidence, I was at ESADE in Barcelona, describing to younger colleagues who had not known him, his contribution to the construction of an European academic space.
Condolences to his family and his close friends.

Pierre BATTEAU, President EDAMBA.

David,

this is indeed a shock and many thanks for sharing your wonderful personal reminiscences of Max Boisot. I first came across him almost 20y ago when he advised some of my colleagues at BP about the cultural aspects of decision making in former Soviet Union. I continued to follow and use his work since -especially building on Information Spaces.

I had a privilege to meet him when he visited Royal Holloway where he collaborated with my friend Prof Duska Rosenberg.

It is indeed such a loss when a gifted and generous man like Max passes but it is great to see how many lives he has touched and to know that his influence will last for many years to come.

Once again thank you for sharing your love and appreciation for a truly special man and condolences to his family and friends on an deep loss.

I met Max in our first week at Cambridge and have been his friend for nearly 50 years. He could and would talk about anything from first principles. I used to say he talked French with a perfect English accent. But above all he was kind and a generous life long friend.

Michael Horowitz

Dave,
This is a great tribute to a great man. Max was my Uncle (husband to my maternal aunt). Our final meeting was last year in Philadelphia. Dinner at one of Max's favorite Thai restaurants, of course, held a conversation that turned from my immunology studies at Penn, to economics and game theory. You really hit the nail on the head with this line: "Any meeting with Max required a heightened state of mental alertness".
I would very much like to share memories about Max, as I struggle to deal with his passing. If you, or any of the other friends of Max have the time, perhaps shoot me a line.
-Peter

Hi Dave,

It's really a pain to hear about Boisot's death. It's really a loss beyond friends and family.

I came across Knowledge Assets at the very beginning of my PhD work at it was THE book that not only surfaced well above the rest of literature but that encouraged me to venture into a cross-discipline approach to KM, benchmark dominant models and come up with my own work (KPIs and models to surface knowledge related initiatives in balance score cards).

As you can see, I have a huge debt on top of the pain.

Olivier

I’ve met billionaires who are so casually generous that you never feel embarrassed when they treat you to a $500 per person meal. Max was like that with his incredible wealth of knowledge. Sharing so clearly made him happy.

Any time I told him what I was working on or reading—regardless of what the project was—he always had insights and experiences that were incredibly relevant and useful. Even when you realized how wrong you had been, you never felt stupid for it.

My wife, who only met him twice (in Barcelona and at our home for dinner) nevertheless declared him her "favorite person ever!"

I treasure every conversation I ever had with Max (which was really only a handful) and I had hoped there would be many more.

My heart goes out to his family and friends around the world.

Please accept my condolences on the loss of a friend.

Hi Dave

Sad to hear of this news. Though I have not met him - but from the various times you have references him in your work, your presentations at conferences and also the conversations we had - he is indeed an influential part of you

Your reflection is one that gave perspective to how a great m an he was and the contribution he made to the world of KM!

Hi Dave
Great tribute to a great man.
I still cannot realize that Max is not with us anymore, and I still have it difficult to put my feelings into words.

I had met Max 5 years ago for the first time, and we have worked together about numerous projects since the moment we met. We initiated developing projects together after realizing that Popper's "Cloud and Clocks" article had changed both our intellectual journeys, and I have to say that Max's influence on me is as great as had been already Gerard Radniztky's or Karl Popper's ones.
I treasure each and every discussion we had together, and I 'll still need a couple of years to complete the extensive reading list he advised me about. Max staid by us in Paris last Spring for one week, and we discussed how to carry out numerous projects and papers that we had together. I 'm wondering now how to manage all these challenges now.

All kind words posted on the page perfectly picture Max, who was always very nice and charming, who had an impressive sense of humor (and used irony even better), and who was able to spend hours discussing epistemology or knowledge theory.
I remember several evenings in Sitges or in Paris where we both ended with painful headaches, that we only confessed to each other during the next breakfast. I remember also visiting the Pompidou center in Paris with Max, and starting passionate debates about abstraction while standing together in front of one of his favorite paintings by Mondrian.

My thoughts go to his family and friends.
If someone would like to share memories about Max, feel free to call or email me.
/D

Dear Mr. Dave,

Although Dr. Max passed away more than two weeks ago, I still find it very hard to put my feelings into words.

I considered myself a very privileged person to have had the opportunity to have Dr. Max as my PhD thesis advisor, as my mentor and as my friend.

I admire Dr. Max for the outstanding scholar he was. He had an incredible capacity of linking ideas that a first glance seemed incompatible into a coherent whole, of course, always followed by hundreds and hundreds of interesting references to sustain his ideas. By doing so, he was trying to bring a breath of fresh air to Management, trying to remove us from the blindness of always using the same citations.

I also admire Dr. Max for the incredible human being he was, someone generous, extremely polite, supportive and with a great sense of humour. Even without saying a word, he would make me laugh by giving his “Mona Lisa smile” (a mysterious smile followed by raising one of his eyebrows).

I treasure each and every meeting we had together. I always learned something new – I only wish I had one more opportunity.

The best way that I can pay tribute to Dr. Max is to carry on with my PhD thesis and to dedicate it to him. I believe that he would be very happy and glad to see our work carried on. I hope that wherever he is, I can make him proud.

I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends around the world.

Dave, this is a gracious and thoughtful tribute to one of the most interesting people I ever met. I guess we're at the age now when we will read of the deaths of people that, in my case, we have met a few times, had some good conversations, and each time there will be a moment of cold, but I feel truly sad that Max has gone. Mark

Dave,
my condolences on the loss of a friend.
I remember my first session with you in April 1999 and your close reference to Max Boisot and how it inspired me.
My thoughts are with you.
Werner

I am shocked to read this. I was just composing an email to Max to send me his new book and at the same time I decided to check it in google, when this obituary notice suddenly appeared. I am stunned. I can see his expression at my speechlessness. I wish I could talk to someone about this. I am feeling awful. He told me that his daughter lived in San Diego. I met him in CERN - such a rare delightful presence and my ONLY non-physics friend there (I was from anthropology doing fieldwork at CERN. I met him in summer of 2008. I would harangue him on Plato or Whitehead and he would give a super-sharp witty retort and then we couldn't stop laughing. I don't know what to say. this is very sudden and shocking.