Peter Birkeland has spent the past twenty years spanning the boundaries of the academic and business worlds in order to understand business success in a wide range of companies--global corporations, entrepreneurial start-ups, partnerships, family businesses, and non-profits. His work extends across multiple business models including service, global manufacturing, distributorships and dealers, franchises, and online, and multiple industries such as retail development, energy, biopower, technology, consumer products, beverages, community banking and steel fabrication. Birkeland integrates diverse perspectives into his approach based on academic teaching and research, and practical consulting and executive leadership.

Birkeland earned his Master's and Ph.D. in economic sociology from the University of Chicago, where he continues to lecture on Business Model Innovation at the Graham School. He also served on the faculty in sociology at Indiana University South Bend, and as visiting professor of Strategic Management and Organization at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. He continues to present his Business Model Innovation seminar for Executive Education programs and in companies through his high-impact workshops.

Birkeland was Research Director with Accenture's Change Management Practice, spearheading a large-scale, multi-industry effort to understand the catalysts of change in global companies. He learned strategy from the world's foremost business thinker, Gary Hamel, as Hamel's Research Associate. Birkeland worked closely with Hamel conducting interviews with leaders in some of the most innovative companies in the world, including Charles Schwab, SunAmerica, GE Capital, The Gap, Monsanto, and others, and creating quantitative models to determine the drivers of business model innovation. Birkeland also worked with Bridge Strategy Group, a premier boutique strategy consultancy.

Birkeland was CEO of a steel fabrication and erection company in the petroleum industry responsible for all operational and managerial responsibilities in the course of a turnaround and rebuilding effort.

In addition to teaching, research, management consulting, and executive leadership, Birkeland is a leading expert in franchising and distribution strategies. He is the author of the acclaimed book, Franchising Dreams, published by the University of Chicago Press and translated into Mandarin Chinese. He is is sought after for commentary and insight on franchising by some of the world's leading media, including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Small Business, The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, Fox Business News, and others. He is a frequent speaker at corporate events, trade shows, and industry symposiums, in addition to universities.

Birkeland is the former Chair of the Metropolitan Board of the Children's Home and Aid Society of Illinois, one of the oldest and largest non-profits serving children and families in Illinois.

Birkeland has been named as "one of the top ten minds in small business" by Fortune Small Business.