Peter Williams was formerly chief technology officer, Big Green Innovations, at IBM. His focus areas are resilience to natural disasters and chronic stresses, Smarter Cities, cloud computing for government and technology developments for government. He has had a major role in developing the intellectual foundation for IBM's "Smarter Planet" and "Smarter Cities" initiatives, and in identifying and integrating their technological components — both IBM-originated and from outside the company. He holds the title of IBM Distinguished Engineer, and is also a visiting lecturer on Smarter Cities and Communities at Stanford University. By background, he is a strategy and change consultant with well over 20 years' experience of bringing technology and business issues together to develop novel solutions and business models. He holds or co-holds, or has pending, nine U.S. patents. A native of the United Kingdom, he has lived in California since 1999, and is married with three children. His Ph.D. was awarded by the School of Management at the University of Bath, England, in 1986.