Mainemelis

I’m a creativity scholar primarily interested in creativity’s intersections with aesthetic states, social structures, and temporal dynamics. My early research examined the role of time and timelessness in the creative process and the role of play in individual and social creative functioning. My recent research explores creative deviance, creative leadership, and creative traditions.

I've outlined a theory of creative deviance in the article “Stealing Fire: Creative Deviance in the Evolution of New Ideas,” which won the Academy of Management Review 2010 Best Article Award. I've also developed a meta-theory of creative leadership in the article "Creative Leadership: A Multi-Context Conceptualization", which was a finalist for the Academy of Management Annals 2015 Best Article Award. I'm a member of the Editorial Board of Academy of Management Review and twice recipient of its Outstanding Reviewer Award (2009 and 2014). In 2023 and 2024 I was included in Stanford University's list of the top 2% most cited scientists in the world.

Born and raised in Greece, I’ve lived in Italy, California, Ohio, and England. My research and teaching have made me a frequent visitor to Portugal, South Africa, and Dubai. Originally educated in economics and management, in the mid-1990’s I worked in a digital-imaging software firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. Upon completing a Ph.D. in organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve University in 2001, I served for eight years as an assistant professor at London Business School. Since 2009 I’m professor at Alba Graduate Business School at The American College of Greece, where my Creativity & Innovation MBA course was awarded the 2015 MBA Innovation Award by AMBA. I'm currently Chair of the Program & Scientific Committees of the 41st EGOS Colloquium that will be hosted by Alba in Athens in July 2025.

When not traveling, I live in the Athenian Riviera with Elena, Lydia, Iris and Gianluca. In my extra-academic time I swim and write lyrics. Living by the sea, I’ve grown to fully comprehend a line by the poet Odysseus Elytis: “By studying I have arrived where I always used to arrive by swimming.”