Bo Stjerne Thomsen

Dr. Bo Stjerne Thomsen is the Vice-President and Chair of Learning through Play in the LEGO Foundation. The function of the Chair is to be the expert at the highest level to the executive leadership on how children and adults learn through play, and providing consultation at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels to international partners, leaders and advocacy. He is a spokesperson representing the LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Brand Group at international fora’s, and advising leadership teams across the LEGO entities, in order to attain the overall LEGO Brand Vision of Learning through Play. 

Bo Stjerne spend 9 years building the research agenda and organizational expertise on children’s development, play and learning, in order for the LEGO Foundation to be the leading authority on learning through play, and advising international NGO’s, corporates and public partners on research implementation. First, he was the Director of the LEGO Learning Institute, later Head of the Centre for Creativity, Play and Learning, and lastly as the Global Head of Research, leading the research partners and international projects on the role and impact of play on creativity and lifelong learning. 

Bo Stjerne has published widely on Creativity, Play and Learning, most recently on the role of play for children’s learning in schools, and presented the work to international organizations, forums, policy and practice. He did his master’s degree in design, architecture and engineering, and his PhD on performative learning environments, and worked 10 years developing learning environments and technology applications across four continents. He has been a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab in Boston through an elite research scholarship, studied research management and leadership at Copenhagen Business School and IMD in Switzerland, and an advisor to various international research organizations, including the University of Cambridge PEDAL Research Centre, the Torrance Centre for Creativity, Design for Play in Denmark and the Lifelong Learning Lab at Tsinghua University.