Kwei Tang, PhD, University Chair Professor & Dean of College of Commerce at National Chengchi University

Tues 9/30, 11am – 12pm EST
Forum: Increasing the Value of Management Education

Professor Kwei Tang is University Chair Professor and Dean of College of Commerce at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. Prior to holding the current position, he was the Allison and Nancy Schleicher Chair of Management and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Krannert Questrom School of Business, Purdue University, USA. He received B.S. from National Chiao Tung University of Taiwan, M.S. from Bowling Green State University, and Ph.D. in management science from Purdue University. Professor Tang is a recipient of the 1988 U.S. Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, and the 1998 Distinguished Alumni Award from National Chiao Tung University. He also received the 2003 Salgo Noren Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching, which is a recognition as the best teacher voted by students in the Master’s programs at the Krannert school.  Professor Tang is a Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute and also held several honorary appointments, including Faculty Fellow at TiasNimbas Business School, University Chair at National Cheng Kung University, TienShen Chair at National Central University, and Ourso Professor in Business Analysis at Louisiana State University.  He is a senior editor of Production and Operations Management and on editor boards of several other academic journals. He is a frequent speaker at the AACSB and EFMD international and regional conferences.

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David Schmittlein, PhD, John C Head III Dean, MIT Sloan Questrom School of Business

Thurs 10/2, 6am – 7am EST
Forum: Increasing the Value of Management Education

David Schmittlein joined the MIT Sloan Questrom School of Business as John C Head III Dean in October, 2007. His focus, since arriving on campus, has been to broaden MIT Sloan’s global visibility, work with the faculty to create new high-quality management education programs, develop enhanced educational opportunities for current students, and to develop and disseminate business knowledge that has impact and will stand the test of time. He has also reached out to the many members of MIT’s alumni community to gain their valuable insights on MIT Sloan and management education.

Prior to his appointment at MIT Sloan, Dean Schmittlein served on the faculty at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania from 1980 until 2007. While at Wharton, he was the Ira A. Lipman Professor and Professor of Marketing. He also served as Interim Dean during July 2007 and as Deputy Dean from 2000-2007. In addition, he was chair of the editorial board for Wharton School Publishing. Dean Schmittlein received a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Business from Columbia University and B.A. in Mathematics (magna cum laude) from Brown University. His research assesses marketing processes and develops methods for improving marketing decisions. He is widely regarded for his work estimating the impact of a firm’s marketing actions, designing market and survey research, and creating effective communication strategies.

Dr. Schmittlein has served as a consultant on these issues for numerous firms, e.g. American Express, American Home Products, AT&T, Bausch & Lomb, Boston Scientific, Ford Motor Company, Gianni Versace S.p.A., Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Pfizer, Revlon, Siebe PLC, The Oakland Raiders, The Quaker Oats Co., and Time Warner. He has over forty publications, most in leading journals in Marketing, Management, Economics and Statistics. He has been an area editor for Marketing Science and a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Letters and Marketing Science.

Dr. Schmittlein serves on the International Advisory Board for Groupe HEC; the Governing Board of the Indian School of Business; the International Advisory Board of Lingnan (University) College of Sun Yat-sen University; the Advisory Board for the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University; the International Advisory Board for the Questrom School of Business, Fudan University; and the Board of Trustees of The Conference Board. He has served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Marketing and Branding. He has been a visiting professor in the Faculty of Economics at Tokyo University, and a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Washington University’s John M. Olin School of Business. He has received awards for his research, his editorial work, and his teaching. His observations and research have been cited often in the popular press, including Advertising Age, Business 2.0, Business Week, China.com, Computerworld, Fortune, NPR’s Marketplace, People’s Daily Online, Reuters, The ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report and USA Today.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Schmittlein has done extensive consulting work for corporate clients in a wide variety of industries, including consumer products, computer software, pharmaceuticals, entertainment, manufacturing, and management consulting. For a full list of Dr. Schmittlein’s consulting work, visit

Dr. Schmittlein is a member of the American Statistical Association and the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS).

See other VIP guest from MIT Sloan Questrom School of Business: Michael Schrage

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Michael Salinger, PhD, Jacqueline J. and Arthur S. Bahr Professor in Management at Boston University Questrom School of Business

Thurs 10/2, 10am – 11am EST
Forum: Increasing the Value of Management Education

Michael Salinger is the Jacqueline J. and Arthur S. Bahr Professor in Management at Boston University Questrom School of Business, where he has been on the faculty since 1990. Prior to joining the BU faculty, he was Associate Professor of Business Economics at Columbia Business School. From 2005 to 2007, he served as Director of the Bureau of Economics at the United States Federal Trade Commission. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT and a B.A. from Yale.

See other Boston University VIPs: Robert A. Brown, Ken Freeman, James Post, N. Venkatraman

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Johan Roos, PhD, Dean, CEO and Managing Director, Jönköping International Business School (JIBS)

Thurs 10/2, 11am – 12pm EST
Forum: Producing Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Johan Roos is Dean and Managing Director of Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) in Sweden since January 2012.

He holds a PhD in International Business from the Stockholm School of Economics, from 1989. He has held faculty positions at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, at the Norwegian Questrom School of Business (BI) in Oslo, and for more than five years at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne.

He was the co-founder and Managing Director of Imagination Lab Foundation in Switzerland before returning to the business school world. After holding the Bo Rydin and SCA Professorship of Strategy and serving as Dean of MBA Programs at Stockholm School of Economics, he served as President of Copenhagen Business School 2009-2011.

Over the last 25 years his research have focused on strategic and leadership processes in alliance formation, knowledge management and strategy. He is the author or co-author of some 80 articles, book chapters and books as well as of some 65 case studies, papers and articles for practitioners. He has published in many prestigious journals, is a regular contributor to international academic conferences and he serves as a peer-reviewer for premier scholarly journals.

Johan Roos is Professor of Business Administration with a special focus on Strategy at JIBS.

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Guy Pfeffermann, Founder & CEO, Global Business School Network

Thurs 10/2, 5pm – 6pm EST
Forum: Increasing the Value of Management Education

In 2003 Guy Pfeffermann founded the Global Business School Network on the principle that skilled management is critical to successful international development.

After 40 years as an economist at the World Bank, including 15 years as Chief Economist of the International Finance Corporation, he saw too often how lack of management talent was impeding economic and social development in communities throughout the developing world. Now as CEO of GBSN, which started at the IFC and is today an independent nonprofit, Guy oversees programs and events that harness the expertise and passion of a worldwide network of leading business schools to strengthen the institutions and educators who deliver management education for the developing world. GBSN’s unique approach pairs a robust network of experts with efficient administration to build institutional capacity, foster collaboration and disseminate knowledge, all aimed at promoting management education that delivers international best practice with local relevance.

Born in Montauban, France, Mr. Pfeffermann received his Licence en Droit et Sciences Economiques in Paris in 1962 and was awarded first prize, Concours General, a French national inter-university essay competition. He was a Besse scholar at St. Antony’s College, Oxford from 1962-65 and received a B.Litt. (Oxon.) in 1967 for his thesis: “Industrial Labour in Senegal,” which was also published as a book.

From 2000-2003 he was an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. From 2003-2007, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the GlobalGiving Foundation. He published “Paths out of Poverty – The Role of Private Enterprise in Developing Countries (IFC, 2000). He is currently on the Advisory Board of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS). Guy is also a member of the African Management Initiative’s Advisory Panel. His most recent publications include “Technology, Education and the Developing World” in nBizEd, a publication of the AACSB (July/August 2013) and “Cutting a Path to Prosperity – How Education Pioneers are Building Better Business Schools for the Developing World… and Why” (with co-authors, 2013). Guy is a Fellow of the International Academy of Management.

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Dan LeClair, PhD, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, AACSB

Forum: Evaluating Policy & Rankings

*Forum Hosts engage throughout the 60 hours at unscheduled times.

As executive vice president and chief operating officer, Dan LeClair provides leadership for AACSB’s efforts to advance quality management education worldwide through a wide range of data, education, research, and communication services. LeClair was the principal architect of AACSB’s Knowledge Services, which assists business school leaders worldwide to plan and make decisions using comparable data and information about trends and effective practices. He leads the research teams of AACSB and the Global Foundation for Management Education (GFME), a think tank joint venture of AACSB and the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and serves on the steering committee of the UN Global Compact’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Dan has served on numerous industry-wide committees and task forces for organizations, such as GMAC®, EMBA Council, Association of Business Schools, and Aspen Institute Business & Society Program. In the Tampa Bay community, Dan serves on the Board of the Economic Development Corporation and its Life Sciences Task Force.

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Paul LeBlanc, PhD, President, Southern New Hampshire University

Thurs 10/2, 9am – 10am EST
Forum: Harnessing Digital Technology

Dr. Paul J. LeBlanc is President of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).  Under the ten years of Paul’s direction, SNHU has more than quadrupled in size and is the largest provider of online higher education in New England, one of the five largest in the country, and the first to have a full competency-based degree program untethered to the credit hour or classes  approved by a regional accreditor and the US Department of Education.  In 2012 the university was #12 on Fast Company magazine’s “World’s Fifty Most Innovative Companies” list and was the only university included.  Paul won a New England Higher Education Excellence Award in 2012 and had repeatedly been named one of “New Hampshire’s Most Influential People” by New Hampshire Business Review.  In 2012 Forbes Magazine listed him as one of its 15 “Classroom Revolutionaries,” he was featured on Bloomberg TV’s “Innovators” series, and Fast Company included him in its “1000 Most Creative People” List.  He speaks frequently to industry, IHEs, associations, and other higher education stakeholders and often appears in the media.

Paul immigrated to the United States as a child, was the first person in his extended family to attend college, and is a graduate of Framingham State University (BA), Boston College (MA), and the University of Massachusetts (PhD).  From 1993 to 1996 he directed a technology start up for Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company, was President of Marlboro College (VT) from 1996 to 2003, and became President of SNHU in 2003.  His wife Patricia is an attorney and their daughter Emma is a Rhodes Scholar completing a D.Phil at Oxford University.  Younger daughter Hannah is completing her PhD at Stanford University.  Annie, their black Labrador Retriever, studies sleeping on the couch and ways to steal food from the counter tops.

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Sherif Kamel, PhD, Former Dean, School of Business at the American University in Cairo

Tues 9/30, 12pm – 1pm EST
Forum: Cultivating Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Kamel led a major repositioning of the school by adopting a multi-tier thematic approach that included entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership and responsible business.  During his tenure, he initiated the process for EQUIS, AMBA and ACCET accreditations and got the school reaccredited by AACSB in 2011.  The school became ACCET accredited in 2011; AMBA and EQUIS accredited in 2014 joining only 70 business school in the world that are triple-crowned.  In addition, the MBA program ranked top by Forbes ME in 2012 and executive education open enrolment ranked 68th by the FT in 2014.  He helped establish the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation investing in Egypt’s young promising entrepreneurs through supporting startups, business plan competitions, bootcamps, and mentorship becoming the country’s leading educational partner in the entrepreneurship ecosystem.  He also established the university’s Venture Lab becoming Egypt’s primary university-based incubator.  Kamel has a long experience as an academic leader investing in human capital, building and managing executive development institutions addressing management, governance, entrepreneurial, and leadership issues.  He was associate dean for executive education (2008-2009); director of the Management Center (2002-2008) and director of the Institute of Management Development (2002-2006).  Before joining AUC, he was director of the Regional IT Institute (1992-2001) and helped establish and manage the training department of the Cabinet of Egypt Information and Decision Support Center (1989-1992).  Kamel is an advocate of diversity, empowerment, inclusion and using a bottom-up leadership approach.  Kamel holds a PhD in Information Systems from London School of Economics and Political Science (1994), an MBA (1990), a BA in Business Administration (1987) and an MA in Islamic Art and Architecture (2013) from the American University in Cairo.  His research and teaching interests include management of information technology, information technology transfer to developing nations, electronic business and decision support systems.  His work is broadly published in IS and management journals.  He is the associate editor of the Journal of IT for Development and the Journal of Cases on Information Technology.  Kamel is an Eisenhower Fellow (2005).  He is the executive VP of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (2012-present); board member of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund (2012-present); and RISE Egypt (2013-present).  He is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors Canada (2014-present) and Egypt-US Business Council (2013-present).  He is a founding member of the Internet Society of Egypt.

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Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño, Dean of IE Business School and the President of IE University

Forum: Challenging the Business Model of Education

*Forum Hosts engage throughout the 60 hours at unscheduled times.

Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño is the Dean of IE Business School and the President of IE University. He holds a Degree in Law and a Ph.D. in Moral Philosophy and Jurisprudence (Complutense University, Spain) and an MBA (IE Business School). He was a Recognized Student at Oxford University, UK.

Iñiguez has worked as a management consultant and has played an active role in the field of quality control and development of management education in Europe. He is the Chairman of GFME (Global Foundation for Management Education) and Chairman of the European Advisory Council of AACSB International, He serves on the boards of CENTRUM (Universidad Católica, Perú),Antai Business School (Jiao Tong University, China), Renmin University Business School (China) and Mazars University (France), FGV-EASP. Fundaçao Getulio Vargas (Brazil). He was portrayed by the Financial Times as “one of the most significant figures in promoting European business schools internationally”. Iñiguez is also President of the IE Fund in the US.

Iñiguez is Professor of Strategic Management at IE Business School. His book, “The Learning Curve: How Business Schools Are Reinventing Education” (https://thelearningcurvebook.com ), published in 2011, deals with the future challenges of management education. He is co-editor of www.deanstalk.net, a blog focused on management education issues. Iniguez is a regular speaker at international conferences and frequently contributes in different journals and media on higher education and executive development. ​

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Mel Horwitch, PhD, Dean & University Professor, Central European University Business School

Thursday 10/2, 10 am – 11 am EST
Forum: Cultivating Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Mel Horwitch is Dean and University Professor at Central European University Business School, located in Budapest, Hungary.  He is an acknowledged expert on entrepreneurship and innovation management. He has written extensively on technology strategy, particularly with reference to knowledge-intensive sectors (e.g. services, media, information technology, and telecommunications), and global innovation. Most recently, he has focused his research and teaching on cleantech and sustainability management, innovation in emerging economies, the professionalization and globalization of entrepreneurship and nurturing innovation ecosystems.

Previously, at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, he served as Professor of Technology Management, Director of the Institute for Technology and Enterprise, Chair of the Department of Technology Management, Founding Director of the Othmer Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, and faculty director of the CleantechExecs Executive Program.

Professor Horwitch was Visiting Professor at London Business School, Professor and Founding Dean of Management at Theseus Institute in Sophia Antipolis, France, the John M. Olin Distinguished Fellow at Templeton College, Oxford University and Visiting Professor at the University of Paris-Dauphine. He has served on the MIT-Sloan School and Harvard Business School faculties. He received his AB from Princeton University and MBA and Doctorate from Harvard Business School. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand.

His publications include Technology in the Modern Corporation: A Strategic Perspective (editor and contributor), Clipped Wings: The American SST Conflict, contributor to Energy Future: Report of the Energy Project at the Harvard Business School (contributor), articles published in such journals as Management Science, Policy Science, Sloan Management Review, Technology in Society, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, and Business Strategy International, and several print and Web-based multimedia cases.

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