IMD Business School Appoints New President

After almost a full year of careful candidacy review, IMD business school’s board has announced the appointment of Jean-François Manzoni as IMD’s next president, effective from January 1, 2017.

Professor Manzoni will return to IMD from INSEAD, where he has, for the last five years, taught management practice, founded and directed its highly acclaimed LEAP leadership program for senior executives, and was the Shell Chair in Human Resources and Organisational Development at INSEAD's Singapore campus. He left IMD business school in 2011 after teaching organizational development and leadership for six years and directing an executive education course known as the Breakthrough Program for Senior Executives (BPSE), among others.

“Being invited to lead an organization as successful as IMD is a great honor as well as a real challenge,” he said in response to the announcement.

Executive education helps expand IMD's global reach

Professor Manzoni succeeds Dominique Turpin, who was IMD business school’s president since 2010 and has been instrumental in expanding IMD’s global footprint, particularly in Asia with the setting up of an executive education center in Singapore. Professor Turpin has constructively supported the succession process and will remain with IMD as a faculty member. “Building on the strong foundation handed over by my predecessor and his team, I will put all my skills, energy and passion into furthering IMD’s success,” says Manzoni, who holds a doctorate from Harvard and an MBA from McGill University in Montreal.

Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, IMD business school has long been one of Europe’s top-ranking business schools for its full-time MBA. However, it also has a strong focus on executive education and developing its offerings in this respect is something Manzoni was quick to touch on: “The executive education world is facing increasingly crowded, global and intense competition. We have to keep innovating and finding new ways to create lasting value for executives and organizations.”