Dr. Bijan Azad – Academic Director
Bijan is an Associate Professor at the Olayan School of Business (OSB), American University of Beirut and the Director of Samih Darwazah Center for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. He pioneered the popular experiential Entrepreneurship Practicum graduate course at AUB, and designed AUB’s Scale-Up Readiness Program. He is also very active in the startup ecosystem serving as an affiliated instructor at Flat6Labs accelerator, and a Coach and Mentor at the IM-Capital Venture Mentoring Service (mentoring fledgling startups). Bijan earned his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Mr. Joe Haslam – Academic Director
Joe has more than 20 years of experience from the start-up phase to the scale-up phase and beyond. He is the cofounder of five companies and an investor in several more as well as a board member. Marrakech, the first company he cofounded, raised over $75m in Venture Capital and scaled up to 250 employees. He is now the cofounder and Chairman of Hot Hotels, the first company from Spain to be accelerated by the Techstars program in the USA (Boston, summer 2015). At IE, Joe was first appointed Executive Director of the Owners Scale-up Program in 2013. He also teaches an elective called “Scaleup Your Startup” in the International MBA Program and a High Impact Online Program “Scaleup: How to Successfully Manage Growth” for IE Exponential Learning. He is currently writing a book “The Scale-up Checklist” along with Professor Daniel Corsten.
Mr. Andres San Jose – Academic Director
Andres is a Visiting Professor at IE and has been working in the digital business for the last 14 years. He has extensive international experience in Europe and LATAM regions and his main areas of expertise are startup growth, business innovation and internationalization. He has served at eBay in several product-related positions, and in International Business Development at XING, the leading German professional network, and at Eventim, the second largest ticketing company in the world. He was also the Director for Business Development at Ticketea, one of the main ticketing companies in Spain, currently serves as Regional Director LATAM at SubHub. He is a graduate of the Executive MBA at IE and Master in Political Analysis at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
Dr. Cristina Cruz
Born into a family business, Cristina dedicates most of her teaching and research to studying organizations in which a family group is present and has an influence in strategic decision making. The results of her research have been published in leading international academic journals including the Academy of Management Journal. In recognition of this research work, IE awarded Cristina with the Research Excellence Award. Poets & Quants also included her in the "40 Best Business School professors under 40" list. Cristina Cruz holds a PhD in Economics and Quantitative Methods from Carlos III University, an Executive Development program in Family Business from IE Business School, a BA in International Economics from Manchester University and a degree in Economics from Murcia University. She is the Director of the IE Center for Families in Business, a networking & research center dedicated to support families in business in their way to create wealth across generations.
Dr. Daniel Corsten
Daniel is the founding academic of the Efficient Consumer Response initiative, where he researched and consulted for retail and consumer goods organizations such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Metro Group, and Sainsbury's to help them lower costs, understand shoppers, reduce out-of-stock, and create overall sustainable supply chains. Prior to his academic career, he worked for Bayer Leverkusen and AGFA in Germany and the United States. His corporate experience includes supply chain management, marketing and finance, and has worked in the automotive and retail software industries. Daniel has been Member of Board of Advisors for Profitect Inc. since 2013. He has also taught and researched at St. Gallen in Switzerland, London Business School and the Wharton School. Mr. Juan Pablo Vazquez
Juan Pablo holds a business administration degree and an MBA (IE Business School), a PhD (Complutense University) and a diploma in Management Research (Harvard University). He is an authority in Disruptive Innovation. He is the co-founder of two companies and an Advisory Board member at RVE.SOL and Craft.co. Is a mentor at Techstars (Berlin program) and a member of Netexplo (UNESCO's observatory that studies the impact of digital technology on society and business), and writes for the Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan and Thompson Reuters. Dr. Vazquez Sampere has deep expertise in a variety of industries. His research is focused on using innovation to increase the success rate of both entrepreneurs and corporate ventures.
Ms. Lina Tannir
Lina has been teaching finance and accounting at the OSB for over a decade. She holds an MBA from AUB and has been a Chartered Financial Analyst since 2008. Lina has published research papers on micro finance, and teaching case studies on women-owned businesses. She also serves on the board of various NGOs and a local company in the retail industry, and is a co-owner of high-end natural cosmetics stores.She has worked as a financial consultant for the Lebanese Ministry of Finance and the Beiteddine International Festival. She has also worked with startups and SMEs through the MIT Arab Enterprise Forum, BADER Young Entrepreneurs Program, and the Darwazah Center for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. Ms. Marta Williams
Marta has taken part in hundreds of workshops, seminars and courses on leadership, feedback, coaching and executive development in the US and Europe. She co-founded The Washington Quality Group, in order to help Spanish executives develop their leadership skills. She also founded The Institute of Coaching in 2001. As a journalist, Marta represented ABC News and U.S. News & World Report as their Spanish correspondent for many years. She was a member of the founding editorial team of EL PAÍS, Spain’s most important newspaper. In 2001 she was given Honorable Mention by the Spanish Federation of Women Entrepreneurs as “Business Woman of the Year.” She is also a collaborator of the Peter Drucker Foundation.
Mr. Michael C. Wenderoth
Using research-based methods, Professor Wenderoth helps executives rethink their assumptions about power and authenticity to become more effective at work. His writing and contrarian views have been featured at: Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Stanford Business School, IE Business School and top companies and media worldwide.
In addition to teaching at IE Business School, he serves as a Coach and Facilitator in Stanford Business School’s executive education. Prior to becoming a professional trainer and educator, Michael served 20 years in senior roles at high growth companies in China, the US (Silicon Valley) and Europe. He holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a BA from Carleton College.
Dr. G. Nicolas Kfuri
Dr. Kfuri is a global expert executive trainer, professor, and consultant. His areas of expertise are Corporate Global Strategy, Marketing and Branding, and Internationalization Processes. He lead projects in the private sector (MNC’s, medium and small-sized enterprises, and family-run businesses) as well as in the public sector. He has worked with executives from more than 400 companies, representing more than 75 countries. Dr. Kfuri acts as Advisory Board Member of different organizations. He has been teaching executives for more than 15 years at undergraduate, graduate and e-Learning programs in universities in Asia, Europe, Latin and North America. He has been an Academic member of Marketing Science Institute, Academy of Marketing Science, Decision Sciences Institute; as well as the Review Board of Journal of Business Management. He contributes permanently with articles and as guest speaker to the media. Dr. Kfuri is a frequent Key Note Speaker in conferences around the world.
Mr. Roy Richards Jr.
For seventeen years Roy Richards Jr. was Chief Executive of Southwire Company, the largest manufacturer of power cables in America. He is an Outstanding Engineering Alumnus of the Georgia Institute of Technology and has served on nearly two dozen academic, social service, and public and private company boards, including the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, the national board of the Trust for Public Land, and CARE. In 1999 he was elected Georgia’s ‘Most Respected CEO.’ He is currently an adjunct professor at the IE.
Mr. Stephen Adamson
Stephen is currently the Director of General Management and Leadership programs at IE Executive Education where he has worked in different roles for the past 12 years. In this position, he designs and runs programs for many Spanish and international business executives focusing on delivering education that responds to the needs of this profile. For this reason, he was instrumental in designing and introducing the revolutionary Leadership Development Plan into almost 20 executive and MBA programs. Stephen is also an Associate Professor of leadership & Corporate Culture at IE and is a Certified Marshall Goldsmith and CDR Executive Coach. Before joining IE, Stephen was a senior manager at several food and beverage companies both in Spain and in the UK. He holds a BA in Economics and French from the University of Durham and an International MBA from IE Business School. Stephen has lived and worked in the UK, France and Spain.