Professors and Lecturers
Luís Almeida Costa
Luís Almeida Costa holds PhD and MSc degrees in Management from INSEAD. He is a Full Professor and the Vice-President of the School Council at Nova School of Business and Economics. He also teaches, as a Visiting Professor, at HEG Fribourg, at INSEAD, at Tias School for Business and Society (Tilburg University), and at Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (Université Libre de Bruxelles). Luís Almeida Costa taught for almost ten years at IMD, where he launched and was a Director of the Negotiating for Value Creation (NVC) program.
Luís Almeida Costa’s research, teaching and consulting focus on Negotiation and Strategy. His research has been published in Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Journal of Business, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Organization Studies, etc. Luís Almeida Costa was responsible for numerous consulting projects and conducted hundreds of executive programs for companies and governmental agencies in several countries, such as Belgium, Brazil, Cape Verde, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. He was honored by the President of Portugal with the title of Comendador of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator.
Karen Ayas
Dr. Karen Ayas is an international scholar, author, and management consultant with expertise in leadership, strategy, large-scale business transformation, culture change, and learning organizations. She is a founding partner of the Ripples Group, a Boston-based global management consultancy.
Dr. Ayas has served as a professor of management practice in Babson College School since 2001. She develops and delivers custom designed executive education programs in Europe and Asia as well in the US. She has over 20 years of teaching experience including management of technology, strategy, entrepreneurship, leadership and organizational design at BS, MBA and executive MBA levels at Erasmus University in The Netherlands, Ben Gurion University in Israel, and Babson College. She has published several books and dozens of articles on leadership, business challenges, change management, learning organizations, project management, design for innovation, community building, and service learning. Karen earned her BS and MS degrees in Industrial Engineering at the Technion, Israeli Institute of Technology, and her doctorate in Management of Innovation at Erasmus University in the Netherlands.
Rico Baldegger
Rico Baldegger is Dean/Managing Director and Professor of Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation at the School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR), Switzerland. His area of expertise is entrepreneurship and innovation. His academic background includes a Master (Business & Economics) from the University of St. Gallen (1985) and a Ph.D. in SME & Entrepreneurship from the University of Fribourg (1995). His regular activities include teaching in Europe, the USA, Singapore and Australia and giving key notes at the United Nations and International Council for Small Business (ISCB).
Professor Baldegger’s broad professional experience in entrepreneurship and management includes the fields of leadership, human resources, IT, and branding. He has created several start-ups in Europe and the US and was founder and CEO of a management consultant company. Today, he is on the board of several companies, acting as a Business Angel and supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Switzerland.
Rico Baldegger has more than a hundred publications, including several books. His research focuses on the innovation process of entrepreneurs, the internationalization process of start-ups and SMEs, new venture creation and growth management.
Philipp Bubenzer
Philipp Bubenzer has dealt with innovation for the past two decades - in research and practice. He teaches and researches innovation management at the School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR) and at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).
Research: Philipp did doctoral research at the intersection of innovation and social psychology at WHU- Otto Beisheim School of Management, participated in the PhD program of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and obtained his doctorate with highest distinction ('summa cum laude').
Practice: Philipp was a member of the initial business leadership team at the biotechnology venture BASF-LYNX Bioscience, where he led corporate development and finance. BASF-LYNX had been founded with the support Dr. Sydney Brenner (nobel laureate 2002), was then spun off from the BASF group, sold to investors and taken public through a reverse merger. During this time, Philipp also served on boards of national and European biotechnology associations. The next innovative venture Philipp was involved in was Patentsight, a patent data analytics start-up which was later sold to LexisNexis. As a member of the initial leadership team, he headed business development and was instrumental in establishing client relationships in key verticals leading to profitable growth of the firm. Philipp then returned to full-time academia and continues advising start-ups, corporates and national and European policy makers on innovation challenges.
Carlos Cordon
Carlos Cordon is a Professor of Supply Chain Management at IMD International (Lausanne). Professor Cordon's areas of interest are digital value chains, supply and demand chain management, digital lean and process management. Carlos Cordon is currently developing research and cases in the following areas: the digital journey of traditional companies, digital innovation in value chains, industry 4.0, digital lean, applications of big data in different spaces (healthcare, transportation and FMCG). He is the author of numerous articles and case studies in these fields, and over the past few years has won various prizes for his cases and articles on supply chain management and strategy. He has been listed among the Case Center's top-40 best-selling case authors for 2018/19 Professor Cordon is also a consultant to multinational companies in the electronics, food, chemical, pharmaceutical, and other industries. He has designed and directed numerous executive development programs in the areas of digital and strategy journeys, supply chain management and sourcing. Professor Cordon studied civil engineering at the Escuela Politecnica de Barcelona and holds a PhD in Management from INSEAD. Prior to the completion of his schooling, he was Manager in Accenture, and later MIS Manager of Grupo Español General Cable.
Philippe Cudré-Mauroux
Dr. Philippe Cudré-Mauroux is a Full Professor at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and a member of the Swiss National Research Council. He received his Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology EPFL, where he won the school-wide Doctorate Award in 2007. In the past, Dr. Cudré-Mauroux worked on information management infrastructures at IBM TJ Watson (NY), Microsoft Research Asia and Silicon Valley, and MIT. He recently won the Verisign Internet Infrastructures Award, a Swiss National Center in Research award, a Google Faculty Research Award, as well as a 2 million Euro grant from the European Research Council. His research interests lie at the intersection of Data Science and AI. In addition to teaching in Fribourg, he has been teaching at EPFL, UNIL, MIT, and at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.
Carlos daSilva
Dr. Carlos M. DaSilva is an Associated Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of the Executive MBA at the HEG School of Management in Switzerland. By the age of 30, Carlos had co-founded an NGO in Africa, became employee No. 9 of a successful internet start-up that was sold to a large media group, published his first book on Entrepreneurship by SAGE USA and concluded his Ph.D. studies in collaboration with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA. In 2013, he became the Managing Director of the Silicon Valley based Technology Start-up Accelerator “Founder Institute” where he supported on a one-to-one basis over 100 entrepreneurs throughout his program. Today, Carlos is a shareholder in over 20 software companies and runs Executive Education programs for Switzerland, Slovenia, Portugal, Brasil and the United States. He is also a lead trainer for the Swiss National Innovation Agency “INNOSUISSE”, as well as an international Keynote Speaker. Having lived and worked in 6 different countries, Carlos is used to deal with multinational and multicultural environments. His origins and heart are from the small coastal village of Cascais, Portugal. Carlos is a Mozart aficionado and a keen Kitesurfer.
Nikolaos Dimitriadis
Dr. Nikolaos Dimitriadis is an award-winning communications professional, educator and consultant. He is the principal author of the books “Neuroscience for Leaders: A Brain Adaptive Leadership Approach” (now in its 2nd edition) and “Advanced Marketing Management: Principles, Skills and Tools”, both for Kogan Page London. He spoke at TEDx for the urgent need for Brain-Based Communication and he contributed to the NeuroMarketing Manager Program at Hamburg Media School. Dr. Dimitriadis has scanned more than 6,500 brains from 25 countries globally for neuromarketing, neuroHR and academic purposes. He has worked with international brands such as IKEA, IBM, JTI, Nestle, Johnson&Johnson, AstraZeneca, CISCO, SAP, Pierre Fabre, Coca Cola, T-Mobile, Dixons, Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, Societe Generale, Unicredit, Microsoft, VMware, Raiffeisen Bank, SAP, DELL, USAID and others.
He is the Head of Neuro Consulting Services at Optimal HR Group, Athens (Greece), offering cutting-edge Neuromarketing and NeuroHR research and consulting. He has received his PhD and MBA from The University of Sheffield (UK), and he is a certified Neuromarketer. He teaches regularly in various MBAs and other university and corporate programs around the world. Dr. Dimitriadis is the Chairman of the People Committee at the World Innovation and Change Management Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, and the co-founder of Neurogenesis, the Applied Neuroscience Club of Greece. He is a Professor of Practice at The University of York Europe Campus, Greece, where he leads the MSc in Neuromarketing. He is also a Visiting Professor at the School of Economics and Business of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Lately, Dr. Dimitriadis launched wellbeing.ai, a pioneering startup in the field of emotional and mental health tech at work.
Magali Dubosson
Dr. Magali Dubosson is a Full Professor of Marketing. She is also the co-head of the Market and Observatory Lab at the HEG School of Management Fribourg in Switzerland. She is a HEC Lausanne graduate. She earned an Executive Master in International Management (one semester at Babson College in Boston) and a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Lausanne. She was a formerly Professor à Heg Genève, Lecturer at Essec Management Education, EPFL Lausanne, Thunderbird Graduate School and HEC Lausanne (among others). She taught in various executive programs in Switzerland and abroad. She worked in services companies, such as banking and finance, insurance and consulting. She also worked as the Managing Director of Heg Genève. She has been conducting research on diverse subjects such as business models, pricing of services, measures of perceived risks and human risks, or luxury consumer behavior over the internet. She was born and raised in Valais where she practiced skiing. She likes sports and reading. She is the proud mother of 3 children.
Margaret Flaherty
Margaret Flaherty is currently a Professor of Practice at IÉSEG School of Management in Paris, France and is on the Faculty of Business School Lausanne, and FFHS, Zurich, Switzerland, teaching at the Bachelor, Masters, and MBA levels. Her courses focus on business and sustainability including supply chain management, scenario planning, ecosystems valuation and reporting and accountability. She also teaches specialized modules on specific industry sectors including cement, textiles, mining, and agri-business. She combines her teaching with a series of interesting consulting engagements with companies and industry associations. Margaret was part of the founding team of the Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a coalition of 200 of the world’s leading companies, helping build that organization for ~ 20 years as the Chief Operating Officer/Chief of Staff. Prior to that, she was with the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France. She has worked in State government in the USA in regulatory affairs. Her educational background includes a MSci/Civil Engineer from Tufts University (Boston); Juris Doctorate, Northeastern University School of Law (Boston); BA, UCONN (Storrs, CT); Executive Education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Business School (Boston). Margaret is an American, Swiss and Irish National with two, sometimes charming, children in their early 20s. She has recently become an open-water ocean certified lifeguard and spends time teaching babies and small children how to swim in her spare time.
Katia Gutknecht
Katia has more than 20 years of international and more local Supply Chain, Procurement & Project Management experiences in Fragrance & Flavour, FMCG, Steel, Public Organizations and Start-Ups. She has supported several transformation projects (compliance, process optimization, organization structure, trainings and SPM / SRM programs) and worked as a Centre of Excellence Procurement Lead and Category Team Leader. Katia founded her own company a few years ago and now wears several hats: professional adult Trainer, Pragmatic Value Creator and Director of her Sàrl.
In addition, Katia is Professor at HEIG-VD (School of Management and Engineering Vaud) and actively collaborates with Procure (the leading national Trade Association for Purchasing and Supply Management). Katia’s qualifications include a PMP© Certification and a Complete Agile Project Manager Curriculum from the Project Management Institute, an ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems Lead Auditor Certificate, an Adult Trainer Swiss Federal Brevet, a Non-Violent Communication & Mediation Certification from the NVC Swiss Association and a Master in Business Administration (Procurement & Supply Chain specialization). French native, Katia is fluent in English. She lives between Geneva and Lausanne with her Swiss and Chilean husband, her 10-year-old son, her Westie dog and 2 leopard geckos. She is a cheese lover and regularly participate to urban women’s raid.
Pedro Janela
Pedro Janela is the CEO, founder and co-owner of WYgroup, currently with a portfolio of 7 companies and more than 350 employees. Founded in 2002, WYgroup is now the largest independent Technology Marketing group operating in Portugal and the second largest operating out of Portugal with billings in excess of 27M Euros. He is invited lecturer at ISEG - Universidade de Lisboa, ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, and Lisbon Digital School in the fields of Strategy, Innovation, Digital Marketing and Branding for Post Graduates and Executive Education. MBA Lecturer at the iMBA of RSB, Rennes, France and at the eMBA of HEG, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Electrotechnical Engineering, Control and Robotics at IST - Universidade de Lisboa, Competitive Marketing Strategies at Wharton School - University of Pennsylvania, further training in the PAEGI, Program for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at Católica-Lisbon, and the Advanced Management Program at Kellogg - Northwestern University and Católica-Lisbon. He is Vice President of the Make-a-Wish Foundation in Portugal. He is also Chapter Champion of Entrepreneur’s Organization Portugal. Married, father of two, lives in Oeiras, Portugal.
Hervé Romanens
Hervé Romanens holds a master's degree in accounting and finance from the HEC Lausanne school, obtained in 2005 after a semester of mobility at the HSG business school in St. Gallen. It was during his studies that Hervé developed a passion for electronic music production, also working as a DJ for a local radio station and different music venues. In 2005, he joined the audit department of KPMG, a professional services network. He obtained his title of certified public accountant there in 2009. His audit assignments are carried out for medium-sized companies and for international companies located in Switzerland but also in the United States. In 2010, he joined Michelin's consolidation department, for which he became responsible in 2019. With the help of the team, he makes sure that the consolidated accounts of the Michelin group, which are published at the Paris CAC 40 stock exchange, are made available each year in due time. As part of his duties, Hervé has the opportunity to regularly visit Group subsidiaries in Europe, the United States and Asia (pre-pandemic). His areas of expertise are IFRS accounting standards, particularly those dealing with complex financial instruments and income taxes. As lecturer for the HEG EMBA for several years, Hervé is pleased to share his practical view on accounting during exciting interacting lessons with highly motivated students.
Joana Santos Silva
Professor of Innovation and Strategy with over 13 years of experience in higher education. Strategy Advisor to the Board University of Lisbon School of Management and Economics - ISEG. Professor & Director of Innovation ISEG Executive Education at the University of Lisbon. Professor at Business School Lausanne. Director of several Executive Programs – Open and Custom. Director of Corporate Universities in Management. Joana acts as an independent consultant in the areas of strategy, innovation, digital transformation, digital marketing and business. She works across industries with a focus in health, retail, hospitality and FMCG. Consults boards and top company managers looking for growth opportunities and state-of-the-art business thinking. PharmD with a specialization in oncology. PHDc in Management with a Specialization in Strategy & entrepreneurship. MBA from TheLisbonMBA in partnership with MIT. Post- graduate from the Kellogg School of Management. Formerly worked in R&D, Business Development and Strategic Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Board member of Make-a-Wish Portugal.
Nils Tuchschmid
Dr. Nils Tuchschmid est professeur et directeur de l’Institut de Finance de la Haute école de gestion Fribourg (HEG-FR). Avant de rejoindre HEG-FR, Nils était associé et responsable des stratégies de trading tactique chez Tages Group. Auparavant, il était co-responsable de l’équipe Alternative Funds Advisory chez UBS et responsable des portefeuilles multi-gestionnaires chez Credit-Suisse. Titulaire d’un doctorat en économie de l’Université de Genève, il a publié de nombreux articles et travaux de recherche, notamment sur la gestion et l’allocation d’actifs, les placements alternatifs et la mesure des performances.