How do you think your
previous positions have
helped equip you for your
current role?
Could you give us a quick
overview of what you did
before joining Hult?
I worked at several other business schools
as a faculty member and/or leader. I’ve
been President of two, a faculty member of
two, and have been part of the Leadership
Team of another. I’ve worked in small
schools and large universities, public and
private institutions, and have seen them
succeed and struggle.
I also founded and ran an independent
Swiss organization called The Imagination
Lab for almost seven years. It was set up in
2000 in collaboration with the owner of
LEGO company, and its primary purpose
was to take some of my business hunches
about how play could be used in a more
serious way and develop them into solid
concepts, models, and techniques. It was
created to support scholarship that
complemented traditional management
and organization theories with ideas
grounded in the arts and sciences,
especially those of imagination and play.
That research and development work
eventually resulted in the LEGO® Serious
Play® product used by thousands of
consultants world-wide.
This was an extremely exciting time
in my career as we were like an
experimental think-tank but without all
of the bureaucracy! For many years
we held the annual Imagination Lab
Award for Innovative Scholarship in
collaboration with the European Academy
of Management (EURAM), which always
threw up some absolutely fantastic ideas.
Today the foundation acts as something of
a virtual bank account, giving out stipends
to researchers who are working on really
cool stuff that doesn’t always get the
recognition it deserves through the
conventional academic routes.
Because I had the opportunity
to get to know the inner machinations
of a handful of schools, I have a really
useful set of benchmarks for what works
and what often doesn’t—as a teacher,
researcher, colleague, and leader.
Whatever your previous role, there is
always something useful to take with you
when you move on, as well as people you
will want to stay in touch with. By virtue of
the length of my career, I am pretty
networked into the business school
industry and have a good oversight of
what’s going on. As CAO, I report directly
to our President Stephen Hodges, and am
responsible for overseeing all academic
matters across our campuses alongside my
fantastic Central Academic Team.
During the almost 30 years I have been
a scholar, I have taught at all levels and
have engaged in writing research that has
generated intellectual contributions that
have been cited numerous times. My
research credentials may therefore add
even more credibility to Hult.
What do you think are
the most important things
a student should learn during
their time at Hult?
• Work hard, and play hard.
• Leadership is about being present
in body and mind.
• Like those you lead.
• Managers actually need to know
what they are talking about.
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