An expert in strategic marketing, some years ago Professor Ramón Díaz Bernardo decided to extend his field of research to tourism marketing. This is his passion, which led him to create the Executive Master in Tourism Management at IE Business School, and work as a consultant for many tourism institutions and hotel chains in Spain, Europe and Latin America. In order to consolidate his position as an authority in this field, in 2005 he moved to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where he spent a year as Visiting Professor, doing research and teaching doing research and teaching in aspects related with tourism marketing, hotel marketing strategy and franchising in the hospitality and restaurant industry.

He is an active member of the Academy of Marketing and the American Marketing Association, where he is a regular contributor at their annual meetings.

Whether it is how to encourage managers to act on climate change in their industry or the extent to which the financial markets drive companies to implement strategic change, Carl Joachim Kock is fascinated by cause and effect.

After spending many years in a multinational company, Prof. Kock realized that day to day work was hampering his ability to take a deeper look at the business issues that interested him and so decided to pursue a doctoral program. Armed with this new academic experience, his work focuses on identifying the fundamental drivers of value in companies as a whole.

As a financial economist, there is nothing Juan Pedro Gomez likes better than to bury himself in complex statistics. But far from basing the assumptions he draws purely on these numbers or on abstract theories far removed from the real world, the work of Prof Gomez is deeply rooted in the human psyche.

Having taught in universities in Mexico City, Barcelona and Oslo, Prof Gomez is able to bring a global perspective to his work on investment decisions, international asset pricing and portfolio management delegation. Prof. Gómez is collaborating with other academics using empirical data to support his research findings, bringing sophisticated theories and numerical calculations to bear in his projects.

Laura Maguire has been dedicated to teaching since she started her professional and academic career. First, at the Autonoma University in Madrid and now at IE Business School. Her commitment to academia is recognized due to the number of publications, papers, both authored and co-authored, and her participation as plenary speaker in a number of seminars. She completed her studies at Glasgow University and, later on at the University College of London (UCL).

Nirup is interested in information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) phenomena from several perspectives. His interest in IS stems from the days when he worked as a systems analyst at HMT, Bangalore, India, writing business application programs. His experience and education led to an interest on measuring the business value of IS, which was his dissertation topic, and which he pursues to this day. “IT is impacting so many facets of business and society, but there are so few answers,” he says.

Just as technology managers must possess a well-rounded skill base covering various business areas, Nirup believes that as an IS professor, he needs to stay in touch with findings in the areas of strategy, marketing, accounting, and economics. For example, he is working on the strategy and competition of telecommunications companies in the US. He is also working on the budgeting of IT in hospitals.

Professor Lorenzo is specialized in two areas of knowledge and management: innovation and business process management, and the implementation, assimilation and diffusion of enterprise systems (ERPs) for the purpose of improving processes. In his own words: “First, we have to identify the key business processes of each firm based on the company’s strategy, and, from there, introduce improvements that enable it to achieve its objectives.

These improvements might include ERPs.” Professor Lorenzo feels technology serves as an enabler to improve business process management. He does, however, underscore the fact that many business failures are due to the fact that technology was seen as an end by instead of a mean. “Companies should first analyse what it is they need, and then implement the right kind of technology, because technology may not be the best solution in some situations”.

Ignacio de la Vega has experience in working with large firms, like GE, Siemens, Banesto, Iberdrola, Pfizer and others, in the development of corporate entrepreneurship activities.

His role as director and founder of the International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Ventures Development (ICEVED) at IE Business School as well as his activity as an active entrepreneur and investor, allows De la Vega to bring back to the classrooms real and exciting examples and cases.

Juan-Carlos Pastor is a professor of organizational behavior and the academic director of the Center for Global Leadership at the IE Business School. He teaches courses on Organizational Behavior, Leadership, coaching, and Managing People Skills.

He earned an M.A. in Social Psychology from Clark University, a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University. Juan-Carlos Pastor is an active researcher and consultant in the area of leadership development, team dynamics and diversity management.

Ricardo Altimira has cross cultural experience in both his professional and personal life; he has lived in five countries and has participated in over 300 workshops at IE and other business schools in Italy and Latin-America since 1990.

Professor Altamira has also been working as a manager in large companies such as IBM and Telefónica as well as in small firms. He declares himself as a fan of e-learning at all levels: creating contents, directing programs and teaching.

Andreas Richter teaches Organisational Behaviour at the IE Business School. His teaching philosophy centres on the belief that learning should be experiential and participant-centered.

Consequently, he strives to create a classroom environment which draws on many different techniques, such as case analyses, group discussions, films, exercises, etc. in order to facilitate the collective learning process and actively integrate students´ work experience and views.

In addition to his role as Vice-chairman of the International Advisory Board of Instituto de Empresa and Chairman of its Center for Innovation in Tourism and Leisure Management, Julio Urgel manages to find time to serve as Director of EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) and of Quality Services at the EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) in Brussels, as well as teaching finance and negotiation at IE Business School. EQUIS is the leading international accreditation system for business schools around the globe.

In both his teaching and his consulting work, where he specialises in mergers and acquisitions, the former Instituto de Empresa Dean enjoys exploring the skills that lie between negotiation and corporate finance. A professor who is passionate about the teaching process, Prof Urgel’s areas of focus include financial analysis, cash and credit management, global risk management, valuation and real options. However, he believes that these complex theories do not need to be overwhelmingly difficult to grasp.