Anne Marie Francesco

Prof. Anne Marie Francesco conducts corporate training and teaches in postgraduate programs in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Rome. She received an M.A. and Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from The Ohio State University and a B.A. in psychology from New York University. Previously, Dr. Francesco was a professor in the Department of Management at Hong Kong Baptist University, and earlier she held full-time faculty appointments at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver; Pace University, New York; the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; the University of Alaska Fairbanks; The Chinese University of Hong Kong; and the University of Tennessee.She was also the managing director of A.M. Francesco & Associates Ltd., a Hong Kong-based human resource management consulting firm.

Prof. Francesco is the co-author of the book International Organizational Behavior, and she has written numerous journal articles and conference papers.She is also on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, Academy of Management Learning and Education journal, and the Journal of World Business.Her current research interests include cross-cultural management and organizational behavior, work-family interface, and expatriate success.

Fan Y. Wallentin

Fan Y. Wallentin is a Professor in Statistics at the Department of Statistics, Uppsala University. She is also the Director of International Exchange Programs. Her Ph.D. in Statistics was earned at Uppsala University, Sweden. She is a recipient of Arnbergska Prize from the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. Prof. Wallentin's program of research focuses on the theory and applications of Latent Variable Modeling and other types of Multivariate Statistical Analysis, particularly their applications in the social and behavioral sciences. She published research articles in several leading statistics and psychometrics journals on these and related topics. She has also been teaching courses in Structural Equation Models in Sweden, Europe, USA, and China. She has broad experiences in statistical consultation for researchers in social and behavioral sciences. Prof. Wallentin is one of the authors of book “Multivariate Analysis with LISREL” published by Springer.

Julio Urgel

Julio Urgel is a full professor of Corporate Finance and of Negotiation at IE Business School since 1989. Among other responsibilities he was Dean of his School from 1994 to 2000. He also manages to find time to work for EFMD, an international association of business schools based in Brussels, responsible for EQUIS, the leading international accreditation system for business schools around the globe. After being Director of EQUIS for 11 years and Deputy Director General of EFMD for 3 more, he is currently a Senior Advisor. In addition, he is currently an advisor or member of the Board of several reputed international business schools.

In both his teaching and his consulting work, where he specializes in mergers and acquisitions, the former IE Business School Dean enjoys exploring the skills that lay between negotiation and corporate finance. Prof. Urgel, has been a visiting lecturer at various international institutions.

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. “One of the skills I learned from Professor Howard Raiffa, my mentor at Harvard, was the ability to disguise theoretical complexity when conveying knowledge to students of management,” he says. “It’s a case of zooming in on certain areas without bogging students down in complex theories.”

Leo Ho

Dr. Leo Ho is a retired-executive-turn-professor and Startup-Fund Investor with 30+ years hands-on management experience in ICT, Engineering & Industrial Automation global (Fortune 500) organizations in Asia. Dr. Ho is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of business schools in Hong Kong, and China. Dr. Ho had held key positions to executive director levels in various key functions: Sales & Marketing, Customer Service, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Strategic business development, Merge & Acquisition, and Corporate Learning & Development.Dr. Ho started his own career as IT programmer in IBM systems consulting. Later started his own company in Beijing, China on Software Development Venture, grew and failed and learnt a great deal. Later, joined another Fortune 500 company as one of the founders for North China operation and was promoted to Executive Director and General Manager and Chief Representative of China / North Asia. Dr. Ho had extensively international experience and was overseas-posted many times – China (Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenzhen), Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, India, Philippines, Japan and Australia. Dr. Ho earns his degrees in MBA and DBA (Doctorate of Business Administration) in Australia with thesis research focus on management of technical professionals in China in difference corporate cultures environments. Dr. Ho is a seasoned business practitioner with academic credentials with career aspiration in developing future leaders through teaching and sharing in corporate and academic worlds. Starting from 2018, starts Startup Enterprising Initiatives – Startup Fund Investor & Advisor – provide strategic advice and investments in bio-tech, and security startups in Hong Kong and China.

Manuel Balsera

Manuel Balsera is currently Executive Vice President at AMC and Managing Director at Networks International Southern Europe, the leading producer of thematic TV in Spain, Portugal and France. Manuel holds a Law and Communications Degree from Complutense University of Madrid, Diploma in Media Management and Marketing Communication from Missouri-Columbia University and also he earned several Masters in Management, the PDD and IFP from IESE Business School and the Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT. In this role Balsera oversees all the business operations including: programming, digital, marketing, affiliates, ad sales and business development areas of more than 20 TV channels and significant amount of digital assets such as; Microcanales the AMC´s FVOD app, Odisea VR or the SVOD tracker. Balsera has developed a wide professional senior executive management career in companies such as Proximity BBDO, ONO or VIVENDI, among others. He is also a co-founder and a serial investor in more than 20 startups and a professor in several Business Schools in Europe, Asia and Latam including ESIC, SISU, PUCMM, etc.

Gaston Fornes

Dr Gaston Fornes is Senior Fellow at the University of Bristol (UK), formerly he was Dean of the Graduate School & Executive Education at ESIC Business School (Spain). He completed his Post-Doctoral Studies at IE Business School (Spain) after receiving a PhD in Management from the University of Bath (UK). He also holds an MBA degree from Universidad Adolfo Ibañez (Chile) with a period of studies at University of Southern California (USA), and a First Degree in Business from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina).

Dr Fornes started his professional career at the Citibank in 1993 and then funded what became a mid-sized company with operations in Chile and Argentina. Since 2005 he has combined academic and executive responsibilities. Also in 2005 he started to be professionally involved with China, for his work with SMEs, he received the Liupan Mountain Friendship Award from the Ningxia Government for his “contribution to Ningxia’s economy and society”, and then the Foreign Expert Award from the Shanghai Government. Dr Fornes has published widely on management in emerging countries, including one of the first books on foreign exchange exposure in these markets and one on the economic relations between China and Latin America, for the latter he was awarded the London School of Economics – Latin American Development Bank Fellowship. His research has been featured in mass media like CGTN (China), Fortune (US), The Times Weekly (China), El Pais, and Cinco Dias (Spain), and in reputable academic publications like Journal of Business Research, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Asia Pacific Business Review, or AIB Insights. 

Michel Cao Tuan PHAN

Dr. Michel Cao Tuan PHAN received Ph.D Degree of Cross-cultural Business-to-Business Relationship Marketing from University of New South Wales in 2003. He is now a full professor of Luxury Marketing in Emlyon business school of Paris campus in France (since April 2017). Previously, Dr. Michel Cao Tuan PHAN was the academic director in ESSEC Business School. During over 15 years’ teaching experience, he also takes the rule of project management of Louis Vuitton (2006, 2009, 2010), Chloé (2007, 2011), Cartier (2008), Parfums Christian Dior (2009, 2010) , DFS Galleria Singapour (2010), Estee Lauder Companies EMEA (2011), Miu Miu China (2012, 2013), Roger Dubuis China (2012, 2013, 2015), Cartier China (2013), Louis Vuitton China (2014), Ralph Lauren China (2014, 2015, 2017) and so on. He gets many prizes and honours, such as a Co-Guest Editor of Journal of Business Research – Special Issue on “Mystique of Luxury Brands” (2018). He has written numerous journal articles and publications, such as The Management of Luxury: A Practitioner’s Handbook, edited by Benjamin Berghaus, Gunter Muller-Stewens and Sven Reinecke, “Identity-based luxury brand management” (chapter 4).

xin SHI

Dr Xin Shi is a Prof in Applied Statistics and a doctoral supervisor at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. He has served as the Associate Dean of China Affairs at the Faculty of Business Law and Director of the China Centre; Vice President of the Karaganda Medical Universityof Kazakhstan; concurrently Director of the Shanghai University Commercial Big Data and Applied Statistics Research Centre. Xin’s active research focus on health big data research since he graduated from the University of Salford with a PhD in Statistics in 2008. He has served in many medical schools in the UK. He was awarded the Chartered Statistician (CStat) and Fellow (Fellow) by the Royal Statistical Society, and the Treasurer of Manchester Group of the Royal Statistical Society. Dr Shi is the editor-in- chief and deputy editor-in-chief of a number of international journals and a funding application reviewer for UNESCO projects. He was elected as a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2019 and becomes the youngest Chinese member in the academy.

Xin’s main research in the past few years has been devoted to big data and health management and risk analysis (Health Management and Risk Assessment using Big Data). The research results have been recognised by the British 2014 REF judges with international high-level scientific research results. In May 2019, at the invitation of the prestigious Astana Economic Forum (Astana Economic Forum), on behalf of the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan, Xin made an important speech on The Impact of Big Data on the National Health System of Kazakhstan. In 2019, he was invited to give special lectures at Stanford University in the United States, the University of Windsor in Canada, the City University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In recent years, his research has focused on the use of non-clinical and linked big data to predict clinical outcomes and decisions for personalized health management, such as early cancer diagnosis. His current research projects include: a) the use of non- clinical big data for cancer early diagnose; b) the application of immersive technology in medical treatment; c) the international calculation standard for happiness measurement; d) human health management, especially the delay time of chronic diseases Model; e) Addict research related to drug use; f) Health/smoking big data and survival analysis. He has extensive health-related big data research experience, including linked data from the United Kingdom, China, Japan andBrazil.

In the past five years, Dr Shi has successfully hosted and participated in funded research projects of more than £900,000. In particular, he participated in the first major international cooperation project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China in the direction of health management (2 million RMB 2015-2019). It is important that Xin further improved and extended the traditional methods of reliability/maintenance research to business management and human life, and applied them to big data in health management and employment research.

Shi Xin's research is to use non-clinical and clinical data, based on our knowledge of human health and disease prevention, to monitor, predict, intervene and control the process and methods of health risk factors. His research can not only support the early diagnosis of clinical diseases, but also find some symptoms that may indicate hidden disease, which has reduced the serious delay in clinical diagnosis and treatment intervention. As a result, it will greatly reduce medical expenses and the physical,psychological and economic burden of patients. From the perspective of theoretical methods, Xin’s research has made a major breakthrough in the systematic research methods of health big data, especially in data collection, analysis and application sustainability and integrated development.

Simon Gao

Professor, Edinburgh Napier University

PhD, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Prof. Gao studied for his Ph.D degree in Erasmus University Rotterdam from 1988-1992. Before that he awarded a certificate in PgC from Hofstra University (USA) and Erasmus University. Prof. Gao now is the Accounting Subject Research Leader, Accounting and Finance PhD Programme Coordinator andMember of the School Higher Degree Management Group (Business School) of Edinburgh Napier University. Prof. Gao also is visiting professor of many international universities like Shanghai Jiaotong University, Lingnan (University) College, Institute of World Economy at Fudan University. Previously Professor Gao taught finance, accounting, research methods courses for various programmes (BA, BSc, MA, MBA, DBA) at universities in Australia, China, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK. He has supervised over 20 PhD students and published over 3 books and 60 articles.

JULIO S. URGE

Dr. JULIO S. URGE committed to, motivated by and professionally qualified to work as a professor and/or an administrator in higher education (or related) institutions in very international environments. He feel privileged by directly contributing development of knowledge and skills to individuals who were or wished to be leaders and managers. His most appreciated reward continues to be learning from their diverse experiences and cultures. This experience has been paralleled and complemented by early and continued work in the quality improvement of business schools, directly as Dean or indirectly through my work leading a highly reputed system of international accreditations (EQUIS and EPAS) at EFMD. This last experience has made me continuously track and think about the changes, challenges and opportunities that business schools needed to face, becoming able to provide frequently sought advice to their leadership. A natural and extremely valuable by product is the development of an extensive network of leaders of higher education institutions in business and management in all continents.

Joseph French

Associate Professor, University of Northern Colorado

PhD, University of New Orleans

Joseph French is currently the associate professor of finance, Monfort College of Business, University of Northern Colorado. He has teaching experience in Japan, Thailand, England German and China. From March 2000 to June 2003, Joseph served as the Training Consultant for Hilton Hotels and Anantara Resort; he also worked as a Freelance Writer for Women’s Feature Service from September 2001 to September 2002.

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