Smart City Observatory

Arturo Bris (www.arturobris.org) ranks among the top one hundred most read finance academics in the world. He is the author of several books, a frequent speaker at international conferences, and appears regularly on international media outlets. He also leads the world-renowned IMD World Competitiveness Center (WCC) and is an award-winning teacher and program director.

His work has been published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Legal Studies, and the Journal of Business, and he has had articles published in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Handelsblatt, among others.

His areas of expertise include corporate finance, corporate governance, financial regulation, and competitiveness. As Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, he works with governments all over the world assessing, measuring, and managing the competitiveness of countries. The WCC produces trusted annual rankings on economies’ competitiveness, and under his leadership it has expanded its coverage by adding new rankings on talent, digital competitiveness, and smart cities.

In addition to leading the Center, Bris conducts research on the relationship between income inequality, social mobility, and competitiveness. His work on the international aspects of financial regulation focuses particularly on the effects of bankruptcy, short sales, insider trading and merger laws. He has also researched and lectured on the effects of the Euro on the corporate sector and the valuation impact of corporate governance changes.

His recent work includes a comprehensive study of 3,692 CEOs from 22 countries from 1991-2019, which found strong evidence that existing studies overestimate the impact of CEOs on the performance of the firms they lead, and an analysis of the outlook for globalization in the post-COVID-19 period.

At IMD he directs the Strategic Finance and Navigating Fintech Innovation and Disruption program. He also previously directed the flagship Advanced Strategic Management program between 2009 and 2013. He has led several custom programs for organizations operating in various industries, with a particular interest in the financial sector, and has extensive consulting experience with countries from across the world.

Bris’ latest book The Right Place: How National Competitiveness Makes or Breaks Companies provides an analysis of countries’ competitive performance, typical mistakes that countries make, and the pillars necessary to build a truly competitive economy. He also co-authored Flex or Fail: The Future of Work and Pay and Sixteen Shades of Smart: How Cities Can Shape Their Own Future in 2019, and Blockchange!: How to Survive the Crypto Economy in 2018.

Bris is a member of the Strategic Committee of Debiopharm Investment and the International Advisory Council of the Wealth Management Institute in Singapore, and is academic advisor to the Blue Whale Foundation, a decentralized ecosystem enabling the self-employed to thrive by capturing a fair share of the value they create. He also serves as a member of the International Advisory Board of CENTRUM Graduate Business School in Peru, and of the Supervisory Board of the Kyiv International Economic Forum. He is also a research associate of the European Corporate Governance Institute and a research fellow of the Yale International Institute for Corporate Governance.

Prior to joining IMD in 2005, he was the Robert B & Candice J. Haas Associate Professor of Corporate Finance at the Yale School of Management.

Selected publications

The euro and corporate financing before the crisis (Journal of Financial Economics, 2014)

The euro and corporate valuations (Review of Financial Studies, 2009)

The value of investor protection: Firm evidence from cross-border mergers (Review of Financial Studies, 2008)

Good stewards, cheap talkers, or family men? The impact of mutual fund closures on fund managers, flows, fees, and performance (Review of Financial Studies, 2007)

Efficiency and the bear: Short sales and markets around the world (Journal of Finance, 2007)

The costs of bankruptcy: Chapter 7 liquidations versus Chapter 11 reorganization (Journal of Finance, 2006)

The real effects of the euro: Evidence from corporate investments (Review of Finance, 2006)

The optimal concentration of creditors (Journal of Finance, 2005)

Who should pay for bankruptcy costs? (Journal of Legal Studies, 2005)

Corporate financial policies and performance around currency crises (Journal of Business, 2004)

Corporate leverage and currency crisis (Journal of Financial Economics, 2002)

Recognition

European Financial Management Best Paper Award (2006)

China International Conference in Finance Best Paper Award (2005)

Jaime Fernández de Araoz Corporate Finance Award (2005)

Yale School of Management Alumni Association Teaching Award (2001 and 2003)

FMA European Conference Best Paper Award (2001)

Education

BSc (Law and Economics)

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

MSc (Financial and Monetary Studies)

CEMFI, Madrid

PhD (Management)

INSEAD

Bruno Lanvin has been the President of the Smart City Observatory since its creation in 2018.

After a distinguished career that took him from the United Nations, the World Bank and INSEAD, he joined IMD in 2018. He is known worldwide for his pioneering work in creating and co-leading some of the most highly praised global indices in the areas of information technology, innovation, and talent. Over the last few years, he has been focusing his research on the role of cities in developing original strategies and shaping new types of global relations.

A mathematician by training (Université de Valenciennes), an MBA (HEC, Paris) and a PhD in Economics (Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, he is passionate about informing international debates (inequality, inclusion, governance, collaborative innovation, talent and labour markets, impact of artificial intelligence) through the provision of quantitative tools and action-oriented metrics.