Arturo Bris is Professor of Finance and Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center. An award-winning teacher and program director, he ranks among the top 100 most-read finance academics worldwide. He is the author of several books, a frequent speaker at international conferences, and appears regularly on international media outlets.
His work has been published in The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, The Review of Financial Studies, The Journal of Legal Studies, and The Journal of Business. He has also had articles published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Handelsblatt, among others.
Bris’s 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.
Competitiveness determines how countries, regions, and companies manage their competencies to achieve long-term growth, generate jobs, and increase welfare. Competitiveness is, therefore, a way towards progress that does not result in winners and losers. When two countries compete, both are better off.
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, Bris has led several custom programs for organizations operating in various industries, with a particular interest in the financial sector, and has extensive worldwide consulting experience. He currently directs Boards and Risks, an executive program that allows board members to develop a best-in-class systemic risk approach in the face of geopolitical risks, social evolution, and technological progress. He also directed the flagship Advanced Strategic Management program between 2009 and 2013.
His book The Right Place: How National Competitiveness Makes or Breaks Companies analyzes countries’ competitive performance, the typical mistakes countries make, and the pillars necessary to build a truly competitive economy. He co-authored Flex or Fail: The Future of Work and Pay, 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 as well as an 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 the Supervisory Board of the Kyiv International Economic Forum. In addition, he is a research associate at the European Corporate Governance Institute and a research fellow at the Yale International Institute for Corporate Governance.
Before joining IMD in 2005, he was the Robert B & Candice J Haas Associate Professor of Corporate Finance at the Yale School of Management.
