The World Economic Forum announced yesterday that Professor Knut Haanaes is appointed the first Dean of the new Global Leadership Institute.
Haanaes joins the Forum from IMD, where he is currently Professor of Strategy and Deputy Dean of the MBA program. He will continue with the dual role of Forum Dean and IMD Deputy Dean of the MBA program.
The IMD MBA Program, in its 46th year, provides an intimate, personalized leadership development experience delivering an unmatched emphasis on entrepreneurship, global and digital – whilst equipping participants with the classic MBA toolkit.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Leadership Institute is dedicated to ensuring the World Economic Forum will shape the future of learning and leadership in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Forum’s Global Leadership Fellows program is a core pillar of the Institute.
“The Global Leadership Institute provides a unique learning and development platform to enable people to work across all sectors of society to tackle some of the greatest systemic challenges facing the world today,” said Knut Haanaes.
“We wish Knut great success in his leadership role at the World Economic Forum. This is a very interesting opportunity for him and we are very happy for him. We are also delighted that Knut will continue to be associated with IMD as the Deputy Dean of our MBA program. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our relationship with the Forum,” said IMD President Jean-François Manzoni.
Haanaes taught a number of programs at IMD, including Mastering Digital Technologies, Building on Talent and Breakthrough Program for Senior Executives, and will continue to teach select courses at IMD. Previously, he was a senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he served as the Global Head of BCG’s strategy practice and led the offices in Geneva and Oslo. In 2012-2014, he was a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on New Economic Growth Models.
Haanaes has also served as Executive Director of The Research Council of Norway and held research positions at BI Norwegian Business School and Stanford University as a Sancor visiting scholar. He holds an MSc in Economics from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, and a PhD in Strategy from Copenhagen Business School.
