Keynote plenaries

Director-General of the World Trade Organization. The first woman and first African to hold the position.

She is an economist and international development expert with over 40 years of experience. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was Chair of the Board of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, African Risk Capacity and Co-Chair of The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, in addition to serving as a Senior Advisor at Lazard and sitting on the Boards of Standard Chartered and Twitter, now X. She is Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Brookings and a Harvard Kennedy School Global Public Leader. She served as Nigeria’s first female and longest serving Finance Minister (7 years) and was also the first female Foreign Minister. Her 25-year career at the World Bank culminated in her rising to the No.2 position of Managing Director, Operations.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is the recipient of numerous honors and has authored several books. She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from Harvard University and a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University, Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University.

His research focuses on European politics and the comparative study of democracy.

Ziblatt’s previous positions at Harvard include Professor of Government and Paul Sack Associate Professor of Political Economy. He holds a PhD in Political Science from UC Berkeley and a BA from Pomona College. In 2023, he was elected member of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences. Ziblatt is the co-author, with Steven Levitsky, of the New York Times bestsellers How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority.

Douglas Geertz IMEDE 1988 Professor in Geopolitics and Business, 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.

Keynote address: The future of work in the age of AI agents

As AI agents take on roles traditionally held by humans—from advisors to negotiators—what does this mean for organizations and talent? Professor Wooldridge explores scenarios for the future of work, skills leaders must cultivate, and how to navigate the shift from human-machine collaboration to hybrid agency in the workplace.

Biography

With over 30 years in the field, Professor Wooldridge has published more than 450 scientific papers and nine books on AI, with translations in eight languages. His research has earned over 86,000 citations, and he holds an h-index of 104—an indicator of his wide-reaching influence in academia and beyond. His numerous accolades include the Lovelace Medal from the British Computer Society (2020), the AAAI Outstanding Educator Award (2021), and the European AI Distinguished Service Award (2023). He holds prestigious fellowships from the ACM, AAAI, EurAI, and Academia Europaea. He is also the recipient of major research awards, including a Turing AI World Leading Researcher Fellowship (UKRI), an AI2050 Senior Fellowship (Schmidt Sciences Foundation), and an ERC Advanced Grant.

Professor Wooldridge is a recognized leader in the global AI community, having served as President of the European Association for AI, IJCAI, and IFAAMAS. He is currently Co-Editor-in-Chief of Artificial Intelligence, the field’s leading academic journal.

Beyond academia, he has played a key advisory role in AI policy. He has provided expert testimony to UK parliamentary committees and was appointed Specialist Advisor to the House of Lords inquiry into Large Language Models and Generative AI in 2023.

Committed to public understanding of science, he has authored two accessible books on AI and regularly speaks at major literary and science festivals. He delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2023, broadcast nationally by the BBC.

Co-CEO, On, Switzerland
A panel discussion with IMD Prof. Alyson Meister

Marc Maurer, Co-CEO of On, has always been driven by a passion for outdoor movement, a pursuit that deeply influences both his personal and professional life. Since joining On in 2013 as COO, and later becoming Co-CEO in 2021, he has been dedicated to exploring and supporting the company’s growth. Prior to joining On, he served as Head of Business Development and Marketing for Valora Retail, a publicly traded European retail company, from April 2012 to March 2013, where he was responsible for driving the company’s business development strategy.

Marc Maurer also worked at McKinsey & Company as an Engagement Manager, from April 2007 to March 2012. In addition to his role at On, he is a member of the Swiss Entrepreneurs & Startup Association and the Passion Schneesport Association, where he works to develop young talents in snow sports across Switzerland.

Keynote address: The conductor’s baton: orchestrating leadership in business

Rainer Hersch presents a fascinating and highly engaging keynote on what business can learn from a symphony orchestra.  He uses his skills as a comedian, a PowerPoint presentation and five musicians playing live to discuss the question of leadership from the standpoint of the orchestral conductor.

Rainer Hersch is a conductor, pianist, comedian and broadcaster who has performed in over thirty countries across the globe and worked with orchestras from the St Petersburg Philharmonic to the Tasmanian Symphony. YouTube videos of his routines have had over 100M views to date.

Biography

Born in London to an English mother and German father, Rainer’s first musical studies were at the piano, followed with three years as a conductor at Blackheath Conservatory; master classes at the Royal Academy of Music and a special study of the music of Johann Strauss at the Volksoper in Vienna.

His working life began as a manager in concert agencies, administering tours for some of the world’s great classical artists. At the same time, he developed a hobby – performing stand-up comedy on the London cabaret circuit. Here, short, unpaid slots led to longer, paid appearances which gradually developed into a parallel career. In 1991 Rainer changed direction, gave up his last management job, Touring Manager of the London Festival Orchestra, and entered the rough and tumble of professional comedy.

In 1999 these two very different worlds came back together with the founding of the Rainer Hersch Orkestra, which first appeared at the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh Festival. Rainer’s performances with his Orkestra led to invitations to guest conduct other symphony orchestras. In the UK, this has included the Philharmonia, the CBSO, BBC Concert Orchestra when he also presented ‘Friday Night is Music Night’, and the Johann Strauss Orchestra with whom he toured for four years.  In addition, he has built up a considerable reputation as a broadcaster for the BBC and Classic FM. Whether as solo entertainer, conductor or presenter Rainer Hersch delights his audiences with shows that are witty, interactive and fun.

As President of IMD, a position he has held since September 2024, David Bach is focused on making IMD the world’s most impactful business school. Together with his leadership team and the entire IMD community, he is working to broaden and deepen IMD’s global impact through learning innovation, excellence in degree- and executive programs, and applied thought leadership.

Recognized globally as an innovator in management education, Bach previously served as IMD’s Dean of Innovation and Programs. Under his leadership, the school won multiple awards for groundbreaking pedagogy and executive programs. Before joining IMD in 2020, he was Deputy Dean at Yale School of Management where he led the successful expansion of the school’s degree program portfolio and the creation of Yale Center Beijing. He is one of the principal architects of the Global Network for Advanced Management, an alliance of 32 top global business schools from five continents, of which IMD has been a member since 2012.

As Nestlé Professor of Strategy and Political Economy, Bach helps leaders navigate the myriad political challenges facing business today. A celebrated teacher, his course ‘The End of Globalization?’ received the 2018 Ideas Worth Teaching Award from the Aspen Institute. His research on nonmarket strategy, stakeholder management, and global politics has been published in leading practitioner and academic journals, including Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Rotman Management, International Organization, Journal of European Public Policy, Governance, and the Review of International Political Economy. He has published case studies on companies including TSMC, Rio Tinto, Volkswagen, IBM, AXA, Golden Agri, Playboy, Endesa, and BP.

As CMO of the Chinese multinational tech and e-commerce giant, a collective and enterprise servicing almost one billion users each month, Tung is focused on driving organic growth across the Alibaba portfolio, including Alibaba Cloud, Taobao, and Tmall. With responsibility for the breadth of commerce, consumer services, digital, and cloud products, his marketing influence for one of the world’s largest advertisers is seen in many places, including the ongoing integration of AI into the Alibaba platform in order to better personalize shopper experiences.

Chai Liang is a celebrated violinist and educator dedicated to advancing music education in China. He has taught at top institutions including the Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music, Shanghai Conservatory, and Central Conservatory of Music, where he also served as Director of the Violin Department.

Recognized for his teaching excellence, Chai was named to China’s “New Century Excellent Talent Support Program” and has trained students who now study and teach at leading music schools worldwide. He is also the founder of the Music Sail Children initiative, which supports underprivileged youth through music education.

Chef Pam (Pichaya Soontornyanakij) was the youngest and first-ever female chef to receive this Michelin Thailand Opening of the Year Award together with 1 Michelin star for Restaurant POTONG.

The MICHELIN Opening of the Year Award is given to Chef Pam and POTONG for the successful opening of a dining venue over the past 12 months, with a creative degustation concept and cuisine approach, which has had an impact on the local gastronomic scene.

Being the first recipient of this special award in Thailand, Chef Pam is recognized for her successful opening of the restaurant, Potong, in the heart of Chinatown. She has renovated her family’s ancestral building that used to be a pharmacy, in spite of trying times during the Covid-19 period. It was the first restaurant of its kind to serve innovative/progressive Thai-Chinese cuisine in Thailand, with a 20-course Tasting Menu, whereby each dish embodies the 5-Element philosophy of “Salt, Acid, Spice, Texture, and Millard Reaction”. The restaurant also won its first Michelin star at the same time.