IMD, the business school from Lausanne, Switzerland recently announced the appointment of their new president. In an announcement made by the Supervisory Board on Wednesday, Professor Jean-François Manzoni was named the president. Professor Manzoni currently holds the Shell Chair for Human Resources and Organizational Development at INSEAD in Singapore and will be at the helm of affairs at IMD beginning January 2017.

This appointment follows a succession process that started in summer 2015 with a view to identifying future leadership that will support IMD’s long term success in an ever more challenging and competitive global market for executive education. A President search committee composed of three Supervisory Board members, two faculty members and a senior staff representative identified and evaluated numerous internal, as well as over 60 external, candidates. It concluded that Jean-François Manzoni is the best suited candidate to lead IMD for the next five years and beyond.

Being one of the world's premier business and management institutions, The selection of the right candidate becomes even more crucial as it would set the tone of the business school in the coming few years. Professor Manzoni, a French and Canadian citizen, received his doctorate from Harvard Business School and was Professor of Leadership and Organizational Development at IMD from 2004 to 2011. Taking up the mantle from Professor Dominique Turpin, IMD’s President since 2010, he understands the he has big shoes to fill, managing the premier institution.  Manzoni said: “Being invited to lead an organization as successful as IMD is a great honor as well as a real challenge. The executive education world is facing increasingly crowded, global and intense competition. We have to keep innovating and finding new ways to create lasting value for executives and organizations. Building on the strong foundation handed over by my predecessor and his team, I will put all my skills, energy and passion into furthering IMD’s success.” Supporting the succession process, the outgoing president, Professor Turpin said, “I congratulate Jean-François Manzoni on his appointment and I wish him all the best in his exciting, yet challenging new role. I am proud to leave the Presidency with IMD in a position of strength and I will be happy to continue to serve our business school in another capacity.”

At an organizational level Professor Manzoni has done extensive research on the content of change (including the use of levers such as strategy, structure and systems), the management of the change process and the role of leaders therein. His work in this area has appeared in a number of articles and books, including Process Re-engineering, Organizational Change and Performance Improvement and Performance Measurement and Management Control: Behavioral Implications and Human Actions. He has also studies how leaders can create a high performance work environment and what they can do to modify their leadership style in that direction and has extensive research papers on the topic.