Best 40-Under-40 Professor Nicolas Glady

Nicolas Glady

Associate Professor of Marketing; Accenture Strategic Business Analytics Chair Holder

Age: 33

Institution: ESSEC Business School (France)

Since: 2009

Before current institution: PhD student at K.U. Leuven (Belgium) and Manager at Deloitte Consulting

Hometown: Belgium (Brussels)

Marital status: Married

Children: 1 boy (5 months old)

Education:

1) Université Libre de Bruxelles, Faculté des Sciences Appliquées – Polytechnique, Master of Science

2) Solvay Business School – Post-graduate in Management

3) K.U. Leuven, PhD in Econometrics

Courses currently teaching: 

Marketing Strategy

Marketing Management

Coordinating the Business Analytics programs

Fun fact: I’ve been a geek my entire life, from day one. When my father took me in his arms for the first time, he said, “I will teach you computer programming, my son!”

Professor I most admire: Raymond Aron. With a trans-disciplinary approach (philosophy, sociology, journalism, political science, and economy), Professor Aron was the quintessential “French Intellectual.” He taught after the Second World War at ENA and Science Po, at La Sorbonne from 1955 to 1968 and, after 1970, at the Collège de France. He was recognized inside and outside of the academic sphere; his expertise had both social and political impact, and he understood the importance of being active in the mainstream media. Above all, he favored integrity over popularity and was not afraid to promote unpopular opinions. Today, most of his then-unpopular positions have been recognized as precursory and highly influential.

Most memorable moment as a professor:

I was asked to present ESSEC to high school students in the context of an affirmative action program (“Une Grande Ecole, Pourquoi Pas Moi?” “An Elite School, Why Not Me?”). Before I started talking, one of the girls raised her hand and asked “Hey, how old are you anyway?” I answered, and she replied: “Aren’t you a bit young to be a professor? Shouldn’t you be doing a REAL job?” Another added “Hey, you actually look a lot like that guy from the Facebook movie!” I don’t know whether she was referring to Mark Zuckerberg or Jesse Eisenberg, but I used that reference to start talking about the impact of social media on today’s marketing strategies…

“If I weren’t a b-school professor…”

I suppose I would still be a professor, but in another domain. Ever since childhood, my parents and friends have always told me that I would be a professor. If I weren’t teaching in a business school, I suppose I would be teaching history, as this is another topic I am drawn to.

Students Say:

“Professor Glady’s marketing strategies class was one of the classes that best prepared me for real-life work in business post-MBA.  He used his experience in consulting to present us with excellent cases that challenged us to dig deep to figure out the root pain points that the company was facing and come up with creative solutions. As tough as this was to get through, Professor Glady was always there for us as students: he replied to emails amazingly fast (often within minutes), at all hours and his office was always open if we wanted help or advice on schoolwork or on our careers.  Making a presentation in Professor Glady’s class was making a presentation to top-level executives and he gave us advice and very thorough feedback to ensure that we were doing so effectively. I am glad to see that Professor Glady’s dedication to students’ success, both in and out of the classroom, is being recognized.  He’s definitely earned his place on the list!”

Michael L’heureux, Canadian, Global MBA