IMD Names David Bach Its Next President

After years of top leadership roles at IE Business School, Yale School of Management and IMD, David Bach has been named the next president of IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.

A soft-spoken intellectual and globalist, Bach was chosen to lead one of Europe’s top business schools after an international search that began in October of last year. The school’s Supervisory Board unanimously voted to appoint its Dean of Innovation and Programs president effective Sept. 1.

Under current IMD (Institute of Management Development) President Jean-François Manzoni, Bach was instrumental in steering the school’s extensive executive education offerings through the pandemic. A key player in the reinvention of the Yale School of Management under former Dean Ted Snyder, Bach joined IMD in July of 2020. As SOM’s deputy dean for eight years, he was a primary architect of Snyder’s strategy to make Yale the most global business school in the U.S.

‘HUMBLED & EXCITED TO LEAD IMD’

Plucked from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, where he served as dean of programs, Bach worked endless hours to create and build the Global Network for Advanced Management, an innovative alliance of 32 of the world’s top business schools. He also successfully led the expansion of SOM’s degree programs and the creation of Yale Center Beijing.

“I am humbled and excited to have the opportunity to lead the IMD community forward in the coming years,” Bach said in a statement. “I am confident we will continue to innovate at the forefront of executive education, degree programs and thought leadership in an age when the expectations for organizations and their leaders are greater than ever.”

“IMD is a special and highly-respected institution, unique among business schools with its academic model and commitment to real learning and real impact. It is a true honor to take up the reins of leadership, and I look forward to working with the entire IMD community to build on our rich heritage, accelerate our innovation efforts, and thereby broaden and deepen our impact.”

HE BEGAN HIS ACADEMIC CAREER AT IE BUSINESS SCHOOL IN SPAIN

The German-born Bach earned an undergraduate degree from Yale and a PhD in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. His political science background did not make him a natural candidate for a faculty position at a business school. But Bach firmly believed that a business, in his words, is “a social and political being rather than just an economic machine,” a perspective he would amplify throughout his academic career (see below).

After earning his PhD in 2004, he joined IE as a professor of strategy and economic environment. At the age of 35, he was named by Poets&Quants as one of the world’s best 40-under-40 business school professors for deftly teaching at the intersection of business and politics. “If you think you are smart,” noted one of his MBA students at IE, “and have learned a lot in your previous career, well, take a class with Professor David Bach and you will know how it feels to be sent back to humility. Professor Bach taught us vital contemporary business fundamentals that are too often forgotten: the non-market factors. The unique way he manages class participation is amazingly dynamic and interactive.”

He was not only a master teacher, however. His leadership potential was quickly recognized, leading to an appointment as associate dean of MBA programs in 2007 and then dean of programs two years later.

HIS COURSE ON ‘THE END OF GLOBALIZATION?’ WON A TEACHING AWARD FROM ASPEN

After eight years at IE, Bach moved to New Haven to become senior associate dean of Yale’s Executive MBA program and global programs in 2012. Five years later, he was named deputy dean of academic programs and later deputy dean for executive programs. While holding down a demanding leadership job at Yale, Bach also found time to design and teach a new popular course. He conceived “The End of Globalization?” designed in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and the rise of populist leaders across Western democracies. The course received the 2018 Ideas Worth Teaching Award from the Aspen Institute.

After eight highly productive years at Yale SOM, Bach moved overseas again to IMD to a chaired faculty position in stakeholder engagement and a deanship of innovation and programs.

“On behalf of the Search Committee and Supervisory Board, I would like to congratulate David on his appointment, which followed an exhaustive recruitment process with several very strong internal and external candidates,” said IMD Chairman Michel Demaré in a statement. “David’s track record, vision, innovative spirit and aptitude for leadership are well known to our community, and we are excited to work with him as we continue to transform IMD for the future,”

BACH SUCCEEDS JEAN-FRANCOIS MANZONI

Manzoni, who will have served eight years in the role, steered IMD securely through the COVID-19 pandemic, pivoted its strategic focus, and delivered a successful transformation of its programs and research portfolio to deliver record performance and a doubling in size of the institution. IMD also credited Manzoni for reinforcing the school’s identity as a unique practice-oriented academic institution, resulting in IMD’s 2023 accreditation as a University Institute.

“Through Jean-François’ dynamic, innovative, and successful tenure, IMD has positioned itself to lead in the future of global executive education, degree programs and research. We are deeply grateful for his dedication and steadfast resolve at a time when many educational institutions faced unprecedented disruption and uncertainty,” Demaré added.

Manzoni, who will remain at IMD as a professor, said that “serving IMD and its various communities over the last 8 years has been an honour and a privilege, and I feel a deep sense of gratitude toward IMD’s alumni, staff, faculty, corporate partners as well as foundation and supervisory board members for their unwavering support and confidence over these years.

I am delighted that the Board chose David Bach as IMD’s next President. Since joining us in the Spring of 2020, David has been willing and able to successfully take on growing leadership responsibilities, earning universal respect along the way. I wish him great success in his new role, and I look forward to returning to the faculty ranks and to supporting David and IMD’s new leadership team in that capacity.”

DON’T MISS: IMD’S PRESIDENT ON WEATHERING THE PANDEMIC WITH INNOVATION or IMD PLANS TO GROW MBA ENROLLMENT & SEEK YOUNGER STUDENTS