Meet The Professors Of The HEC Paris MBA

One of the top business schools in Europe, HEC Paris offers a full-time 16-month MBA program that includes everything a student could wish for: tons of customization opportunities like specializations, plus career workshops, company visit opportunities, internship opportunities and much more besides.

The HEC Paris MBA program has a strong history of success and has been transformational for many, with a great mix of academic rigor, practical experience, and global opportunities. And behind every great MBA program is a hardworking team: As an integral thread of the HEC Paris ecosystem, the faculty play a vital role in supporting and shaping the program’s success.

Poets&Quants recently gathered insights from a few of their outstanding educators to offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their worlds, including their experiences, research breakthroughs, teaching methods, and personal reflections on their lives as business school professors and outside of teaching.

INSIDE OF THE LIFE OF AN HEC MBA PROFESSOR

Professor of Marketing Anne-Sophie Chaxel teaches Branding and Marketing Management backed by a Ph.D. from Cornell University and an MSc from HEC Paris. Chaxel’s research focuses on judgment, decision-making, and the impact of misinformation. Always looking to improve as a good professor does, she tells us, “I rarely teach the exact same thing twice.”

She’s currently researching misinformation, polarization, and trust in institutions. “​​This research underscores the importance of consuming balanced information, rather than partisan or one-sided sources, in combating false beliefs,” says Chaxel.

Professor in Diversity & Entrepreneurial Leadership Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj has been a valued educator at HEC for the past three years. “I’ve always been fascinated with the impact of education as a catalyst for change,” she says. “Teaching was always important to me, even when I used to pretend to be a teacher in primary school.”

Janjuha-Jivraj currently teaches Diversity in Leadership to MBAs. Her unique edge is using empathy and humor to create a supportive learning environment. “I’m genuinely interested in people, their lives, and how they see the world, and I want to make connections,” she says.
“Fast forward, I’ve carved out a profile as a disruptive academic, zigzagging between organizations and classrooms, cross-fertilizing the best from each learning experience.”

Professor Elie Sung teaches Business Strategy Simulation to her MBAs. Her research explores how innovative firms and policymakers interact to shape competitive environments, with a particular focus on patent policy and regulated markets like pharmaceuticals. “I do my best not to let students get away with vague answers,” she says. “I push students to be explicit about the rationale behind their answers to my questions. Drawing from my own experience as a student, I believe it benefits the student who is explaining and the rest of the class.”

THE INS AND OUTS OF TEACHING

He’s not new to teaching, but professor Peter Fischer is new to the HEC faculty family having joined last year. At HEC, he is both a Professor of Marketing and the Academic Director of the Creative Destruction Labs’ AI stream. He teaches students from traditional backgrounds as well as those from less traditional backgrounds, like art and music. “While I really enjoy their high level of creativity and ‘impartiality,’ I enjoy the very proactive, structured, and ambitious mindset of business students,” he shares.

His favorite type of students are those that embody the 7 C’s: Compassionate, Curious, Creative, Communicative, Cooperative, Critical, and Challenging (in a positive sense). to more “exotic” audiences such as artists and musicians

Professor Carlos Serrano teaches both Entrepreneurship and Economics, and has been teaching at HEC since 2021. He greatly values the diverse experiences that his students bring, both from their various countries of origin and their professional backgrounds.

Serrano’s favorite type of student? “​​Interesting, and interested,” he says. “I am really lucky because HEC Paris attracts a very disproportionately large number of students that share a diverse origin, a very rich work experience, and they are very much interested in learning and making the best out of their MBA.”

WHO THEY ARE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

Marketing Professor Yangjie Gu has been with HEC for nine years. She is currently researching consumer judgment and decision-making, and outside of the classroom, she’s a runner, enjoys skiing, and loves traveling.

Over a year, Gu typically splits her time living between Europe and China. When it comes to music, she enjoys listening to composers in the Romantic period. “In general, I enjoy any type of art that symbolizes freedom, intense energy, and passion,” she shares.

Having taught for over 20 years at both Booth (6 years) and HEC (14 years), professor Ioanid Rosu teaches many courses surrounding Finance. He has both a strong passion for teaching and a knack for comedy. Outside of the classroom, he enjoys playing soccer, eating sushi, solving math puzzles with his kids. This summer, Rosu says he will be, “Traveling throughout Europe, and joining his cousin’s rock band in Romania.”

REFLECTIONS ON LIFE AS A HEC PARIS PROFESSOR

Professor Anne Sellier studies and teaches Behavioral Science. Currently, she is focused on the influence of time perception on decision making, creativity and cognitive biases. If she had more time in the day, she’d still be a researcher, but she’d strive to be the Jane Goodall of killer whales.

Sellier loves the silent type of student that listens deeply, and if she could shape the future of business school and add something, she says she’d add much more “kindness and leading toward greater sustainability (whether in climate or socially) by example.”

Professor and CPA Albert Kwame Mensah currently teaches Financial Accounting & Reporting. Beyond academics, he has diverse interests in engineering and visual arts, which he pursues through entrepreneurial activities like 3D printer assembly and STEM projects.

As for the future of business schools, he says he would love to see business schools rise to the challenge of using or increasing their existing research infrastructure to study the individualized needs of countries or regions so they can more effectively develop custom-tailored solutions.

Mensah is grateful for the opportunity to teach at one of the world’s leading business schools. “I want to say a big “thank you” to my family, friends, mentors, senior colleagues and sponsors for their respective roles and support,” he shares.

See the next pages for Q&As with nine HEC Paris professors.

MEET THE PROFESSORS

Professor	Title	Years at HEC	Courses
Anne-Sophie Chaxel	Associate Professor of Marketing	5	Branding, Marketing Management
Peter Mathias Fischer	Associate Professor of Marketing & Academic Director AI Stream at Creative Destruction Lab Paris	1	Creative Destruction AI, AI in Business, Content Marketing,  Managing Customer Value Through Marketing
Yangjie Gu	Associate Professor of Marketing, L’Oréal Chaired Professor	9	Managing Customer Value through Marketing (MBA core course), Customer Intelligence (MBA elective)
Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj	Associate Professor in Diversity & Entrepreneurial Leadership	3	Diversity in Leadership for MBA and Trium (Paris)
Albert Kwame Mensah	Assistant Professor	5	Financial Accounting & Reporting
Ioanid Rosu	Associate Professor of Finance	14	Financial Markets (MBA Core), Advanced Financial Markets (MBA Core), Alternative Investments (EMBA Finance Specialization), Financial Markets and Asset Pricing (EMBA Finance Specialization)
Anne Laure Sellier	Professor of Behavioral Science	11	Advanced Marketing Strategy in a Deconsuming World, Boosting Creativity, Decision Making and Influence
Carlos Serrano	Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Economics	3	Managerial Economics, Entrepreneurial Finance
Elie Sung	Assistant Professor	5	Business Strategy Simulation