Knowledgeable and Inspirational

Plenary sessions feature leading speakers who address topics that are important to the industry and who inspire new ways of thinking.

New Dimensions: EMBA in the Business School of the Future
Peter Lorange
President, Lorange Institute of Business Zurich

Change is certain, but the fate of the traditional business school is uncertain. With business moving seemingly at the speed of light and students expectations rising, business schools – and their Executive MBA Programs – stand at a crossroad. Inspired by a new vision for a business school, plenary speaker Peter Lorange founded the Lorange Institute of Business Zurich in 2009 with a different conceptual scheme. Learn more about the reasons that compelled Lorange to explore new dimensions in developing what the Lorange Institute terms ‘the business school of the future,’ as well as the implementation challenges and successes. And come to a better understanding of the Executive MBA’s role in this new model and the implications for EMBA Programs and their business schools.

Before launching the institute, Lorange served as president of IMD for 15 years from 1993 to 2008, as president of the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo, and as a professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Sloan School of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, IMD, and IMEDE.  He received his master’s degree from Yale University and his doctor of business administration degree from Harvard University. He holds a number of honorary degrees. A board member of six corporations, including Seaspan Inc. and Zaruma Inc., he has written or edited 20 books and 120 articles and has conducted research on multinational management, strategic planning processes, and internally generated growth processes.

Creating a Brain-Friendly Learning Environment
Roderick Gilkey
Professor in the Practice of Organization and Management, Goizueta Business School
Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Emory School of Medicine
Emory University

Advances in neuroscience have offered revolutionary new ways to understand the inner workings of the human brain.  Learning more about the neural substrates of our capacities to grow and develop offers the opportunity to create brain-friendly environments that optimize human learning and performance.

Plenary speaker Roderick Gilkey conducts research on neuroscience and leadership, executive development, team effectiveness, and change management. As both professor in the practice of organization and management at the Goizueta Business School, Emory University, and professor of clinical psychiatry at the Emory School of Medicine, Gilkey studies the brain functioning in executives.

The plenary session will address three topics: What are the most important findings in neuroscience relevant to executive learning? What have we learned from our EMBA neuroimaging studies at Goizueta Business School that helps us better understand the teaching-learning process in our programs? How can we apply these findings and the lessons we have acquired to our pedagogy in EMBA Programs?

Gilkey’s current research focuses on the area of neuroimaging, which involves the use of fMRI scanning technology to gain images of executives who are involved in strategic thinking and moral reasoning. This research seeks to understand how the brain operates in high-level cognitive tasks with an executive population, and how to facilitate these types of learning and thinking. His most recent publications have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Psychologia, and the NeuroLeadership Journal.