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Who we are

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Dr. Mark Thomas is an Associate Professor of Strategy, Management & Leadership and the former Associate Dean of Grenoble EM, France. He holds a PhD from Lancaster University, UK focusing on temporal adaptation and speed in the change process during mergers and acquisitions. He is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School and is a highly active member of the Harvard Alumnus Network.

International Development in Higher Education 

He has worked in higher education in France for the past 25 years as professor, course director, director of business school programs and director of international affairs. He has worked extensively on a variety of international projects in some 30 different countries signed more than 100 international partnerships. Notable agreements signed include the universities of Cambridge, Columbia, Duke, and McGill. He has also created and managed off-site campuses in China, the USA, the UK, and Canada as well as establishing major alliance networks for international recruitment in higher education.

 

Accreditation 

He has more than 15 years’ experience of working for national and international higher education accreditation organisations (AACSB, EFMD, CEFDG etc.). He has served on the EFMD Programme Accreditation Board for 7 years and has been accreditation peer review member and chair for more than 10 years. He is accreditation mentor for both EFMD and AACSB and is the former Chair of the Associate Deans Affinity Group at AACSB. He has audited and assisted more than 40 business schools across the world in their accreditation process. 

 

He has participated in international advisory groups for the French Ministry of Higher Education and worked for the regional council of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region. He is the former President of the International Commission for the Alliance of the 40+ Grandes Ecoles of the region (AGERA) and former treasurer for this same organisation. 

 

Consulting & Teaching

He has taught Corporate Strategy, Strategic Management and Leadership at PhD, Executive Education, Masters, and Undergraduate levels. He has worked extensively with senior executives particularly in the high tech, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, aviation, and non-profit industries. He has taught and consulted for companies such as STMicroelectronics, Michelin, EADS (Airbus), Lufthansa, Valeo, and SwissAir. He has also been invited to teach at the University of Cambridge, UK, the University of Maryland, USA, Tongji Business School & Beihang University, China.

mark.thomas@hardcastleassociates.com

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