"The GEMBA aims at a sweet spot in management education. It has the rigour of a degree programme but is more practical in scope. It’s "education" but doesn't feel like "school." I also have a personal interest in the GEMBA, as I headed the programme during its growth years. I'm teaching the core course in organisational behaviour, which is the ideal forum to share my views on general management and how to unpack and work through the complexities of organisational life in order to create value, a topic I have spent much of my career examining."

Charles Galunic holds a PhD from Stanford University and bachelor’s degrees from Queen’s University, Canada, and Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar). His research is at the intersection of Organisational Theory and Strategy and concerns the micro-foundations of strategic advantage, where he explores the performance implications and benefits of structures (e.g. social networks) and processes (e.g. innovation and change) within organisations, as well as leadership and cultural dynamics. Charlie has also been a pioneer of several courses at INSEAD and has won awards for his work in executive education and his case studies.

“I teach the GEMBA core course on finance in all three locations: Fontainebleau, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. I don’t mind the travelling at all, because it’s such a fun, energising crowd to teach. There’s a mind-boggling heterogeneity in the GEMBA classroom – different professional backgrounds and different industries, as well as different cultures. I have to make my teaching relevant to CFOs, investment bankers, sales managers, consultants, entrepreneurs… you name it. But it’s a good challenge to have. GEMBA students are self-selected to be hungry for knowledge and to learn fast. And, like them, I find that I thrive on the fast pace.”

Pascal holds a PhD in Financial Economics from Harvard University. His prize-winning research ranges across portfolio theory, derivatives, asset pricing and risk management – and has been published in the leading academic journals on finance. At the moment he is mainly researching how to balance certain complex risks in the derivative markets (e.g. the risk of changes in correlations between assets and asset classes), work that he says he was “lucky” to have started before the financial crisis – and has only become more interesting since then! Pascal was based on the Europe Campus for more than 10 years, before continuing his INSEAD adventure in Singapore.

“I teach the GEMBA course on Uncertainty, Data and Judgement – which is applied business statistics with a human judgement twist. I never thought I’d be able to teach a full stats course in just four half-days. But it’s like getting into a racing car that drives itself! The participants bring to class such extraordinary motivation, engagement and maturity that they take ownership of the learning through their unique wealth of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. I have never seen such contagious positive energy in a classroom!”

Ioana holds a PhD in Operations Research and Applied Mathematics from MIT. Her research has appeared in the leading academic journals and has won several prizes. She is also a winner of INSEAD’s much-coveted teaching awards. A common theme that is woven through both her teaching and her research is the tension between the way people actually behave when making decisions and the way they should behave, based on the standard analytical tools and theoretical understanding of uncertainty. Ioana has been with INSEAD since 1999, based first in France and now in Singapore.