Dr. Paul Verdin

Paul Verdin is a Berlin School faculty member teaching strategy and value creation.

Paul Verdin is the Chair in Strategy & Organization at Solvay Business School (ULB, Brussels) and Professor of Strategy & International Management at K.U.Leuven.

Previously at IESE Business School, and “Distinguished Visiting Professor” at INSEAD where he has been on the faculty for almost 20 years, he was  Associate Dean at TiasNimbas (Tilburg Univ., NL) and has been with the Berlin School of Creative Leadership since its launch. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School (USA) exploring new ways for value creation in business and government for long-term sustainable growth.

After Master’s Degrees in Law and in Economics, both summa cum laude from K.U.Leuven, he obtained the M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics (Industrial Organization) at Harvard University, where he was a Teaching Fellow with Nobel Laureate Tom Schelling and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich at the JFK School of Government. He combined this with work at McKinsey&Co., Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, the I.M.F. and the World Bank.

He directs executive seminars and strategy workshops, and consults on strategy processes for a wide range of local and global companies, established multinationals as well as small and medium sized companies, across a variety of industries and particularly in the financial sector. A regular keynote speaker at top management conferences, he also serves as a non-executive board member of companies and non-profit institutions.

Dr. Verdin’s widely cited research with Profs. G. Hawawini (Wharton & Finance Chair and former INSEAD Dean), V. Subramanian (Hong Kong University) and P. Williamson (Judge School at Cambridge U.) focuses on the critical role of innovative company strategy & organization for long-term value creation, and how it interacts with industry dynamics and competence- and resource-based competition. 

He has researched the strategic and organizational challenges of globalisation and regional integration (European integration), with award-winning case studies, a video in the INSEAD/Financial Times series and a book ‘From Local Champions to Global Masters: A Strategic Perspective on Managing Internationalization’ (Palgrave, London-NY, 2001), translated and reprinted. He has edited and contributed to several books on strategic issues in the Global Asset Management industry, with Prof. I. Walter (NYU-Stern). He is also researching, together with Prof. L. Vanderheyden (INSEAD) and drs. K. Tackx (SBS-EM) the critical role of co-creation and fair process for successful strategy development and implementation.

He has received numerous international prizes and awards, for his original case-based research and publications, as well as his executive teaching, and some of his work has been covered in the professional and general business press in Europe and the U.S. including CFO Europe (UK), the Economist Intelligence Unit (UK), Treasury Management International (UK), Accountancy (UK), Optimize (US), Wirtschaftswoche (D), Handelsblatt (D), Manageris (F), Expansion Management Review (F), Courrier Cadres (F), Agefi (CH), Trends-Tendances Magazine (B), the Wall Street Journal Europe and the Financial Times.