HEC Paris Welcomes Nine New Academics in Finance, IS OM and Marketing Departments

HEC Paris has strengthened its academic ranks this fall by welcoming nine new professors. They reinforce the school’s ongoing commitment to its research capabilities and societal impact. The recruits are Professor Barbara Stöttinger, Assistant Professors Seungah Sarah Lee, Tjeerd De Vries, Zhuoran Jiang, and Alina Rosu, along with Associate Professors Ali Shantia, Flore Sentenac and Arnd Vomberg, and Affiliate Professor Pascal Saint-Amans. The academics' work spans renewable energy, information systems, pension plans, and startup dynamics – to name but a few.

The academics’ arrival, timed with the start of the new academic year, is part of a broad drive by HEC to enrich its research output and cement its role as a leading global business school. Zhuoran Jiang and Seungah Sarah Lee were unable to attend in person the onboarding day on September 17, but the other six were treated to a comprehensive immersion program that highlighted HEC’s academic culture, collaborative research environment, and commitment to societal impact.
 

A Collaborative Welcome

The onboarding event kicked off with an informal welcome by Dean Eloïc Peyrache and the Dean of Faculty Andrea Masini. They were followed by Associate Dean for Education Track and Pedagogy Anne Michaut, who introduced the new professors to HEC’s ecosystem. Michaut also led a roundtable discussion with three faculty members who joined last year: Audrey Holm (Management & Human Resources), Emmanuel Coblence (Management & Human Resources), and Quirin Fleckenstein (Finance). (Holm, by the way, was recently the recipient of the prestigious Robert McDonald Advancement of Organizational Research Methodology Award for her latest work on qualitative data analysis) This roundtable allowed for an open exchange of experiences, offering the new recruits valuable insights into teaching at HEC.

“The opportunity to exchange ideas with colleagues from different departments was invaluable,” said Arnd Vomberg, who has joined the marketing department. Vomberg, whose research focuses on the rise and decline of startups and how these trends influence marketing strategies, found his integration into HEC smooth thanks to pre-existing connections. “I’ve been fortunate to already know two of the school’s top academics, professors Georg Wernicke and Peter Fischer. We actually did our doctoral studies together at the University of Mannheim! So, that’s obviously helped in my integration.”

Reinforcing HEC Paris’s dedication to excellence in thought leadership, Pascal Saint-Amans joins the faculty as an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Law and Tax. A renowned expert in international taxation, he brings a wealth of experience, including a decade as Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. There, Saint-Amans spearheaded the groundbreaking BEPS project and drove the development of international tax standards, including those for the automatic exchange of banking information. His expertise and global influence will greatly enrich HEC Paris’s programs, equipping students with the tools to address complex fiscal challenges.

Diverse Research Interests

HEC’s new hires come with an impressive array of research interests. Tjeerd De Vries, joining the finance department, focuses on pension plans, a topic of growing importance as many countries grapple with aging populations and the sustainability of their retirement systems. Meanwhile, Alina Rosu, also in finance, specializes in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have become increasingly prominent in modern financial markets.

Associate Professor Ali Shantia is already a familiar face on campus. He returns to HEC Paris after completing his PhD at the same school and actively collaborating with HEC Professor Sam Aflaki for his research - this, despite spending several years at Toulouse Business School. Shantia’s current work on renewable energy in electricity is particularly timely, given the global push toward more sustainable energy sources. He is currently exploring with Aflaki ways that wind farms can be operated more efficiently to minimize their environmental impact. “There are several departments and even institutes like HEC’s Sustainability & Organizations Institute (S&O) which share our concerns for environmentally friendly energy sources,” he said at the informal exchange. “This is one strong factor in me wanting to return here. At present, my work with Sam on wind farms is essential in increasing social responsibility and integrating due diligence in their policies.”

Meanwhile, Barbara Stöttinger, brings over three decades of expertise in global marketing strategies, with a particular focus on pricing strategies, export performance, and international consumer behavior. She was the former Dean of the WU Executive Academy and Associate Professor of International Marketing Management at WU Vienna. Her academic journey spans roles such as Visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria and research stays at prestigious institutions like Michigan State University and the University of Texas at Austin. Stöttinger combines a rich academic background with industry experience in the consumer electronics sector and consulting for multinational corporations.

Finally, there’s Flore Sentenac. She was a PhD student at CREST, ENSAE Paris, specializing in online matching in random graphs. Sentenac has a diverse background in research and industry, having worked as a research intern at DeepMind and an engineer at ENS Paris-Saclay. Her academic explorations span areas like partial monitoring, machine learning, and Bayesian mixed-effects models applied to Alzheimer’s disease. Sentenac was recognized as a 2022 L’Oréal-UNESCO French Young Talent, having published her work in prestigious conferences such as ICML and NeurIPS. 

Interdisciplinary Research: A Key Priority

This new academic year also saw HEC Paris' academic team in Qatar expand with the arrival of Seungah Sarah Lee. “I am thrilled to join an institution renowned for its excellence in executive education and its commitment to fostering innovation and leadership,” said the Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Organizations in an earlier interview. Lee's research focuses on sustainable development and the role of semi-government organizations in cultivating local entrepreneurial ecosystems.

The new faculty members are also being encouraged to think beyond their individual disciplines. Dean Eloïc Peyrache, present at the onboarding event, stressed the importance of interdisciplinary research. “These new academics will enjoy a rich and diverse ecosystem here, and we urge them to build bridges between the disciplines in their approach,” Peyrache said. “For the past years, we have been seeking to expand our research to include more of the social sciences. This helps us to show the impact we have on society and decision making at all levels.”

HEC’s inter-disciplinary approach is an important draw for researchers like Vomberg, whose work on startups benefits from insights across both marketing and finance. Similarly, Shantia’s research on renewable energy draws from multiple fields, integrating insights from operations management, environmental science, and corporate responsibility.

The onboarding day also included a session on HEC’s inclusion and diversity initiatives, led by Roxana Barbulescu, Associate Professor of Management & Human Resources. She emphasized the school’s efforts to create an inclusive environment that supports a diversity of perspectives, a key aspect of fostering impactful research.

Research with Purpose

In just a short time on campus, the new professors have embraced HEC’s mission of producing research that not only advances knowledge but also creates meaningful societal benefits. They quickly adhered to HEC’s broader commitment to addressing global challenges. For instance, Shantia’s research on renewable energy aligns with the need to combat climate change, while Vomberg’s studies of startup dynamics address the economic challenges posed by volatile entrepreneurial ecosystems. There was also an incisive reflection by Zhuoran Jiang on her ongoing work on information and data privacy, a hot issue with ethical implications, closely followed by several HEC researchers.

HEC’s focus on research as a tool for societal impact resonates with the new faculty members. As Kurt Lewin, the German-American social psychologist, once said, “No research without action, no action without research.” This philosophy is central to the academic culture at HEC, where research is seen as a way to drive both theoretical and practical advancements. “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose,” said American anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston in the mid-1900s - a quote that captures the intellectual curiosity driving the new faculty members. This was underlined by Professor Andrea Masini, who also pointed out the rigor and relevance of the research projects the new academics are bringing to the school: “And we can only benefit from the diversity of their academic fields, their geographical origins and the gender balance we are keen to strengthen,” he said after the event.

In the months and years ahead, these nine new academics will play a key role in shaping HEC’s academic output, bringing new perspectives to the school’s research portfolio and further strengthening its reputation as a leading institution for both business education and societal engagement.