Weâre going around the Zoom room, doing introductions, and I find myself smiling, feeling happy and proud. Part of the reason is where everyone is from: 12 faculty members from 11 different countries (and schools) across five continents. But that kind of international mix is the norm for GBSN. What stands out this time is something else. The group includes professors of practice and adjunct professors, as well as traditional academics, and one is a former executive finishing her doctorate. Most represent the usual business school disciplines, such as finance, marketing, operations, but a few have backgrounds you wouldnât expect, like ecology and the arts. And what really struck me was how naturally everyone seemed to click. Titles didnât matter. Each person brought something different, and each was treated with the same level of respect. I couldnât help but wonder why something so beneficial somehow felt extraordinary.
I have always prioritized academics in my work with business schools globally. University-level degree-based management education should be grounded in credible research, with instructors who earned doctorates and engage continuously in scholarly activities. In academia, these scholarly activities can and should lead to peer-reviewed journal articles, and, for that to happen, scholars must often specialize and delve deep into their subjects. All that sounds goodâand is good. But what surprises me is how often this view seems to be all that matters when it comes to faculty.
Institutions are rightfully quite intentional about hiring and deploying qualified academic scholars across the degree programs. However, the mix of other faculty tends to be determined more by existing connections and emerging opportunities. No matter how talented and integral, the people are often viewed as peripheral in terms of their role within the institution, contributions to overall objectives, and, especially, the culture shaping how various stakeholders work together.
Yet it is increasingly clear that the traditional business school faculty model, centered on tenure-track professors with deep expertise in increasingly narrowly defined fields, was built for a different era. Three trends are motivating schools to broaden their view of faculty.
First, technology is reshaping what business schools teach and how they teach itâand, thus, who teaches it. Advances in artificial intelligence, for example, are making content expertise less important relative to teaching and facilitation skills. New technologies also mean that instructors need to understand and use data analytics, digital platforms, and virtual collaboration tools. Today, many courses are co-designed with technologists, instructional designers, and industry experts. For example, to build its leadership position as a pioneer in tech-driven pedagogic innovation, GBSN member NEOMA Business School had to build a more collaborative model where professors work alongside educational designers, combining pedagogical expertise with technological advancements to enhance the student experience.

Second, the scope of business education has been expanding. Business schools are no longer just educating MBAs and undergraduates, they are delivering executive education, online certifications, entrepreneurship programs (including running incubators and accelerators), community clinics, public sector partnerships, and more. Each activity has different stakeholders, needs, and expectations. This larger, more diverse portfolio of programs requires a broader range of facultyâsome strong in theory, others in application, some in research, others in delivery.
GBSN member University of Pretoria Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) is well known for its dynamic use of faculty from industry. Since its inception 25 years ago as a âbusiness school for business,â GIBS has blended traditional scholars with senior executives who contribute to teaching, program design, and outreach, enabling the school to stay closely attuned to business realities in South Africa and beyond. Similarly, at Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC) in Brazil, another GBSN member, the faculty model is deliberately flexible. Their team includes research-active faculty, former CEOs, and sector-specific experts. This diversity enhances the schoolâs executive education programs and helps shape public-private partnerships aimed at economic inclusion.
Growth in entrepreneurship education and enterprise development has especially contributed to increasing faculty diversity. GBSN member Mediterranean School of Business (MSB) in Tunisia draws on regional practitioners to complement its core academic team. This strategy not only enriches classroom experiences with local context but strengthens the schoolâs ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship, crucial for developing economies. Entrepreneurs in residence are becoming as important on business school campuses as executives in residence once were.
Third, diversity in the faculty mix is being driven by increasing demand for societal impact. Climate change, inequality, political polarization, and geopolitical instabilityâtodayâs most urgent challenges donât fit neatly into disciplinary boxes. Addressing them requires interdisciplinary thinking and faculty teams that blend theory with practice. A course on sustainable finance might now require a finance scholar, an environmental economist, and a policymakerâand, quite possibly nowadays, someone who knows tech. Few faculty members can credibly span all these domains. To focus research on environmental sustainability, the University of Exeter Business School, for example, had to connect across the institution to broaden their faculty portfolio.

In some areas, increasing societal impact means going beyond bringing together different disciplines. For example, the highly relevant research being conducted by the Centers for Business & Human Rights at New York Universityâs Stern School of Business and the University of Geneva often requires access to internal company practices, as well as affected workers and communities, necessitating transparent collaboration with business while maintaining academic independence. Human rights projects can require field work (including appropriate safety protections) and public policy involvement, so faculty with community engagement and public sector experience are invaluable, whether or not they hold doctorates or publish in academic journals.
At GBSN, our work to improve human rights education in business schools has benefited significantly from Charles Autheman, who works extensively with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and teaches at HEC Paris, another GBSN member, applying the schoolâs pioneering clinic format âImpact Company Labâ to human rights in business. His efforts to connect across business, academia, and civil society have created numerous opportunities for teaching and research across the GBSN community. Weâve also introduced an Ambassador Program to engage experienced professionals from the private sector for their insights and connections. Our first two Ambassadors are Matthew Kilgariff, Leader of the Governance & Sustainability Center at the Conference Board, and Ron Popper, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights.
It’s not easy to make new faculty models work. Business schools need more than goodwillâthey need strategies and systems to support more diverse faculty mixes. Iâll write more about these strategies in a future blog. For now, Iâll mention that these schools tend to be intentional about building teams, more inclusive in governance (e.g., giving professors of practice a say in curriculum development), and support professional development opportunities beyond traditional academic scholars and their discipline associations. Finally, and I am hearing this with greater frequency, business schools with more diverse faculties must be more purposeful about building cultures in which the contributions of different types of academic staff are appreciated. I want to conclude this blog with the words of Andrew Hoffman in The Engaged Scholar, which is about expanding the impact of academic research. âThe goal of this bookâs pages is not to change the role of academic scholars such that all must engage. Instead, the goal is to widen the range of definitions of what it means to be an academic scholar, allowing more diversity within the scholarly ranks.â