The Chair’s Team
Dr Helen Etchanchu
Co-holder of the Chair
German-born Dr Helen Etchanchu joined Montpellier Business School in October 2016 after completing her PhD at ESSEC Business School and finishing her studies in the US, Canada and Spain.
Her research explores how we may organize for and make sense of grand challenges such as climate change, inequality or health. In previous and ongoing studies, she investigates struggles over meaning between business, political and civil society actors in addressing grand challenges, such as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals from two different lenses: discursive legitimation strategies, and corporate political roles and democracy. Specifically, she studies the governance and meaning structures around environmental and social issues such as fracking, smoking, corporate social responsibility, emancipated entrepreneurship, digital sustainability, and zero waste.
Her research work has been published in leading journals such as Journal of Business Ethics and European Management Review. Prior to her academic career, she worked in the media, advertising and strategic communications consultancy sectors.
Among several activism efforts at municipal, national and global level, Helen has been the founder of OS4Future, an academic advocacy movement to mobilize organization scholars to more decisively act for climate action.
Dr Domenico Dentoni
Co-holder of the Chair
Domenico Dentoni is professor of Business, Resilience and Transformation at Montpellier Business School since 2021. His main domain of expertise is organization, entrepreneurship and partnerships for climate adaptation and mitigation. On these topics, he conducts research, teaches, and works on publicly funded projects and several societal engagements. With his team, he is developing systems mapping methods for training, research and collective vision building purposes.
Domenico’s main sector of expertise is food and agriculture, and more broadly the nexus between water, energy, food and land. In this sector and topics, he worked in industry-research partnerships across Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia and the United States. On these topics, Domenico acquired and managed 3 Million Euros in grants from national and international public organisations like USAID, CGIAR, the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the Australian Seafood CRC, and the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Program in 2011-2023.
Domenico authored over 70 scholarly publications mainly on themes of sustainable business and systems thinking. These are published in internationally renowned management journals such as Journal of Business Venturing, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics and Business & Society, as well as in several impactful interdisciplinary journals. His work was recently recognised by the US non-profit organisation “Food Tank: The Think Tank for Food”, which also named him as one of the top 25 global leaders who are ”shaking current food systems”.
Members of the Chair
Dr Jacqueline Boysselle
Jacqueline Boysselle is a Mexican professor of Marketing at Montpellier Business School, where she has been actively contributing since 2008. Her primary area of specialization includes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication, Brand Value Perception, Consumer Behavior, Social Marketing, and Frugal Innovation. Jacqueline is deeply committed to conducting research, teaching, and collaborating with organizations like the Institut du Marketing Social in France, Royal Canin etc.
Before embarking on her academic journey, Jacqueline amassed valuable industry experience. She served as a Brand Manager at Pepsi Mexico, held the position of Marketing Director at Trapa Chocolates in Madrid, Spain, and worked as a Product Manager at Calvo also in Madrid Spain. In addition, she contributed to Cancer Research UK within where she implemented social marketing strategies for their communication department in London
Within her expansive portfolio of expertise, Jacqueline’s focus primarily centers on the food industry and, more broadly, on the perceptual dynamics of Alternative Food Networking (AFN), Fair Trade, and Organic products among consumers. Jacqueline has authored numerous research articles and professional publications, predominantly exploring themes related to CSR communication, perceived value, frugal innovation, and social marketing. Her contributions can be found in esteemed journals like International Management, Food Quality and Preferences, and Management Sciences.
Dr Matthias Staessens
Matthias Staessens joined Montpellier Business School in 2022 as an Assistant Professor in Social Entrepreneurship. His academic mission centers on catalyzing a shift toward a more sustainable and resilient society. To this end, his research delves into the means by which organizations can strike an optimal balance among social, ecological, and economic objectives. He places a special emphasis on the role of decision-makers within organizations, including CEOs, board members, and top management teams (TMT). Specifically, his expertise lies in work integration social enterprises, social start-ups, and cooperatives. In these sectors and on these topics, his research has been published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Academy of Management Perspective, and Strategic Change.
This academic commitment extends to his teaching. Across various levels (from bachelor to executive) and disciplines, Matthias guides both current and future managers on adopting sustainable and resilient strategies. He has developed teaching materials on topics such as social entrepreneurship, impact measurement, and sustainable innovation management.
Beyond academia, Matthias has actualized his mission in practical ways: he serves on the board of directors for a residential care center, authors industry reports for associations in the social economy, generates several press releases on social economy and creates roadmaps for reforming boards of directors, as well as on how to form nonprofit-for-profit collaborations.
Dr Alec Waterworth
Dr Alec Waterworth is an Associate Professor in Project Management, having joined Montpellier Business School in September 2022. His primary areas of interest include the unique nature of complex projects and complex project leadership, ‘voice behaviour’ of project teams, academic entrepreneurship, and the ongoing clean energy transition (and the role of project management therein). His responsibilities at MBS include Head of the Specialisation in Project Management for the PGE, and Head of the new MSc in Complex Project Management (launching in 2024).
Alec previously worked as a lecturer and Director of Executive Educations Programmes at the Alliance Manchester Business School, delivering teaching to organisations such as BAE Systems, BP, the UK Department for International Trade, and the NHS. Prior to this he taught themes of sustainable development at the University of Warwick. His teaching today is focussed on addressing complex organisational challenges across a wide range of sectors and contexts. This is informed considerably by his time in industry, prior to entering academia, where he worked in the energy sector as a Quality Assurance Engineer on several multi-billion US$ projects.
Dr Marija Roglic
Marija Roglic, a postdoctoral scholar at the COAST Chair since 2022, works on transdisciplinary research designs for system-based Theories of Change supporting the EU Green Deal. Her involvement extends to systems-based education for inclusive and innovative management , specifically within the EU LEADER Programme. She collaborates with professionals in the agri-food sector and local action groups across English, French, and Croatian speaking empirical contexts .
Her research focuses on strategic management practices and processes within multi-stakeholder and multi-scalar organizations, emphasizing sustainability and resilience in complex systems. Utilizing action research and mixed-methods designs, she explores these themes, leveraging her interdisciplinary background in management studies, business finance, information sciences, anthropology and philology to bridge disciplines and drive actionable research.
Her work has influenced EU policy on high-nature value farmland and Croatian legislation on island development. In 2018 she earned the Eiffel Award and in 2023, the Organization Studies (OS) & SAGE Student Paper Societal Impact Award.
Before entering academia, she spent five years as the executive director of a multistakeholder organization. In this role, she played a crucial part in establishing the organization as a significant force for development in southern Croatia, receiving special recognition from LAG5’s Governing Board during her tenure.
Dr Daniel S Lacerda
Daniel is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Management, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship Department at Montpellier Business School. He is Brazilian and obtained his PhD in Organization Studies from Lancaster University (UK).
Daniel’s research focuses on poverty and inequality issues within and beyond organizations. Most of his empirical studies have concentrated on marginalized areas such as favelas, using interdisciplinary concepts like discourse and territory to investigate local development. In addition, Daniel is involved in a project that aims to understand how critical and reflexive management education affects students’ behavior as agents of change.
Prior to joining academia, he spent seven years working as a consultant for large corporations, managing projects such as the implementation of Global Procurement Models. This experience also informs his teaching, particularly the Critical Management and Alternative Organizations course, which challenges the normative principles of business management to promote a transformative approach to our practices.
Dr Ewa Lombard
Dr Ewa Lombard is an Assistant Professor in Sustainable Decision-Making, at Montpellier Business School since 2020. You can reach out to her to discuss the future and corporate foresight, or ask for a workshop in scenario development. She is also an expert in psychology and neuroscience of financial decision-making and is interested in all skills, behaviors and mental processes relevant to sustainable decision-making, including intergenerational discounting, future thinking, collective intelligence and ethics in financial decision-making. She teaches Prospective & Future Thinking, Neuroscience of Finance, HR & Diversity Management and Research Project Management. She is also a sci-fi author (Project Unison, 2018) and avid practitioner of play-and-work.
She holds a double MSc in Management (Bocconi/St.Gallen), has project management and R&D experience from Philips Medical Systems and Philips Research (Eindhoven, NL) and a PhD in Neuroscience (reward and memory) from University of Geneva. She is based in Geneva, Switzerland and often appears as a speaker in front of local finance professionals. She is also eagerly available for conference talks about neuroscience of [change, adaptation, decision-making, sustainable mindset] or to craft a new brain-based leadership training.
Dr Vincenzo Vastola
Vincenzo Vastola joined Montpellier Business School (MBS) in 2020 as an Assistant Professor in Strategic Management and CSR. Prior to MBS, he held research positions at Bocconi University and Imperial College Business School.
His research investigates complex adaptation and decision-making processes under environmental disruptions and bounded rationality. In particular, his work is concerned with strategic questions on business transition towards more sustainable forms of the enterprise. More recently, the quest to understand transformational endeavors requiring behavioral and cognitive shifts has sparked his interest in the psychological (micro)foundations of strategy and organization.
His work has been published in leading management journals, including Organization Science, and multidisciplinary outlets, such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). He is eager to assist companies in their evolutionary journey by helping design and implement change interventions through field experimentation programmes.
Dr Jan Weiss
Jan joined Montpellier Business School in 2021 as Associate Professor of Strategy, Management, and Entrepreneurship. He holds a PhD in Applied Microeconomics from Jönköping International Business School, Sweden and an MSc in Business Administration from the University of Mannheim, Germany.
Jan focuses on sustainable development in his teaching and research activities. In terms of teaching, Jan is responsible for the course Research Perspectives in Sustainability in MBS’ digital DBA program. In his research, he incorporates the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a cross-cutting research theme. His primary research interest lies in understanding the roles of macro (e.g., culture) and micro-level factors (e.g., personality, personal values) on entrepreneurial process and performance. Second, Jan conducts research on pollution industries to better understand sustainability drivers of polluting firms. A third research area of Jan is sustainable consumption. Jan is interested and skilled in System Dynamics Analysis, which he used to model and better understand the socio-economic development observed in countries rich in natural resources, such as oil and gas, compared with more resource-poor countries. Jan’s research has been published, among others, on International Small Business Journal, Industry & Innovation, Business Strategy and the Environment, and Journal of Environmental Planning and Management..
Jan’s profile is complemented by international work experience beyond the academic realm, including assignments related to sustainable development at UN-ESCAP (Bangkok, Thailand), LekaGape, a non-profit organization in Phalaborwa (Lulekani), South Africa, and Swedfund International (Stockholm, Sweden). Through sustainable investments in developing countries, these assignments aim contributing to inclusive growth and a reduction in extreme poverty in developing countries.
Scientific Council
- Cécile Renouard, President of the Transition Campus.
- Chris Riedy, Director of the Transformations Forum research group – Transforming Narratives.
- Matthias Wenzel, Professor of Sustainable Strategy at Leuphana University, Germany.
- Gail Whiteman, Professor of Sustainability, University of Exeter; WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development) Professor in Residence
