Christoph Lechner

Prof. Lechner holds the EMBA Chair of Strategic Management at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). He is Director of its Institute of Management and Academic Director of its PhD Programme inStrategy. In addition, he serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of Helvetia Patria (insurance industry) and Hügli (food industry), both listed at the Swiss Stock Exchange.

As a strategy advisor, Prof. Lechner has worked with international firms on business, corporate and alliance strategy. Prof. Lechner teaches strategy on the Master, PhD, MBA and EMBA level as well as in customized executive education programmes (clients are firms such as Allianz, Booz Allen Hamilton, Clariant, Credit Suisse, Daimler Chrysler, Siemens, Oracle, etc.). He also is founding partner of the Swiss Virtual Business School AG, a leading provider of e-based learning programmes.

Prof. Lechner's present research interests are in the area of strategy process and alliance & network strategy. He has written five books as well as numerous articles in journals and books. His research has been published in outlets such as Journal of Management, European Business Forum, Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft, Organisationsentwicklung, Harvard Business Manager, IO New Management and others.

During his academic career, Prof. Lechner received a scholarship of the „DAAD" (German Academic Exchange Service), the Dr. Peter-Werhahn-Price for "Outstanding Research in Business Administration and the Theory of Science", the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young-Award for the „Best German Business Book 2001" (together with Prof. Günter Müller-Stewens), and the SMS Best Conference Paper Award 2005 of the Strategic Management Society for the article "The role of authority, justification and coalition-building in strategic renewal" (together with Prof. Steven Floyd).

Prof. Lechner holds two Master degrees, one in Economics from Wayne State University (USA) and one in Business Administration from the University of Augsburg (Germany). He received his Ph.D. in 1999 and his Habilitation in 2004, both in Strategic Management from the University of St. Gallen. Previously, Prof. Lechner has worked eight years for Deutsche Bank Group, including an apprenticeship programme, assistant to the managing director of Augsburg branch, corporate banking in Germany, corporate finance in Singapore, and strategy & group development at the headquarters in Germany.

In 2002 he was Guest Professor at the Business School of the University of Connecticut (USA) and in 2003 Guest Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (USA). During his career, Prof. Lechner received offers as Professor of Strategic Management from Bocconi University (Italy), EM Lyon (France), European School of Management and Technology (Germany) and University of St. Gallen (Switzerland).