Margaret Cording

Professor Cording combines rigorous academic training with deep business experience. Her research focuses on the implementation of key strategic initiatives that seek to more tightly couple business units, product lines and/or geographic regions across the multi-business firm. Much of her empirical work examines the complex and indirect financial performance effects of post-merger integration decisions.

Professor Cording's research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Perspectives, and Strategic Organization. She has written numerous case studies and co-edited a book on business ethics. Prior to joining IMD, Professor Cording was on faculty at the Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University in Houston, Texas.

She has worked with senior management of public and private companies across industries to address strategic issues. Representative clients include Baker Hughes, Inc., CGGVeritas, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., MMI, Inc., Prisma Energy International, Universal Compression, Inc., and WH Energy Services, Inc.

Before pursuing an academic career, Professor Cording held several senior level management positions at Chase Manhattan Bank (currently JPMorgan Chase). Most recently, she was managing director and head of Foreign Exchange sales, where she implemented a series of strategic initiatives that resulted in a 50% increase in business profitability. She headed the senior staff team responsible for integrating the global capital markets businesses when Manufactures Hanover Trust Company acquired Chemical Bank. As managing director, she was also responsible for integrating the foreign exchange businesses when Chemical Bank acquired Chase Manhattan Bank. Earlier in her career, she spearheaded a three-year effort to improve the performance of Manufacturer Hanover's Asia and Europe businesses, helping to secure $400 million in improved revenues and reduced expenses.

In addition to her PhD in Strategy from the University of Virginia, Professor Cording holds an executive MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree in finance and economics from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, where she graduated summa cum laude.

On July 1, 2014 she assumed responsibility for managing IMD's business in Southeast Asia and Oceania, based in Singapore.