About

Prof. Gilbert Probst

Gilbert J.B. Probst, born in 1950, Honorary Professor and Director of Public-Private Partnership Center at Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM) at University of Geneva. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Banque Cantonale de Genève. Vice-president of Swiss Board Institute and Swiss Institute of Directors.
Managing Director and Dean of the Global Leadership Fellows Program at the World Economic Forum (2007-2016). Professor for organizational behavior and management and Co-director of the Executive-MBA program at the University of Geneva (2001-2017). Professor Probst is an award-winning author and editor of a number of books and articles in prestigious journals (Organization Science, Academy of Management Executive, and European Management Journal). He served as a consultant for various major companies such as Kuoni, Holcim, Hewlett Packard, Siemens, Winterthur Insurance, Deutsche Bank, DaimlerChrysler or Swisscom, and has been a board member for Holcim, Kuoni and several SMEs.

Research projects of Prof. Probst and his team focus on four pillars: organizational growth, ambidextrous organizations, learning organization, and public-private partnerships. In order to intensify the research regarding organizational growth, the Center for Organizational Excellence (CORE) has been created. Its aim is to analyze the major growth issues organizations face. Investigations on the subject of ambidexterity strive for resolving the difficult task of balancing simultaneously exploitative activities (daily business) and explorative activities (innovations). The third research area focuses on knowledge management as well as on learning organizations. Fruit of this research area is the creation of the Geneva Knowledge Forum in 1995. Taking into account that companies are increasingly asked to address the complex social and environmental challenges that society faces today, the fourth research area is concerned with collaborative public-private partnerships. In 2013, the Geneva PPP Center has been created to investigate key research questions related to these partnerships between the public, business, and at times civil society sectors.

For further information on the Chair's research areas please click here. More general information about Gilbert Probst and his team are presented here.