Nurturing Science-based Ventures: An International Case Perspective

Ralf W. Seifert holds a dual appointment as Professor of Operations Management at IMD and Professor of Technology & Operations Management at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Professor Seifert is also Director of the Mastering Technology Enterprise (MTE) program, a six-week management development program for technically trained managers. Since 1995, the MTE program has been jointly offered by the Alliance for Technology-based Enterprise formed by IMD, EPFL and ETH Zurich. His primary research and teaching interests relate to supply chain management, technology network management and entrepreneurship.

Benoît Leleux is the Stephan Schmidheiny Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at IMD. He is a specialist in venture financing, combining expertise in entrepreneurship, venture capital, private equity and growth management. His experience includes four years of corporate venturing in Southeast Asia for a major agribusiness conglomerate. He is active in a number of private equity funds, as well as numerous start-up companies in Europe and the US, as director, investor and/or advisor. He is also a co-founder of Venture Growth Strategies LLC, a Boston-based consulting company specializing in corporate venturing and early-stage private equity investments.

Christopher L. Tucci is Professor of Management of Technology at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Professor Tucci joined EPFL in 2003. Prior to EPFL, he was on the faculty of New York University where he taught Technological Innovation & New Product Development, Foundations of Entrepreneurship, Business Policy & Strategy, and Competitive Advantage from Operations in the MBA program. He has also taught strategic management at MIT, and has taught a global strategy module for engineering managers in the Tufts University Gordon Institute.