Dinis Guarda and Francisco Veloso, Dean of Imperial College Business School, sit together and have a vivid conversation about how business education is now shaped by innovation and technology, and how the business of the future looks like from an academic perspective. Both Dinis Guarda and Professor Francisco Veloso are expert in those areas, in which they are active as academic leaders, mentors, advisors and investors.
Professor Francisco Veloso is a Portuguese academic, PhD in Technology, Management and Policy from MIT and Dean of Imperial College Business School. Previously, he was the Dean at Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, where he held the NOS Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Francisco also retains an adjunct appointment at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a tenured Full Professor.
The present and future of business education is defined in Universities and Business Schools alike. Francisco Veloso ́s work and research focuses on high tech innovation and entrepreneurship and he leads one of the leading global business school. He has several dozen publications in leading academic journals and has won several awards for his contributions. He regularly contributes as a consultant and advisor to a range of start-ups, established firms, universities and governments around the world.
We speak with him about the challenges and opportunities, from the education perspective, in a world of increasing geo-politics unrest, tech disruption and powerful changes. Here are some of the questions Dinis Guarda asked:
1. Could you please tell us about your education and early career?
2. Coming from physics engineering you end up in business education. Can you tell us about how do you see this evolution?
3. You come from being dean of a business school in Portugal into the Dean of Imperial College Business London. Can you tell us about your journey that brought you here?
4. As Dean of a global leading business schools, how do you see business education and how business schools are and should be preparing the leaders of today and tomorrow?
5. How do you see the Imperial Business School role in creating business leaders in a world disrupted by geo-politics, fake news, manipulation of data and the increasing disruptive tech revolution?
6. Increasingly, one of the main trends now is continuous education and online executive business education and global business organisations offering online courses and training to executives on campus (Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Berkeley, MIT…). How do you see these trends and what is the position approach of Imperial College Business school on that?
7. One of your areas of expertise is entrepreneurship. How do you see business education and challenges of the entrepreneurship mindset?
8. Your research has focused on how firms and regions develop and leverage science and technology for economic growth. In that context, how do you see that in a very complex unbalanced world today from an academic, economic, business education perspective?
9. Being an expert in business from an academic perspective, and at the verge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, how do you real innovation today and special challenges with ethics, geo-politics, ESG, social impact and sustainability?
10. How do you see the 4IR and special fintech, AI and Blockchain disruption?
11. Is IBS doing any strategic focus on blockchain education the biggest skill in demand in 2019 / 2020?
12. How to prepare for the AI automation revolution that isl shift the entire education and social systems and the way we do business going forward?
13. What policies, actions would you like to see implemented by business education institutions on a global scale?
14. What would be your top suggestions for business schools, and business MBA students today?
Professor Francisco Veloso’s Bio
Professor Francisco Veloso is the Dean of Imperial College Business School. Francisco has a PhD in Technology, Management and Policy from MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as an MSc in Technology Management and an Undergraduate Degree in Physics Engineering, both from the University of Lisbon. Previously, he was the Dean at Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, where he held the NOS Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Francisco Veloso’s research focuses on high tech innovation and entrepreneurship. He has several dozen publications in leading academic journals and has won several awards for his contributions. He regularly contributes as a consultant and advisor to a range of start-ups, established firms, universities and governments around the world.
He is currently a member of the RISE – Research, Innovation and Science Experts High-Level Advisory Body to European Commissioner Carlos Moedas. Francisco also retains an adjunct appointment at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a tenured Full Professor.
Selected Publications
Castellaneta F, Conti R, Veloso FM, et al., 2016, The effect of trade secret legal protection on venture capital investments: Evidence from the inevitable disclosure doctrine, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol:31, ISSN:0883-9026, Pages:524-541
Gonzalez-Brambila CN, Reyes-Gonzalez L, Veloso F, et al., 2016, The Scientific Impact of Developing Nations, PLOS One, Vol:11, ISSN:1932-6203
Cheyre C, Kowalski J, Veloso FM, 2015, Spinoffs and the ascension of Silicon Valley, Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol:24, ISSN:0960-6491, Pages:837-858
Cheyre C, Klepper S, Veloso F, 2015, Spinoffs and the Mobility of US Merchant Semiconductor Inventors, Management Science, Vol:61, ISSN:0025-1909, Pages:487-506
Horta H, Veloso FM, Grediaga R, 2010, Navel Gazing: Academic Inbreeding and Scientific Productivity, Management Science, Vol:56, ISSN:0025-1909, Pages:414-429
Benner MJ, Veloso FM, 2008, ISO 9000 practices and financial performance: A technology coherence perspective, Journal of Operations Management, Vol:26, ISSN:0272-6963, Pages:611-629
Dinis Guarda is an author, academic, influencer, serial entrepreneur, and leader in 4IR, AI, Fintech, digital transformation, and Blockchain. Dinis has created various companies such as Ztudium tech platform; founder of global digital platform directory openbusinesscouncil.org; digital transformation platform to empower, guide and index cities citiesabc.com and fashion technology platform fashionabc.org. He is also the publisher of intelligenthq.com, hedgethink.com and tradersdna.com. He has been working with the likes of UN / UNITAR, UNESCO, European Space Agency, Davos WEF, Philips, Saxo Bank, Mastercard, Barclays, and governments all over the world.
With over two decades of experience in international business, C-level positions, and digital transformation, Dinis has worked with new tech, cryptocurrencies, driven ICOs, regulation, compliance, and legal international processes, and has created a bank, and been involved in the inception of some of the top 100 digital currencies.
He creates and helps build ventures focused on global growth, 360 digital strategies, sustainable innovation, Blockchain, Fintech, AI and new emerging business models such as ICOs / tokenomics.
Dinis is the founder/CEO of ztudium that manages blocksdna / lifesdna. These products and platforms offer multiple AI P2P, fintech, blockchain, search engine and PaaS solutions in consumer wellness healthcare and life style with a global team of experts and universities.
He is the founder of coinsdna a new swiss regulated, Swiss based, institutional grade token and cryptocurrencies blockchain exchange. He is founder of DragonBloc a blockchain, AI, Fintech fund and co-founder of Freedomee project.
Dinis is the author of various books. He has published different books such “4IR AI Blockchain Fintech IoT Reinventing a Nation”, “How Businesses and Governments can Prosper with Fintech, Blockchain and AI?”, also the bigger case study and book (400 pages) “Blockchain, AI and Crypto Economics – The Next Tsunami?” last the “Tokenomics and ICOs – How to be good at the new digital world of finance / Crypto” was launched in 2018.
Some of the companies Dinis created or has been involved have reached over 1 USD billions in valuation. Dinis has advised and was responsible for some top financial organisations, 100 cryptocurrencies worldwide and Fortune 500 companies.
Dinis is involved as a strategist, board member and advisor with the payments, lifestyle, blockchain reward community app Glance technologies, for whom he built the blockchain messaging / payment / loyalty software Blockimpact, the seminal Hyperloop Transportations project, Kora, and blockchain cybersecurity Privus.
He is listed in various global fintech, blockchain, AI, social media industry top lists as an influencer in position top 10/20 within 100 rankings: such as Top People In Blockchain | Cointelegraph https://top.cointelegraph.com/ and https://cryptoweekly.co/100/ .
Between 2014 and 2015 he was involved in creating a fabbanking.com a digital bank between Asia and Africa as Chief Commercial Officer and Marketing Officer responsible for all legal, tech and business development. Between 2009 and 2010 he was the founder of one of the world first fintech, social trading platforms tradingfloor.com for Saxo Bank.
He is a shareholder of the fintech social money transfer app Moneymailme and math edutech gamification children’s app Gozoa.
He has been a lecturer at Copenhagen Business School, Groupe INSEEC/Monaco University and other leading world universities.
