Prof. Dr. Emma Richardson

Prof. Dr. Emma Richardson is Dean of the School of Business & Management at ICS AI University, where she leads the School's academic strategy, executive education, research portfolio, entrepreneurship agenda, industry partnerships and international collaborations. She is an internationally respected scholar in strategic management, corporate governance, digital transformation, innovation management and organisational leadership, with more than twenty-three years of experience spanning academic leadership, executive education and global industry engagement across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.

Educated in the United Kingdom, Prof. Richardson read Economics & Management at the University of Oxford, graduating with First-Class Honours. She subsequently earned a Master of Business Administration from London Business School, where she specialised in strategy and finance, before completing a Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration at the University of Cambridge with a thesis on strategic renewal and organisational transformation in globally competitive firms. She was appointed Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Business School and later completed an Executive Leadership Programme in Global Strategy & Innovation at INSEAD.

Her early academic career took her through visiting appointments at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Saïd Business School at Oxford, where she taught on flagship MBA, Executive MBA and senior leadership programmes. She has held professorships in strategic management and innovation, chaired doctoral programmes and served on academic senates and university-wide strategy committees.

As a scholar, Prof. Richardson's research programme sits at the intersection of business strategy, digital transformation, innovation management, corporate governance and the future of work. She has authored more than 158 peer-reviewed publications, eleven books and over 34 book chapters, and has delivered 90+ invited keynotes at premier venues including the Academy of Management, the Strategic Management Society, the World Economic Forum, and leading corporate governance and innovation conferences. Her scholarship has attracted more than 23,800 citations with an h-index of 71.

As principal investigator, she has led over thirty-nine research projects and secured more than eighteen international grants from national research councils, European research programmes and industry consortia, in partnership with multinational corporations, financial institutions and public-sector organisations. Her applied research has informed board-level strategy at Fortune 500 companies, national industrial policy in several G20 economies, and governance frameworks adopted by international professional bodies.

Prof. Richardson brings extensive corporate governance expertise to her academic leadership. She has served as an independent non-executive director and advisor to listed companies, family businesses and high-growth technology ventures, and has chaired audit, remuneration and nomination committees. She writes and speaks widely on modern board effectiveness, ESG oversight, digital risk, executive compensation and the responsibilities of directors in an AI-enabled economy.

She has been a driving force in developing entrepreneurship ecosystems, having designed and led venture programmes, university incubators and accelerator initiatives that have supported hundreds of founders across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. She has championed close industry engagement, developing structured partnerships with global consulting firms, banks, technology companies and family enterprises to embed real-world practice into the curriculum and to create meaningful pathways for student employability and enterprise creation.

In executive education, Prof. Richardson has directed senior leadership programmes for CEOs, boards, ministers and C-suite executives, working with governments, multinational corporations and international institutions on strategy, transformation, governance and leadership. Her programmes are known for combining conceptual rigour with immersive case-based learning and cross-sector peer exchange.

As an educator, she is deeply committed to student mentorship. She has supervised more than forty-three doctoral candidates and mentored hundreds of MBA and executive students, many of whom now hold senior roles in industry, finance, consulting, public policy and academia across four continents. Her teaching portfolio spans strategic management, corporate governance, innovation management, digital business transformation, entrepreneurship, business analytics, leadership, international business and doctoral research methodology.

Her leadership philosophy is anchored in academic excellence, ethical purpose, international openness and disciplined innovation. She believes that a modern business school must integrate deep management scholarship with technology fluency, responsible leadership and lifelong learning. Under her leadership, the School of Business & Management is expanding its programme portfolio, strengthening its research centres, deepening executive education, growing entrepreneurship activity and cultivating an internationally connected community of scholars, students and partners.

Prof. Richardson is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a Fellow of the Academy of Management, and holds active memberships with the British Academy of Management, AACSB and the European Foundation for Management Development. She serves on international advisory boards, accreditation panels and editorial boards, and advises ministries, universities and industry consortia on business education strategy, governance reform and the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence in enterprise.

Her vision for the School of Business & Management is to establish it as a globally recognised centre for business scholarship, executive education and responsible innovation — cultivating ethical, entrepreneurial and internationally minded leaders capable of shaping sustainable businesses and resilient economies in an AI-driven world.