Michael Hathorn, Partner
Michael has significant experience in leadership positions in industry and public sector enterprises. At Capital International in Geneva, a privately held investment management company, he founded and headed the Training and Organisation Development function for the European businesses. In his role as Group Director of Leadership and OD at TNT in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Michael served on the HR Strategy Council and drove key strategic initiatives in the area of HR Transformation, established a Change Management center of Expertise and developed the Leadership and Learning Framework for the top 500 executives. In the public sector, he is a contributor to the World Business Council on Sustainable Development and donates his time to a variety of professional organizations. His most recent conference and professional presentations were on “Accelerating the Development of Leaders,” “Aligning Business and HR Strategy,” “Functional Excellence,” “Mastering the Art of Innovation and Change,” the “High Performance Organization” and “Strategic Recruiting.”
In addition to his senior management experience, Michael has in-depth experience in leading enterprise transformation and change management in companies in North America, Europe and Asia. He brings a “total systems” approach to his work and specializes in choosing and adapting the methodology to the organizational culture and the business situation. His passion is helping firms respond to the “Leadership Challenge” in the areas of strategy, leadership development, innovation and organizational change. He brings academic rigor and pragmatic business practice together to ensure organizational results.
Michael previously served on the faculties of Louisiana State University and Northwestern State University where he taught in the undergraduate, graduate and executive programs. At IMD in Lausanne he has facilitated teamwork elements of the Professional Executive Development (PED) program. He is currently on the faculty of the Masters of Technology (MOT) program at the EPFL Lausanne where he leads the graduate module on Organizational Development. At the University of Geneva International Organization MBA programme (IOMBA), he facilitates a module series on team building with the student teams. In addition, Michael delivers a sustainable leadership and governance module in the Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS) program in Sustainable Business for the University of St. Gallen and BSL.
Michael is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a BA in Political Science and an MS in Marketing. He is currently a PhD candidate in International Business at the University of St. Gallen and is a member of various professional organizations, including the Doctoral Network (DocNet) at the University of St. Gallen, the Society for Organisational Learning (SOL), the Silicon Valley Association (SVA) and the American Marketing Association (AMA).