The Committee praised Professor Bach for his leadership at multiple institutions in advancing global business education and his extraordinary efforts at creating global business education networks. While Deputy Dean at Yale School of Management, David Bach created the Global Network for Advanced Management, an alliance of 32 top global business schools from five continents that allowed students to take courses and collaborate across regions, countries, and cultures. The Committee also noted his strong record of leadership as Deputy Dean for Innovation and most recently President of IMD, a leading global business school. They also noted his substantial contributions to research and pedagogy around geopolitics and globalization. Taken together, these achievements demonstrate his exceptional strength in the selection criteria related to fostering outstanding international business programs; and recruiting, supporting and rewarding IB faculty members for their contributions to teaching and research.

We are grateful to the selection committee, professors Jonathan Doh (Chair), Dan Li, Dana Minbaeva, Bodo Schlegelmilch, and Arjen van Witteloostuijn, and thank them for their diligent work, wisdom, and time.

This distinguished honor will be conferred on Professor David Bach at AIB 2026 Manchester, where he will offer remarks at a special panel.  We congratulate Professor Bach and look forward to welcoming him and celebrating his achievements at the AIB 2026 Annual Meeting.

The AIB International Educator of the Year Award was created by the AIB Fellows in 1984 to recognize educational leaders who have fostered outstanding learning in international business and management; have recruited, supported, and rewarded faculty members for fostering important international business teaching and research; and/or have provided students with special learning experiences through uniquely designed courses, internships, and multinational projects.

We thank Professor Jonathan Doh and his Committee members once again, and look forward to the session in Manchester where we will be able to meet and honor Professor David Bach.

Professor David Bach embodies the qualities and reflects the ideals of the AIB Fellows International Educator of the Year. He has had a profound impact on international business education during his career as a professor, senior leader at multiple global business schools, and advocate for global management education. He has helped transform academic institutions in the United States and Europe (IE Business School, Yale, and IMD), bringing cutting edge curricular innovations, and emphasizing a broad stakeholder approach to business education.

As President of IMD, a position he has held since September 2024, Bach is focused on making IMD the world’s most impactful business school. Together with his leadership team and the entire IMD community, he is working to broaden and deepen IMD’s global impact through learning innovation, excellence in degree and executive programs, and applied thought leadership. Recognized globally as an innovator in management education, Bach previously served as IMD’s Dean of Innovation and Programs. Under his leadership, the school won multiple awards for groundbreaking pedagogy and executive programs. Before joining IMD in 2020, he was Deputy Dean at Yale School of Management where he led the successful expansion of the school’s degree program portfolio and the creation of Yale Center Beijing. He is one of the principal architects of the Global Network for Advanced Management, an alliance of 33 top global business schools from five continents.

As Nestlé Professor of Strategy and Political Economy, Bach helps leaders navigate the myriad political challenges facing business today. A celebrated teacher, his course ‘The End of Globalization?’ received the 2018 Ideas Worth Teaching Award from the Aspen Institute. His research on nonmarket strategy, stakeholder management, and global politics has been published in leading practitioner and academic journals, including Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Rotman Management, International Organization, Journal of European Public Policy, Governance, and the Review of International Political Economy. He has published case studies on companies including TSMC, Rio Tinto, Volkswagen, IBM, AXA, Golden Agri, Playboy, Endesa, and BP.

Bach earned a B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley.

The Committee that recommended David for the award noted his leadership at multiple institutions in advancing global business education and his extraordinary efforts to create global business education networks. They also noted his substantial contributions to research and pedagogy around geopolitics and globalization. Taken together, these achievements demonstrate his exceptional strength in fostering outstanding international business programs and recruiting, supporting and rewarding IB faculty members for their contributions to teaching and research. In short, they found him to be a “simply outstanding” recipient of the 2026 AIB Fellows International Educator of the Year.