Martin J. Eppler

Making insights visible | Professor of Communications Management | Author

Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

About

Full professor of communications management at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Director of the =mcm institute for media and communications management. Global communication, innovation, visualization, and strategy researcher, trainer, speaker, and advisor. Author of 27 books, among them Meet up! (Cambridge University Press, International Book Award), Design your Future, An Introduction to Visual Variation, Sketching at Work, Debias by Design, Dynagrams, Visipedia, Creability, Life Design, Life Design Action Book, Visual Communication Design, Management Atlas, Office Monsters (short business book highly commended award), Managing Information Quality, and How to Talk about Data (Financial Times Publishing), as well as over 300 scientific articles, in journals such as Organization Studies, Harvard Business Review, IEEE Transactions, JMMR, Management Research Review, Computers in Human Behavior, Design Studies, Long Range Planning, Management Decision, Journal of Business Communication, Communication Theory, Communication Research, Nature Communications Sustainability. Inventor of the lets-focus software suite, the Confluence Dynagram, the Synergy Map, the Paths to Success ideation method, the VisualVariation Patterns, the Concept Skeleton and Idea Blueprint, the Bias Map (bias.visual-literacy.org), the periodic table of visualization, the TUNER debiasing approach, the CollabCards card set and the LitRev patterns. Top 2% of all scientists worldwide according to Stanford. Research featured in various media outlets including the Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, MIT Technology Review, BusinessWeek, Ted.com, and others. Prior appointments as guest professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta), the Simon Fraser Beedie School of Business (Vancouver), the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in Beijing, at Universidad Pacifico in Lima, at EAFIT in Medellin, and at Aalto University, Helsinki, as well as a senior visiting fellow of Cambridge University (UK). Lecturer in various MBA and executive programs throughout Europe, the Americas, Saudi Arabia, and Asia. Frequent keynote speaker (TED, Learntec, EO, Change Congress, Economist Day, Iknow, EU, insurance summit, asut).

Experience

  • Universität St.Gallen (HSG) (17 yrs)
    • Director / Chair of Media & Communications Management
      Aug 2009 - Present · 17 yrs

    • Interim Intendant Square
      Nov 2023 - Jul 2024 · 9 mos

    • Vice President / Prorektor
      Feb 2022 - Jan 2024 · 2 yrs

  • Visiting Professor of Innovation at Universidad EAFIT
    Oct 2024 - Oct 2024 · 1 mo

    Teaching creativity and researching the Medellin Innovation Ecosystem

  • Editor at Handelsblatt Media Group
    Apr 2005 - Dec 2021 · 16 yrs 9 mos

    Editor of the quarterly leadership journal ZOE - Zeitschrift für OrganisationsEntwicklung www.zoe-online.org

  • Visiting Professor at Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University
    Jun 2015 - Jun 2015 · 1 mo

  • Guest Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology
    Jan 2015 - Apr 2015 · 4 mos