Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Dr. Serge Poisson-de Haro is a full professor at HEC Montreal. He completed his Ph.D. in Management in 2006 at IESE Business School in Barcelona where he was awarded a doctoral fellowship. At HEC Montreal, he teaches Strategic Management related courses at the MBA, Master in Management of Cultural Enterprises and M.Sc levels. He was awarded three times the Teacher Award by the HEC MBA Association and also won twice the HEC Award for Best Professor based on the choice of his peers. His research interests are primarily in the areas of strategy in the context of artistic organizations and experiential learning methods. He has published in journals such as Management Decision, Journal of Business Ethics, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Journal of Arts Management Law & Society, International Journal of Arts Management, Journal of World Business, Gestion, Revue Française de Gestion, Journal of Management Development, and the Journal of Business Ethics Education. He presented papers at leading international conferences. His dissertation paper “Path to Sustainability of Spanish Utilities: A Study of Sustainable Initiatives and Capabilities” was presented at the Academy of Management in 2006 and was a finalist for the William H. Newman Award. He has published numerous case studies in the International Journal of Case Studies in Management, one of the leading peer reviewed journals for case studies. He has a book chapter in Business Meets Culture (Palgrave Mcmillan) and published "La gestion stratégique des organisations artistiques"/"Strategic Management of Arts Organizations" (Éditions JFD, Montréal). Before academia, he worked in management positions for several years for a Europe-based leading insurance group both at head-office and subsidiary levels in Europe and North America. He was a board member of the Canadian Opera Company, DARE Arts For Children Foundation, French-Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Mondial Assistance. He aims at combining teaching, research and practice in the strategy field (in particular in artistic organizations). Specialties: Strategy, arts management and experiential learning methods. Interests also in stakeholder dialogue and business models.
Teaching the strategic management simulation based course at MBA level (first course of the program). teaching also a specific strategic management course at the Master in Management of Cultural Organizations and another ones at the M.Sc. in Management. Research focused on strategy in the context of artistic organizations, experiential learning, business models.
I was part of the initial executive team of Allianz Worldwide Care, the new Allianz Group's strategic start-up initiative for expats insurance. The new operation was based in Dublin. I developed all the infrastructure and agreements necessary to ensure that the Allianz Worldwide Care products would be distributed around Europe through the subsidiaries of Allianz and AGF.
Key experiences: Management positions in contexts of TURNAROUND, MERGER and START-UP. As part of the executive team of AGF NAFTA, the holding company of the North American activities of the Group, during the first two years, i developed and monitored the implementation of the turnaround strategic plan of the Canadian subsidiaries, coordinating communications between head-office in Europe and Canada. Responsibilities for Marketing and Direct Sales were then added. At the same time, i was visiting AGF's Mexican subsidiary every other month to participate to the board meetings as part of the consolidation effort of the North American activities into AGF NAFTA. In 1998, AGF was taken over by Allianz in Europe and i was part of the merger task force to proceed with the integration of the Canadian subsidiaries leading to the position of VP Marketing and Development for all Canadian subsidiaries. I was then transfered back to head-office in Paris to coordinate a plan for the South American subsidiaries. However, Allianz needed to fill an executive position for Sales, Marketing and Development for a Group's strategic start-up initiative in Ireland. Therefore, I was then transfered to Dublin.
Reporting directly to the CFO of AGF International, i was first in charge of following from Head-Office the activities of the African subsidiaries of AGF. As part of my assignment was the coordination and integration of the subsidiaries business plans with AGF International strategic plan. In particular, i was the Head-Office contact of each African subsidiary CEO for the yearly strategic planning process and as such was visiting on a regular basis each subsidiary. A few months after, i had the same responsibilities for the AGF's North American subsidiaries (mainly Canada at that point in time).