David Bach
As President of IMD, a position he has held since September 2024, David 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.
Bach was named 2026 International Educator of the Year by the Academy of International Business (AIB) in recognition of his global impact on business education.
Widely acknowledged 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.
Bach is one of the principal architects of the Global Network for Advanced Management, an alliance of 32 top global business schools from five continents, of which IMD has been a member since 2012. In 2025, he joined the Graduate Management Association Council (GMAC) Board of Directors, a global nonprofit association of leading graduate business schools that brings together future business leaders worldwide with educational opportunities.
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 MIT Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Rotman Management, International Organization, Journal of European Public Policy, Governance, and 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 BA magna cum laude from Yale University and holds an MA and a PhD in political science from the University of California at Berkeley.
