1. Why we are launching this community
We’re living through a moment of profound technological transformation: AI, blockchain, and more are no longer future trends; they’re shaping today’s business decisions. That’s why we’re launching the IMD Tech Community: a global peer network of IMD alumni who work to stay informed and ahead of the curve and support one another in navigating the complexity of tech-driven change.
Our mission is to empower leaders to confidently apply emerging technologies to real-world challenges through insight, connection, and collaboration.
Our vision is a dynamic, practitioner-led community that helps shape the future through experimentation, investment, and system-level innovation.
2. Building on the best of IMD
We all came to IMD to grow as leaders and benefit from the deep expertise of the Institute’s faculty and Centers. This community builds on IMD’s world-class research and frameworks to explore how technology continues to intersect with leadership, strategy, and sustainability for practitioners.
Members will work together to:
- Present challenges and solutions to a group of like-minded peers
- Discuss thought leadership from IMD professors and guest experts
- Connect emerging technology to business outcomes and ethical frameworks
- Apply tools that help navigate complexity, not just decode it
Whether you’re scaling a startup or leading the digital transformation of a global organization, the IMD Tech Community extends your learning journey, keeping it grounded, relevant, and collaborative.
3. A community of doers and explorers
We are alumni from around the world and across industries – tech founders, product leaders, investors, consultants, and innovators. What unites us is a curiosity about what’s next, a bias for action, and a shared IMD foundation. We believe in exchanges, peer learning, and making space for demonstration and experimentation. This community is not about watching from the sidelines; it’s about stepping in.
Here are some of the alumni leaders helping to shape and grow the IMD Tech Community through their diverse expertise:
Sabrina Boudefar (IMD EMBA) founded NOMA and TOOKLE.io and advises on crypto tokenomics. She speaks at industry and academic forums and designs blockchain-based economic strategies.
Madalin Manoiu (IMD EMBA) is an AI and data transformation leader helping organizations achieve growth through human-centered innovation, with a global outlook and impact-driven mindset.
Juan Martin Ortiz Rocha is an innovation leader specializing in creating and launching new products, services, and emerging technology initiatives that drive business growth and client impact.
John Joyce is a software consulting leader bridging business and data and designing agentic AI workflows, delivering always-on value across banking, telco, healthcare, and retail.
Christophe Meili is an entrepreneur and global account manager of agentic automation solutions, driving strategic innovation and operational efficiency for enterprise clients worldwide.
Olivier Gaillard is a fintech entrepreneur and banking-blockchain specialist, pioneering digital finance innovation at the intersection of traditional banking and decentralized technologies.
Pierre-Yves Bénain is a digital transformation consultant with deep expertise in aviation, innovation, product management, sales, and strategy—helping organizations reimagine performance in complex industries.
Omar Nicholas Achment is Group Head of Risk, IMS, and ESG with a consulting background in investment banking technology, plus entrepreneurial and application development experience.
Together, we bring perspectives from startups, tech entrepreneurship, digital transformation, and the broader technology ecosystem, along with a mission to help each other turn uncertainty into clarity and ideas into impact.
4. What’s coming up and how to get involved
We’re kicking off with a program of events this fall – each designed to enable new conversations, foster new collaborations, and explore critical tech topics with depth and pragmatism.
Upcoming highlights for fall 2025: Click on the links below to register for sessions
Monday, 22 September, 17:00-18:00 CEST | AI Personal Productivity Session 01: Introduction to prompt engineering
Tuesday, 23 September, 17:00-18:30 CEST | AI Tools Workshop: Empowering Founders through GenAI – In collaboration with the IMD Entrepreneurship Community
Friday, 3 October, 15:30 – 17:00 CEST on IMD Campus | Tech Meets Purpose – In collaboration with the TOGETHER Sustainability Community
Monday, 20 October, 17:00-18:00 CEST | AI Personal Productivity Session 02: Advanced prompt engineering
Tuesday, 11 November, 12:00-13:00 CET | Lunch & Learn – Blockchain & Crypto Series – The Wealth Shift: Powered by Blockchain
Monday, 17 November, 17:00-18:00 CET| AI Personal Productivity Session 03: Use case focused (Research and analysis)
Monday, 15 December, 17:00-18:00 CET |AI Personal Productivity – Session 04: Use case focused (PowerPoint, video creation)
These sessions will explore hands-on how GenAI and tools built on LLM models can be used to significantly increase our day-to-day productivity. The aim is to give us insights and techniques that can be applied immediately after the webinar in our professional (and personal) lives under the motto “It is not AI that will replace us in our jobs, but rather people who use AI.”
This series will be followed by another on agentic AI for organizations. How is AI automation already contributing to the productivity of organizations across industries and business domains, and how can we as business decision-makers, make informed choices about it? Here again, we will give you hands-on insights in interactive webinars that will help you become an active decision maker in agentic AI.
Ways to contribute
- Present a challenge, idea, insight, or use case from your industry in a meeting
- Connect us to people shaping the future
- Propose a working group or theme
- Write an article
- Recommend a speaker or suggest a session
Stay connected via LinkedIn or send us your ideas at [email protected]. Let us know if you’d like to join – or co-create the next chapter.
