Didier Cossin

Didier Cossin (born September 19, 1964) is a Swiss-French investor, author, and economics academic, with expertise in investment governance. He is a Professor of Governance and Finance and the Founder and Director at Global Board Center, part of the IMD Business School, where he is also the UBS Chair in Banking and Finance. Cossin is the author of several books, including High Performance Boards: A Practical Guide to Improving and Energizing Your Governance. He is the Chair of PNYX Group.

Early life and education Cossin received Master's in Social Sciences from ENS Paris and a Master's in Economics from the Sorbonne University. He earned an MPhil in Mathematical Economics from EHESS-ENSAE, studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Fulbright Scholar, and gained his PhD in Business Economics from Harvard University. He has also worked with sovereign wealth funds and state investors such as the Public Investment Fund (PIF) in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding (ADQ), and Temasek in Singapore.

Cossin provides governance advisory services to the Red Cross and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He currently holds the position of Senior Advisor in Governance to UNICEF and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Before his tenure at IMD Business School, Cossin worked for Goldman Sachs (London, UK) and pharmaceutical company Roussel-Uclaf (Tokyo, Japan). He was previously a Professor of Finance at HEC Lausanne and taught at Harvard, where he obtained two Derek Bok Awards for excellence in teaching, and was a visiting professor at the University of California and INSEAD. In the late 1990s, Cossin chaired Harvard’s Department of Management and became the director of its Institute of Banking & Financial Management and PhD in Management.

Selected published works Books

Articles and chapters