Expert in chaos and innovation is new GSB director

"The school has values that are mine" - Prof Walter Baets, incoming director of the Graduate School of Business.

Walter Baets, Professor in Complexity, Knowledge and Innovation at Euromed Marseille, École de Management, in France, will head the Graduate School of Business from 1 July when he steps into Professor Frank Horwitz's shoes.

Belgian-born Baets is associate dean for research and social responsibility and MBA director at École de Management, a top-ranked EQUIS-accredited business school.

While director of the school's graduate programmes (2003-2006), he designed and implemented an innovative pedagogical approach that translated a more holistic view on management into course design. The business school now ranks among the country's top 10.

Asked what had drawn him to the southern tip of Africa, Baets said he'd been excited to find a business school with values that mirrored his own, one that focuses on systemic practices and action learning.

"I've found the school I wanted to create. It exists, a new kind of business school based on the paradigm of emergent economies. It's a precious gift."

South Africa is "a remarkable country with an amazing journey", he said.

"If we're talking uncertainty and complexity, there's lots of experience in this country. There's also more to be learnt from an emerging economy. There's more life and potential than in the old economies of Europe and North America."

After completing his MSc (operations research and econometrics) at the University of Antwerp, Baets obtained his PhD in industrial and business studies at Warwick Business School, UK. The multilingual Baets (he speaks Dutch, French, English and some German and Spanish) is the author of numerous journal articles and more than 10 books.

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