[{"jcr:title":"Alumnus of the Ph.D. in Business Economics appointed Associate Professor in Switzerland","cq:tags_0":"area-de-conhecimento:economia","cq:tags_1":"formato-de-programa:doutorado","cq:tags_2":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/alumni","cq:tags_3":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/internacional","cq:tags_4":"centro-de-conhecimento:insper-metrics"},{"richText":"Insper Metricis affiliated researcher Thomaz Teodorovicz will conduct research in strategic management at the University of St. Gallen","authorDate":"13/05/2026 13h22","author":"Leandro Steiw","madeBy":"Por","tag":"area-de-conhecimento:economia","title":"Alumnus of the Ph.D. in Business Economics appointed Associate Professor in Switzerland","variant":"imagecolor"},{"jcr:title":"transparente - turquesa - vermelho"},{"themeName":"transparente - turquesa - vermelho"},{"containerType":"containerTwo"},{"jcr:title":"Grid Container Section","layout":"responsiveGrid"},{"text":"Thomaz Teodorovicz, the first graduate of Insper’s PhD in Business Economics, will assume the position of Associate Professor of Strategic Management at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, in August. For the first time, a graduate of the school’s graduate programs has achieved a tenured position at a prestigious international institution and, notably, one that has long been a partner of Insper. St. Gallen is Switzerland’s leading business university — and the leading institution in the German-speaking region — and one of the world’s top business schools, offering programs in Management, Economics, Law, Social Sciences, International Affairs, and Computer Science. [Sérgio Lazzarini](/en/docentes/sergio-giovanetti-lazzarini) , Professor and Chafi Haddad Chair at Insper, who co-supervised Thomaz during his PhD, was a visiting professor at the Swiss university in 2009 and has conducted research involving scholars from both institutions. The partnership also extends to the Digital Policy Leadership Program (DPLP), an undergraduate program focused on digital policy aimed at developing future leaders. In January 2025, Thomaz had already [assumed the CBS Executive Foundation Leadership Chair at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Denmark](/en/conteudos/economia-e-financas/ex-aluno-do-doutorado-em-economia-dos-negocios-assume-catedra-universitaria-na-dinamarca) , where he has served as an Assistant Professor since 2022. It was a significant achievement for a professional with fewer than three years in academia. He became the youngest professor to be awarded a chair by the Danish institution, in recognition of an impactful academic trajectory in the field of strategic management. Academic chairs are positions funded by organizations external to universities with the goal of supporting researchers whose work generates significant impact. Traditionally, such chairs are awarded to senior professors at advanced stages of their careers. However, the Brazilian scholar achieved this distinction in just two and a half years while still holding an Assistant Professor position. This time, the University of St. Gallen offered Thomaz an even more advanced appointment. The Insper alumnus will become a tenured Associate Professor, a level above his current position at CBS. The Assistant Professor role — regardless of whether it includes a chair — typically represents a six-year probationary period. At the end of that period, academics are evaluated across several performance dimensions and may advance to a tenured Associate Professor position, which provides a permanent appointment. Thomaz completed this progression in just three and a half years. For Thomaz, this new career milestone highlights the quality of Insper’s PhD in Business Economics, which prepares professionals who exceed expectations even in the international academic market. Looking ahead, Thomaz expects to realize three opportunities made possible by his new tenured position: “The first is the ability to engage in higher-risk, longer-term research projects, with the potential for more significant results, given my interest in the strategic management of private companies that generate impact in the public sector. The second is to interact even more closely with organizations outside academia, since one characteristic of Swiss-German culture is that companies and public organizations work closely with research professors. And the third is this formal transition into more of a mentorship role for new generations, rather than being part of a younger generation still seeking mentorship.” Part of Thomaz’s experience in academic consulting stems from his ongoing collaboration as an affiliated researcher at Insper Metricis, which conducts studies on organizational strategies and management practices through projects with the potential to generate significant social and environmental impact. Metricis produces academic research, policy reports, case studies, and management guides related to high-impact initiatives involving companies, nonprofit organizations, governments, and investment funds, among others. According to the Insper alumnus, although he has been based abroad since 2019, when he began a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Business School in the United States, many of his projects still focus on Brazil. For example, he has studied faculty allocation in Brazilian private higher education, examining how a wave of mergers and acquisitions has changed the role of human capital in acquired universities. “The Brazilian context, in terms of public-private interaction and private companies operating in sectors with high social impact, is extremely rich for generating insights that can be applied elsewhere,” explains Thomaz. “One of the projects I am working on with coauthors in Switzerland for UNICEF, on public-private partnerships for school connectivity, shows that Brazil is a success case among emerging countries. I believe that from now on, I will be able to create opportunities for broader insights with substantial social impact in Brazil.”  "}]