Derek F. Abell is the founding president of ESMT European School of Management and Technology and Professor Emeritus. His primary teaching and research interests are in strategic marketing, general management, leadership in technology-based industry and the broader responsibilities of the executive "beyond the bottom line".
From 1981–2003 he was Professor of Strategy and Marketing at IMD, Lausanne, and parallel to that, from 1994–2003, Professor of Technology and Management at the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne). He was Dean of IMEDE (the institutional predecessor of IMD) from 1981–1989, and from 1969–1981 a full-time faculty member at the Harvard Business School.
He originally graduated as an aeronautical engineer from the University of Southampton. He has a Master's degree from the Sloan School of Management at MIT and his Doctorate from Harvard Business School. He has served as a consultant to governments in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as to many multinational corporations around the world. He has also served as a board member of a number of European-based public and private organizations.
He has published five books and numerous articles. His most recent book is Managing with Dual Strategies: Mastering the Present; Preempting the Future, published by Free Press, New York.
