Prof. Dr. Marion Festing is the Academic Director and Head of our Talent Management Institute. At ESCP Business School Berlin, she is also the Chair of Human Resources and Intercultural Leadership and Academic Director of the Centre for Intercultural Management (CIM) and Renault Chair of Intercultural Management.

In her research she focuses on topics such as international HRM strategies and approaches, with special emphasis on emerging countries, female careers, global talent management and global performance management. In addition, she is also interested in intercultural leadership adjustments as well as in intercultural competences and careers. Marion Festing gained practical work experience in Taiwan, has researched at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and in the U.S. at Michigan State University and has lectured at the University of Sfaxinin Tunisia, amongst many others. Moreover, Prof. Dr. Marion Festing has fulfilled functions as an (associated) editor and reviewer for several journals.

Link to Marion’s ESCP Europe Profile

Link to research

Dr. Lynn Schäfer is an Affiliated Researcher and former head of the Talent Management Institute (2014-2020). From 2011-2014 she was a research assistant at the Chair of Human Resource Management and Intercultural Leadership at the ESCP Business School Berlin campus, and as such she was involved in several research projects, taught courses on human resource management and organisational behaviour for Master’s and executive courses and wrote her PhD on the topic of context-oriented perspectives on talent management. Her research projects focused on talent management in Germany, for instance gender inclusion in talent management practices in the German media industry and talent management in medium-sized companies in Germany, and she also conducted a research project on talent management and the promotion of women professionals in the software services sector at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in India.

Next to ESCP, Lynn is also affilated to a consulting network (subject:RESOUL) where she works as a trainer and coach. Prior to joining the ESCP, she also worked as an HR practitioner in the area of talent relationship management, recruitment, training and management development at McKinsey & Company in Germany and Bertelsmann in Guetersloh and China.

Link to Lynn’s profile

Katharina Harsch joined the Chair of Human Resource Management and Intercultural Leadership at ESCP Business Shcool in Berlin in 2014 as a research assistant. Her main research focus centres on strategic human resource development, talent management and career development. In her role as such she conducts research projects on talent management and family businesses. She is also an affiliated researcher for the Talent Management Institute.

Before joining ESCP, Katharina Harsch completed her Master of Science in Education for Business and Economics, with the focus on Management Control, at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart. During her Master’s she studied at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane for one semester. As an intern at the Bosch Training Center of Robert Bosch GmbH, she wrote her Master’s thesis in the area of human resource development within the organisation. Moreover, Katharina Harsch worked in the area of talent management/career development at MHP, a Porsche Company.

Link to Katharina’s profile

Michaela Wieandt joined ESCP Business School Berlin, in 2008 as a career consultant. She continues to work with students and alumni in relation to career preparation, career strategy and planning, and she also manages the ESCP career network Linking Talents Germany. Additionally, she collaborates with ESCP Business School Berlin’s company partners on talent recruitment and employer branding. Her research interests focus on the area of talent attraction, strategic development of international careers and companies’ international career regimes.

Prior to ESCP, she worked as a research assistant at the Technical University of Berlin and at the Technical University of Chemnitz. Her research was about the professional development of IT occupations in Germany with regard to IT offshoring, as well as on (IT) consulting. Her Ph.D. work was on the regulation of international consulting projects.

Link to Michaela’s profile

Maral Muratbekova-Touron is the Paris campus representative for the Talent Management Institute. At ESCP Business School, again in Paris, she is an Associate Professor in the management department. Originally from Kazakhstan, she has gained academic and practical work experience in Kazakhstan, Russia and France.

Her research interests lie in the area of international human resource management and global talent management. Her research projects to date have focused on the international HRM approaches and talent management of multinational companies in developed (France, Canada) and developing countries (Russia, China and Brazil). She has also conducted research projects on intercultural management, including the development of clanism as an indigenous management concept in Central Asia.

Link to Maral’s profile

Chiara Succi has been Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at ESCP Business School Turin Campus since September 2009.

She achieved a Ph.D. in 2007, at the University of Lugano, with a dissertation on the acceptance of learning innovations within organisations.

Since 2003, she has collaborated on several research projects as part of the Swiss Virtual Campus Programme framework and worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Lugano, at the Politecnico di Milano and at the Edith Cowan University (Western Australia) as a visiting researcher. She has also worked as an internal consultant at UniManagement, the leadership development centre of the UniCredit Group and at the Masie Center.

Her area of interest focuses on the point at which learning, leadership and technology overlap. At the moment, she is focusing on the importance of soft skills and on the identification of the most important “attributes” for the next generation of workers.

Link to Chiara’s profile

Juuso Tiihonen joined the Chair of Human Resource Management and Intercultural Leadership at ESCP Busines School in Berlin in 2017 as a research assistant. His main research focus lies on international HRM, talent management, diversity and demographic change.

Prior to joining the ESCP, Juuso Tiihonen completed his Master of Arts (Erasmus Mundus Double Degree) in Euroculture with the focus on international HRM, at the University of Göttingen, Germany. During his Master’s he studied at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands for one semester. After receiving his MA degree Juuso worked as an HR practitioner in the areas of international HRM, recruitment, HR development at Science+Computing AG in Tübingen, Avenso GmbH in Berlin and LucaNet GmbH in Berlin.