Roland Berger Chaired Professor in Business and Technology
Academic Director of Elab

Soumitra Dutta is the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Business and Technology and the academic director of elab@INSEAD, INSEAD's initiative in building a center of excellence in teaching and research in the digital economy (http://elab.insead.edu). 

Prior to joining the faculty of INSEAD in 1989, he was employed with Schlumberger in Japan and General Electric in the USA. Professor Dutta obtained his Ph.D. in computer science and his M.Sc. in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley. He has been a visiting Professor at several international universities including the Haas School of Business (University of California at Berkeley), Oxford and Cambridge. 

His current research is on technology strategy and innovation at both corporate and national policy levels. His latest books are “Innovating at the Top” (Palgrave, 2009), “Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom” (Wiley, 2008) and “The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009: Mobility in a Networked World” (World Economic Forum 2009). He has co-authored ten other books including "The Bright Stuff" (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2002), "Embracing the Net" (Financial Times, 2001) and "Process Reengineering, Organizational Change and Performance Improvement" (Mc-Graw Hill, 1999). He has won several awards for research and pedagogy including awards for the European Case of the Year from the European Case Clearing House in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2002.

He is actively involved in policy development at national and European levels. He is currently a member of the Advisory Committee for ICT for the Government of Qatar and has advised other national governments on ICT policy issues. He is the Chairman of the European Commission's Europe Innova panel on Innovation in the ICT sector and a member of the Steering Committee of eBSN, the European Commission's eBusiness Network initiative for SMEs.

His research has been showcased in the international media such as CNN, CNBC, BBC and international publications. He has taught in and consulted with international corporations across the world. He has directed top management programs for several companies and is a regular contributor to in-house management programs. He is a fellow of the World Economic Forum.

Executive Director of INSEAD eLab
Former Senior Adviser, E-Strategies, CITPO, World Bank

From 2001 to 2003, Bruno Lanvin was the Manager of the Information for Development Program of the World Bank (infoDev), a multi-donor grant program focusing on extending digital opportunities for all (http://www.infodev.org/). InfoDev has financed over 170 projects in around 85 countries. Since early 2004, he has been the World Bank’s advisor on e-strategies and related issues, based in Geneva.

Since 2002, he has been editor of the ‘Global Information Technology Report’, which ranks countries according to their degree of readiness to benefit from the global information economy. In 2000, Mr. Lanvin was appointed Executive Secretary of DOT Force, the G-8 initiative launched by the Okinawa Summit of July 2000 to bridge the Digital Divide (http://www.dotforce.org/). He was recruited by the World Bank in September 2000 as senior advisor for e-commerce and e-government. Until then, he was Head of Electronic Commerce in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. During his twenty years with the United Nations, he has occupied various senior positions including Chief of Cabinet of the Director General of the United Nations in New-York, Head of Strategic Planning and later Chief of the SME Trade Competitiveness Unit of UNCTAD/SITE. He has been the Deputy Executive Secretary of UNISTE (UN International Symposium on Trade Efficiency) in 1994 and General Manager of GETUP (Global Electronic Trade UN Partnership) in 1998. From 1994 to 1998, he was the World Coordinator of the United Nations Trade Point Program, a global e-commerce network operating in over 100 countries. In 1999 and 2000, he managed UNCTAD's component of the UN 'Development Account', devoted to e-commerce and development, and organized a series of regional and interregional workshops on e-commerce, allowing more than 2000 representatives from governments and enterprises to exchange experiences and best practices in the area of e-commerce.

A frequent keynote speaker and participants in international conferences on the ‘New Economy’, he has published a large number of articles and books on ICT and development. He was the main drafter, team leader and editor of 'Building Confidence: electronic commerce and development', published in January 2000. In 2002 and 2003 he has been a co-editor and author of the ‘Global Information Technology Report’ (World Economic Forum/INSEAD/infoDev). In 2002, he oversaw the production of the ‘E-government Handbook for Developing Countries’ (infoDev/CDT).

Bruno Lanvin has worked in more than 60 countries. He holds a BA in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Valenciennes (France), an MBA from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in Paris, and a PhD in Economics from the University of Paris I (La Sorbonne) in France. He taught in several European and American universities. He speaks and writes French (mother tongue), English, Spanish and has a working knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Russian and some Chinese.

Senior Research Fellow, eLab

Nils Olaya Fonstad is a senior research fellow at eLab, a global research center within INSEAD focused on how public and private institutions create value from the digital economy.

Dr. Fonstad investigates how organizations re-structure themselves to both achieve greater synergies across business units and enhance local responsiveness. He developed the “IT engagement model” to describe how organizations effectively link IT projects to organization-wide objectives and to IT infrastructure services. He has found that firms with effective IT engagement models use projects to achieve both local and global objectives. Dr. Fonstad draws on both qualitative (e.g., in-depth case studies) and quantitative methods (e.g., surveys) to develop his findings. He has extended this research to examine how organizations effectively govern outsourcing relationships.

Dr. Fonstad joined eLab in November 2008. Before then, he worked as a research scientist at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR). Dr. Fonstad earned his PhD degree in Information Technology and Organization Studies from MIT Sloan School of Management; an MS from the MIT Technology and Policy Program; and a BS in Mechanical Engineering and BA in Film Studies from Cornell University.