Professor Javier Tafur is Dean of Madrid Campus at ESCP Business School. Member of ESCP’s European Executive Committee, Prof. Tafur is responsible for the strategic development of ESCP’s Madrid Campus and directs its senior management team for growth and self-sufficiency. He has led from the beginning all the digital strategy of the Madrid campus and teaches regularly strategy as a Senior Lecturer in Executive Education custom programmes for large multinational business firms. ESCP (ranked #8 Europe’s business school FT 2020) achieved during his term that Spain's Top ranking (El Mundo) placed 3 ESCP programmes among the top 5 in Spain in their fields.
His relation with ESCP started as Affiliate Professor in 2009 to lead the Scientific Direction of a Dual degree: MS Intl. Project Mgmt. In 2014 he joined the Department of Management, former SHO (Département Stratégie, Hommes et Organisations) as a Full Faculty member. As active and experienced member of Faculty, he has been lecturing Strategy at Masters Level (awarded Best MIM Professor 2017) and Executive Education programs to several leading multinational business firms. Prof. Tafur led the 1st online Master Program design and development at ESCP which was particularly significant for the school´s digital transformation, becoming the Executive Master in Intl. Business (EMIB) the first 100% online program in France in 2014.
Previously, joined the Academia in 2005 at the Dept. of Industrial Engineering & Business Administration (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), he was lecturing Management and researching about Innovation & Strategy, also assuming the General Secretariat of CEPADE Graduate School of Management. Professor since 2007 at the ETS Ingenieros Aeronáuticos, Politecnica awarded twice Prof. Tafur as Best Management Professor in 2012 & 2013 at ETS Ingenieros Industriales.
His principal research areas are Strategy, Technology Innovation, and Business Transformation. He holds a PhD in Innovation Management and Economics from Politécnica, where he also studied Industrial Engineering. In addition, he holds a MBA from IE Business School and Postdoc education on Mgmt. Research at Harvard University. At ESCP he has taught on Bachelors, Masters’ and Executive Education. Externally, Prof. Tafur has participated as a member of PhD thesis examining committee at international universities such as UPM, UGR in Spain, and USC, ECU in Australia.
Professor Tafur has been, as a Practitioner, Member of the Intl. Board of Directors of Detecon International GmbH in Bonn (Germany) and CEO of Detecon Consulting Spain SA (Deutsche Telekom AG). Previously, his experience in Engineering and Consulting had been for more than 10 years in Public Sector, International organizations (i.e. NATO) and Multinational Companies (i.e. Dragados, Daimler-Benz, Deutsche Telekom) before becoming Academic in 2005.
Being responsible for the strategic development of ESCP’s Madrid School, Prof. Tafur is particularly proud of the accomplishment of far-reaching objectives during his 1st and 2nd mandate: Amazing growth and Self-sufficiency. This accomplishment could not have been possible without the collaboration of the senior management team and the professional staff, who are completely devoted to the European identity and global perspective of ESCP.
Key facts/achievements academic year 20/21
Madrid Campus annual growth record ever. Highest Madrid Campus EBIT ever (P&L year 2020). Highest Madrid Campus number of students per semester ever. Adaptive Model for Blended Learning fully implemented in Madrid Campus. No one single day Madrid Campus closed during 1st Semester due to protection measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID19.