Robert Piret

ROBERT E. PIRET

University of California - Los Angeles
(Ph.D. Management, concentration in Strategy and Organization)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MBA, concentration in Finance)
(M.S. Chemical Engineering)
Brown University
(B.A., Applied Mathematics)

Educated in the United States, Dr. Piret has spent his professional career between the North America and Europe.

Associate Professor at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP-EAP), Dr. Piret has lectured extensively on both continents in the areas of Strategy, Organization, International Management, Corporate Development and Entrepreneurship, Finance and Venture Capital, and Motion Picture and TV Production and Management. He was previously a professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politique de Paris (Sciences Po).

In addition, Dr. Piret has over 15 years of experience as a management consultant, specializing in strategic and organizational issues in technology-intensive areas, including the telecommunications, computer software and hardware, life sciences, automotive, materials, chemicals, petroleum and petrochemical, energy and environmental industries, as well as in information-intensive areas, including the media and audiovisual industries, in the U.S. and in Europe.

While Managing Director at Newbury, Piret & Company, Inc., (Boston, MA), an investment bank specializing in Mergers, Acquisitions, and Financing in technology industries, Dr. Piret was involved in corporate financings and acquisitions in the US and Europe. He has also taken a leading role in over a half-dozen startup companies in technology and service industries. He has previously had operational experience in both a technical and a managerial capacity.

Finally, through theater (e.g., co-founder, actor, director and producer of the Theatre de l’Orangerie in Providence RI), motion picture financing and production (e.g., “Paysage avant l’Eté”, selected at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, section “Perspectives”), and film promotion (e.g., previously Director-Europe and currently Advisor for the Osaka European Film Festival in Japan), Dr. Piret has been active for more than twenty years in the entertainment industries.

Dr. Piret’s current research interests focus on the following key areas:
- customer centricity, product and service customization and the impact of IT on mass customization,
- management of cross-cultural relations and why people of different cultures have so much difficulty understanding each other (in particular USA and France), and
- the impact of neurosciences on management practices.
In addition, Dr. Piret has been actively engaged in advising and coaching entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial ventures, primarily in the hi-tech and life sciences areas.