Walter Kuemmerle is a leading academic expert on international strategy and management, as well as entrepreneurship and private equity. He has also studied the management of fast-growing organizations and innovation management in large firms. He is the president of Kuemmerle Research Group, Ltd., an independent research, consulting and executive education firm.
He serves as a researcher, lecturer and consultant at companies, leading institutions of higher learning and non-governmental organizations around the world. He was a professor at Harvard Business School for over 10 years, with a joint appointment in the Entrepreneurial Management and Technology & Operations Management faculty groups. In one of his current research projects, Walter examines how large firms manage to stay entrepreneurial and how they successfully pursue new business opportunities. In another project he examines success factors in private equity.
Professor Kuemmerle holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Economics from the Koblenz School of Corporate Management in Germany where he graduated best in his class in 1992. In 1996 he earned a Doctorate in Business Administration with a specialization in strategy and business policy at the Harvard Business School. His thesis, “Home Base and Foreign Direct Investment in R&D,” was awarded the George S. Dively Award for the best thesis research proposed in 1995 at the Harvard Business School. His thesis research was also one of four finalists for the Richard Farmer Dissertation Award of the Academy of International Business. Kuemmerle also holds a degree in Commerce from Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Lyon/France and has studied both at Kobe University and Keio University in Japan.
Professor Kuemmerle’s award winning research has appeared in leading academic and managerial journals (such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Research Policy, Journal of Business Venturing, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review), a book on entrepreneurial finance and several book chapters. His work experience prior to joining the Harvard Business School was in banking (Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs), consulting (McKinsey & Company), chemicals (Hoechst Group) and pharmaceuticals (Eisai Co. Ltd.).
Kuemmerle successfully taught in Harvard Business School’s MBA, doctoral and executive education programs. At Harvard he developed the first course on international entrepreneurship and taught it to over one thousand MBA students. He also used materials from the course in teaching over seven hundred executive education participants in Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program (AMP).
In addition to his academic and practitioner publications, he authored over 40 Harvard Business School case studies on companies located in over 25 countries. Kuemmerle serves on the board of several privately held companies. He is a long-time member of the leading academic organizations in his field (Academy of International Business, Academy of Management, American Economic Association, Strategic Management Society).
