Bill Fischer is Professor of Technology Management at IMD. His areas of special interest include: Management of technology, including management of the creative processes within R&D The creation and coordination of an international technology presence Technology transfer.
Professor Fischer has been actively involved in technology-related activities his entire professional career. He was a development engineer in the American steel industry; an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers; and has also consulted on R&D and technology issues in industries such as: pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, textiles and apparel, and packaging. Additionally, he has served as a consultant to a number of government and international-aid agencies on issues relating to the management of science and technology.
Professor Fischer worked with the World Health Organization for more than fifteen years, strengthening research and development institutes in developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
During 1998 and 1999, he was the Executive President and Dean of the leading business school in China - China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), in Shanghai, a joint venture supported by the European Union. Between 1976 and 1996, William Fischer was on the faculty at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, where he was the Dalton L. McMichael Sr. Professor of Business Administration.
In 1980, he participated in a joint US government-Chinese government venture, in Dalian, which provided managerial training to senior-level Chinese officials. He has since remained consistently involved in the Chinese reform experience, including consulting for a variety of multinational corporations, government agencies (both US and Chinese), and international aid agencies. He has written extensively on the Chinese economic reforms.
Professor Fischer has also written on manufacturing, R&D, and technology transfer. He has won several awards for teaching excellence from the American Institute of Decision Sciences, and in case-writing from the European Foundation for Management Development.