Bled, September 30, 2025 – We are proud to announce that Prof. Danica Purg, Founder and Dean of IEDC-Bled School of Management, has been inducted into the prestigious Thinkers50 Hall of Fame 2025. The official award ceremony will take place at the Thinkers50 Awards Gala in London on November 4, 2025.
Thinkers50 Hall of Fame celebrates outstanding thinkers whose work has had a lasting impact on how organizations are led and managed. Alongside Prof. Purg, this year’s inductees include Pankaj Ghemawat, Frances Hesselbein, Carol Kauffman, Bruce Lloyd, and Robert Sutton.
Prof. Purg has been a pioneer in management education for more than four decades. She founded IEDC-Bled School of Management and built it into one of the most innovative business schools in Central and Eastern Europe, known worldwide for integrating ethics, responsibility, and the arts into leadership development. She also serves as President of CEEMAN – the International Association for Management Development in Dynamic Societies – and is the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the Honorary Order of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Managers’ Association of Slovenia, and the French National Order of the Legion of Honour.
On this occasion, Prof. Purg stated:
“I am truly honored to be inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame 2025, joining a group of distinguished colleagues and pioneers whose ideas have shaped the way we understand and practice management. This recognition is not only a personal milestone, but also a tribute to the incredible journey of IEDC-Bled School of Management and the global community of professors, leaders, and organizations who have shared and supported my vision over the last 40 years.
From the very beginning, my mission has been to bring ethics, responsibility, and creativity into management education, and to build bridges between East and West, academia and practice, science and the arts. I believe that leaders must not only manage organizations but also inspire people and serve society at large.
I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Thinkers50 for this honor, to my colleagues, professors at IEDC, visiting faculty, committed staff at IEDC and the CEEMAN Network, alumni and business partners who have made this work possible. This award reinforces my belief that management education has the power to transform individuals and societies and that we must continue to innovate and lead with impact.”*
About Thinkers50
Thinkers50 is the world’s leading platform for identifying, ranking, and sharing the best management ideas. Since 2001, it has published a biennial ranking of the top 50 management thinkers and presented its Distinguished Achievement Awards, widely described as the “Oscars of management thinking.”