HEC Montréal has announced that the Chair in International Strategic Management created in March will henceforth be known as the Walter-J.-Somers Chair, as the result of a generous contribution by the Walter-J.-Somers Foundation to HEC Montréal through the A World of Projects fund-raising campaign conducted jointly by the Université de Montréal, the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal.
The announcement was made on October 15, 2002, by Jean-Marie Toulouse, Director of HEC Montréal, and Pierre Somers, Chair of the Board of the Walter Group, along with the Chairholder, Professor Taïeb Hafsi. Pierre Somers is the son of Walter J. Somers, founder of the Walter company, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
The Chair’s work focuses on the two main themes in strategic management. First of all, strategic positioning, which consists of seeking situations allowing organizations to create and preserve value. Second, the operation of organizations - more specifically, difficulties in implementing strategies, in particular in situations that are difficult for managers to understand and master. This work will lead to publications, business cases and development seminars for managers and executives.
Taïeb Hafsi is a Professor in Organizational Strategy at HEC Montréal. He holds a degree in chemical engineering, a Master’s degree in Management from the Sloan School of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. His research mainly concerns strategic management of complex organizations, in particular diversified and geographically dispersed companies, non-profit organizations, public companies and governments.
Professor Hafsi is a member of the Centre for International Business Studies (CETAI) and its director of publications, as well as Editor in Chief of International Management magazine. He is a member of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada and a founding member of the Strategic Management Society. Dr. Hafsi also serves on a number of boards of directors, in particular for small hi-tech firms in Canada and abroad. Finally, many private and public companies also call on his expertise as a consultant.
The J. Walter Company was founded in Canada in 1952 by Walter J. Somers. The company sells high-performance abrasives for cutting, grinding, polishing and finishing metal. It also produces high-quality, environmentally friendly chemical products for lubricating, cleaning and protecting metal surfaces. Today the company spans three continents and is a world-class leader in the supply of top-quality products offering solutions for reducing production costs. The Walter Group also includes Walter Capital, a merchant bank with investments in Canadian, U.S. and European companies.
