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Meet MSM's faculty members: introducing Stuart Dixon

25-10-2018

Maastricht School of Management provides scientific knowledge allowing managers and entrepreneurs to make evidence-based decisions. To achieve our mission we encourage and support our faculty members in a broad range of areas. MSM’s faculty members are passionate about what they do and tenacious in finding solutions to the toughest business challenges. Each month MSM will highlight one of its faculty members and this month the spotlight is on Stuart Dixon.

Let me introduce myself…
I’m Stuart Dixon, and I am Academic Coordinator MBA programs at MSM. I was lucky enough to do my PhD at the European University Institute in Florence. My area of research was Limit Pricing and Multimarket Entry, where I looked at signalling models and how they can be applied to market entry decisions.

My work experience in the university environment started 24 years ago with my first job at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (recently called the School of Business and Economics (SBE) at the Maastricht University (NL). During that time I worked as post-doc researcher and did some teaching, ranging from microeconomics, trade theory, strategic management, Human Resource management and organizational behaviour. I think I have covered about 10 different courses in 3 years time! I had my first taste of executive education when I started to work for the Open University in Heerlen (NL) where I became director of the EuroMBA program. When SBE started its executive education, we moved the program to Maastricht. Beside my current position at MSM as Academic Coordinator MBA programs I am still retaining my MBA activities at Maastricht University.

The research area I am interested in is…
Because of my various management tasks I haven’t been able to do much of research in the past few years. However, there has been a recent growth in interest in scenario planning, a technic that was first developed by Shell. It’s a nice way to think about the future, something important for strategists. I’m reading and experimenting in which ways this technic can be best implemented to provide organizations better tools for future decision-making.

As you can see…my role is quite diverse and that’s what I like about working for MSM..
My role as academic coordinator is a broad one. I’m responsible for developing the MBA curriculum and any new programs that we start, as well as being the academic contact for students, staff, faculty and educational partners for our various MBA programs. Furthermore, I’m responsible for our assessment auditing process where I work closely with the examination board and with our accreditation staff. Beside this I am also a member of the Education board and I provide training myself in various areas. And last, but not least I have done some work with our project department, visiting Ethiopia last year and maybe Uganda next year. As you can see…my role is quite diverse and that’s what I like about working for MSM.

It’s MSM’s mission to bridge the gap between the diverse economies around the world
I like the diversity that we have at MSM. It is rare to find so many different nationalities, not just with the students but also with our partner schools. It’s MSM’s mission to bridge the gap between the diverse economies around the world, and I enjoy trying to develop MBA programs that meet those diverse needs. I’ve been to Kazakhstan, China, Vietnam, Romania, Hungary, Surinam and Ethiopia, and everywhere I go, I have the opportunity to learn something new. So not only the students at MSM gain new knowledge, but also we as faculty learn a lot from our diverse and multicultural students. For me this is a very rich experience!

In my spare time you can often find me…
In my spare time (and with 3 kids, there is not much of it), I play bass guitar and sing in a hard rock band. We are a trio, with guitar, bass and drums, playing our own songs. We claim to be the world's best rehearsal band, because with all our family and work commitments, we virtually never play live. However, it’s a great way to get away from the daily grind, and be ‘creative’, albeit in a radically different way!"

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