Cornell’s Andrew Karolyi: “Uncertainty is a given, and our approach is not just about developing flexibility to weather storms. Our college’s and university’s culture dares every student to dream big — and offers the skills and networks to achieve those dreams.”
THE CORNELL SC JOHNSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS is a school for students around the world who want to meet the future with strength and optimism. This is core to our identity, and that’s why in 2026 we resolve to double down on Cornell’s founding principle of “… any person … any study.”
When U.S. visa policies for international students unexpectedly changed last spring, many reevaluated their plans for business education here. We have come to learn that international student enrollments dropped across the country, and business schools in Europe and Canada seized the opportunity for their recruiting. Some U.S. schools decided to refocus on recruitment of domestic U.S. students. Fair enough.
What we at Cornell embrace is our global ethos. We continue to prepare students who come from anywhere and who aspire to lead everywhere. That’s why we’re continuing to enhance flexibility regarding our programs and delivery mechanisms, offering newer online options, innovative new teaching modalities, and opportunities to study in multiple locations and degrees beyond just the traditional residential degree offering, of which we are of course very proud. We are refreshing our competitive scholarship opportunities to recruit the very top student talent globally. These approaches serve all our students while making it easier for international students to stay with us throughout their educational journey.
Two dual degree programs that we have in China are perfect examples. These students are working professionals, and we’re meeting them where they are, and in partnership with two incredible institutions, Tsinghua University’s PBC School of Finance and Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. They also study in Ithaca, NY or at our New York City campus during intense residential educational experiences.
During times of uncertainty, flexibility matters, whether you’re a CEO, the dean of a business school, or a professional looking to advance your career. Here at the SC Johnson College, we want to be the most relentlessly relevant business school that never takes its eye off the prize — a clear-eyed focus on the future. We serve our students with excellence, we model operational flexibility, and we work in open-handed partnerships across our peer colleges and schools on our own university campuses in Ithaca, at Weill Cornell Medicine, at Cornell Tech in NYC and in other locations throughout the world. Our faculty expertise is vast, from behavioral economics to AI, from sustainability to international development. Our Johnson Cornell Tech MBA entrepreneurship-focused program is now top-ranked in the world, our real estate and hospitality offerings are first in class, and many other opportunities abound.
Uncertainty is a given, and our approach is not just about developing flexibility to weather storms. Our college’s and university’s culture dares every student to dream big — and offers the skills and networks to achieve those dreams.
– Andrew Karolyi, Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
Duke Fuqua Dean Mary Frances Luce: “When you combine faculty research, corporate partnership, and university investment, you create an ecosystem capable of responding to one of society’s most urgent challenges.”
AS I CONTEMPLATE 2026, I’M struck by how impossible it has become to separate the work of business from the reality of polarization. It is influencing markets, infecting workplace culture, and triggering stakeholder expectations. And now – even in the essay prompts for college admissions – we see young people being asked to reflect on how they manage disagreement. The ability to navigate difference thoughtfully and constructively has become a core leadership competency. As the dean of a business school at a research university, I see this as both a challenge and an opportunity. It is precisely the type of societal need that higher education is uniquely positioned to address.
Some of the most promising insights for meeting this moment are emerging from junior scholars at the research frontier. My colleague Bella Ren’s work is a powerful example. A member of Fuqua’s newest group of faculty additions, Bella’s research explains why healthy task conflict so often slips into destructive personal conflict – a dynamic that can undermine teams and erode trust. Bella has discovered we routinely interpret disagreement as evidence of poor listening because of a fast, intuitive judgment shaped by naïve realism. Through experiential exercises, including guiding students back down the ladder of inference, Bella is helping future leaders recognize cognitive biases and discover how quickly unfounded assumptions can escalate tension. These tools give our students practical ways to keep conflict productive and to ensure diverse perspectives strengthen teams rather than fracture them.
But scholarship is not enough. To make progress on polarization, research must engage with practice. That is why we extend this work beyond the classroom through The Dialogue Project, our long-standing initiative exploring the role business can play in reducing polarization and improving civic discourse. Its newly formed Business Council convenes senior executives from companies across sectors to work alongside our faculty – sharing real-world challenges, testing ideas, and helping us translate academic insight into applied solutions. This partnership ensures that our work is not merely intellectually compelling but practically actionable for leaders navigating an increasingly fractured landscape.
Our efforts at Fuqua are further strengthened by Duke University’s broader institutional commitment to pluralism, free inquiry, and belonging through the Provost’s Initiative. This university-wide endeavor reinforces the conditions required for respectful, rigorous debate – and provides resources that support faculty innovation, student learning, and collaboration across the disciplines. When you combine faculty research, corporate partnership, and university investment, you create an ecosystem capable of responding to one of society’s most urgent challenges.
Leadership is fundamentally about bringing people together to achieve what none of us could accomplish alone. In a world where polarization threatens collaboration, leaders who can unite diverse perspectives are more important than ever. My resolution for 2026 is to deepen Fuqua’s commitment to developing leaders who can bridge divides, strengthen teams, and ensure that business remains a force for positive, shared impact in society.
– Mary Frances Luce, Dean, Duke Fuqua School of Business
Tepper School of Business Dean Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou: “By equipping all students with the essential global experiences and cross-cultural competence needed to thrive, we position our graduates to lead responsibly in an interconnected global economy.”
AS WE LOOK AHEAD TO 2026, the Tepper School of Business remains focused on preparing every student for their career by offering an education that anticipates change, embraces complexity, and empowers students to become adaptive problem solvers and forward-looking leaders in a rapidly evolving world.
In 2025, we continued to roll out our Collaborative AI signature initiative: a set of interactive AI tools that provide students with immersive, experience-based learning, opportunities to apply a theory or practice, or test a hypothesis in real time. In 2026, we plan to accelerate and amplify this work by scaling the number of tools while broadening the subjects, skills, and real-world applications across the curriculum. This new year is also a time when we will intentionally and strategically harness artificial intelligence to expand and enhance our education, research, and operational capacities, reimagining what business education can and should be.
In the coming year, we will continue to internationalize our MBA program and enrich the learning environment for all students by incorporating a wider range of global voices and world-class perspectives. By equipping all students with the essential global experiences and cross-cultural competence needed to thrive, we position our graduates to lead responsibly in an interconnected global economy.
We also recently introduced immersive international capstone projects that blend academic work with deep cultural engagement, company visits, and alumni engagement, and we plan to expand these transformative experiences so that more students can participate in the future.
Tepper School faculty members continue to lead in research around business disciplines, artificial intelligence, and economics. I am particularly encouraged by the work being done by the Accounting AI Research Lab, which is using machine learning and artificial intelligence to redefine and modernize accounting practices through graph theory, information theory, and foundational accounting theory. With our strategic plan as a guide, we are focused on translating research into action, applying what we learn to real-world challenges and helping business leaders and entrepreneurs become more agile, informed, and impactful decision-makers.
Above all, our resolution for the year is to continue developing leaders who are resilient, data-informed, and comfortable leading through uncertainty. By embracing innovation, fostering adaptability, and reinforcing the fundamentals of human judgment, ethics, and purpose-driven leadership, we aim to empower our students and the broader community to help shape a future defined by opportunity.
As I conclude my tenure as dean later this year and prepare to return to the Tepper School faculty, I will focus on financial literacy, which is an essential foundation for effective leadership in every field. Strengthening understanding of markets, risk, and long-term planning should be a core priority in a society where individuals are increasingly responsible for navigating complex financial decisions that shape their futures.
I look forward to what 2026 will bring and to continuing this important work alongside our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and partners. I have full confidence that the Tepper School will continue to thrive under new leadership later this year, and I remain inspired by the school’s trajectory and enduring impact.
– Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou, Dean and Richard P. Simmons Professor of Finance, Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University
IESE’s Franz Heukamp: “Our ambition is to strengthen our ability to create transformative learning and, through it, help leaders get AI right: adeptly, responsibly and with people at the center.”
A NEW YEAR ALWAYS BRINGS the opportunity to pause and reconsider the kind of leaders the world most needs. The pace of change shows no sign of slowing, and yet the core mission of management education remains: to develop people who can think clearly, act with integrity and serve society. As we look toward 2026, this mission guides my resolutions for IESE and strengthens our resolve.
Few forces are reshaping leadership more profoundly than artificial intelligence. AI influences not only what leaders should learn but how they learn. At the same time, leaders now face new ethical dilemmas concerning human judgment, agency and the common good. These challenges are social before they are technological, and they demand a depth of character as much as a depth of skill.
At IESE, we see this moment as an opportunity to deepen our impact. Our ambition is to strengthen our ability to create transformative learning and, through it, help leaders get AI right: adeptly, responsibly and with people at the center. Across the school, we are reimagining how learning happens. Faculty are experimenting boldly – from our recent AI hackathon to new tools in teaching and research on how AI is reshaping the workforce. We are developing a coherent framework to guide the use of AI across programs, research and operations, always anchored in humanistic principles. Courses and concentrations focused on AI are among our most popular, and across programs we are embedding learning objectives that help leaders use AI expertly while navigating its organizational and societal implications. This work reinforces a simple conviction: innovation should amplify human purpose, not replace it.
Yet not even the most far-reaching transformation can substitute for strong human relationships. One of IESE’s defining traits is our supportive community, often cited by students, alumni, faculty, partners and staff as the essence of the “IESE magic.” The responsiveness and generosity of this community never cease to inspire me. Our alumni, for example, mentor and open doors for our students and support one another with a sincerity that reflects the values we hope to instill. In a time when isolation and polarization threaten social cohesion, such a community is not only an asset but a responsibility. Deepening the ties across our global networks of alumni, students, faculty, staff and supporters will remain a core priority in the years ahead.
This spirit of service also informs our commitment to responsible business. The world needs leaders with the courage to integrate economic performance with human dignity, sustainability and the long-term good. Our Institute for Sustainability Leadership advances this work by helping decision-makers see beyond short-term pressures and embed stewardship into strategy. This is humanistic leadership in practice: aligning innovation with ethics and power with responsibility.
As we begin 2026, my resolution is that IESE continues to be a place where human-centered education and forward-looking innovation reinforce one another. A place where AI deepens our ability to think well, where community remains a source of strength and where leadership is understood, at its core, as service to others.
If we stay true to this mission, we will help form leaders capable of shaping a better world – leaders who navigate complexity with clarity, embrace technology with wisdom and put people at the heart of progress.
– Franz Heukamp, Dean of IESE Business School
Next Page: Deans from Michigan Ross, Northwestern Kellogg, INSEAD, and Georgetown McDonough offer their resolutions for 2026.
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