Adjunct Professor of International Business and Family Business, University of San Francisco
Isabelle Lescent-Giles is an adjunct professor of International Business and Family Business at the University of San Francisco (California, USA) and a tenured Associate Professor of Economic History at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne (France). She also serves as historian and consultant to family firms, high net worth families and philanthropic foundations. She helps clients plan for the future through a better understanding of their legacy, values and core business skills, and facilitates discussions on strategic planning, globalization, succession planning and heir preparedness. Her research focuses on the adaptation of family firms and family networks to technological change and global competition, with a special interest for multicultural families, immigrant entrepreneurs and the role of diaspora networks. Isabelle Lescent-Giles has a Ph.D. in economic history from the Sorbonne and is a former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, one of France’s leading Ivy League schools. Prior to joining the University of San Francisco, she taught at Oxford University, NYU’s Stern Graduate School of Business and the Sorbonne. She also held positions as a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics and Columbia University, and worked for McKinsey as a research analyst after completing her PhD. She serves as course expert and developer for the Economist Group’s Business Education division. Isabelle relocated to Silicon Valley with her tri-cultural family in 2008 after living in London, Paris and New York, and has worked extensively with families and firms in the US, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.