Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG is the President of Singularity Academy and a fellow (professor) on entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability, and well-being.

 

Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG has a multidisciplinary background, including industrial engineering, economics, management, traditional Chinese Medicine (taichi, acupuncture and herbal medicine), computer science, etc. She teaches and supervises cross-disciplinary studies in economics, business administration, entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability, and wellbeing at the graduate, executive, and Ph.D. levels.

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Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG is a Harvard Business Review China Management Mentor, a Visiting Professor, and a Research Fellow at Harvard University (Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School), Cornell University, and United Nations University-MERIT. She is also a Guest Professor at Zurich University, Luiss University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Northwestern University and an Honorary Professor at Beijing Jiaotong University.

 

Before joining Singularity Academy, Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG had been working at the Rotterdam School of Management as an Associate Dean and a professor (with tenure) on Entrepreneurship and innovation and Chinese Economy and business, and a director of the Erasmus-Huawei Collaboration Program, the founder and director of Erasmus China Business Centre from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

 

Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG is a board member of Verus Salus Group in Germany, an academic advisory board member of the Amsterdam School of International Business, a senior academic advisor for the Dutch National Framework of the BBA Program International Business in the higher education sector, a strategic advisor for Strategic Swiss Partners; a Global Network Partner for GLORAD, and a Project Leader (Erasmus side) of Belt Road Initiative Academic Project (one of China’s National Key International Research and Development Collaboration with Europe). She is also serving as an executive board member for the Swiss-Asian Chamber of Commerce and as a chairwoman for the BRI and Bhutan Committee. 

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Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG has earned many international awards, such as a “Top 40 Under 40 ” Business School Professors Worldwide (awarded by Poets & Quants); A NativeSociety Featured Business School Professors;  The next-generation Top 30 Business Thinkers under the Radar by Thinkers 50; and “MOOC Award of Excellence” on SDG17 goals by  SDGAcademy and UNSDSN.

Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG promotes academic research relevance and argues for cross-sectoral collaboration between education, academic research, and socioeconomic practices. She advocates the value of social innovation and the effort to build a sustainable community. Her case on Ant Financial won the Case Center Awards and Competitions (The case method community’s annual ‘Oscars’). The leading global media and managerial journals have published many of her opinions and studies, such as Bloomberg, Financial Times, ChinaDaily, People’s Daily, China Economics Net, Washington Post, China Policy Review (Formerly China Economic Report), Caixin, EuroBiz, China Radio International, EUReporter, NRC, EFMD GlobalFocus, Wirtschafts Woche, etc. and other managerial and economic opinion outlets include CKGSB Knowledge, Friends of Europe, Managerial Insight, Harvard Business Review, and Harvard Economics Review. ZHANG also offers consulting services for governments, NGOs, corporations, and start-ups as business advisors and educators. She gave speeches at educational, industrial, and political forums organized by EFMD and AACSB, Dutch Pension Funds and Investment companies, SAGE Knowledge, Horasis, World Economic Forum, Friends of Europe, Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, The Ministry of Customs the Netherlands, China Central Television, European Space Agency, as well as TEDx Talk, etc.

Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG's research interests are at both macro and micro levels, from an academic and practical angle. She has published over 100 articles. At a macroeconomic level, she studies social-economic transition, the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in economic development, the new world order, sustainability and circular economy, and inequality-based society towards equality-based sharing value society. At an organizational-industrial level, she looks at advanced and transitioning countries and their corporate entrepreneurship, globalization-localization paradox, sharing value culture, financial technology, and sustainable banking. At an individual level, she investigates entrepreneurship well-being and entrepreneurship education. Zhang’s other research interests and publications include future jobs and technology, (higher) education management, and traditional Chinese medicine. Her latest book (2022) "Mental Health, Psychiatric Disorders, and the Implications of Long Covid-19", builds a dialogue between Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine in treating psychiatric disorders with a cost- and healing-effectiveness approach.

Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG teaches and supervises entrepreneurship (including the themes of the economics of entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial cognition and wellness, and international entrepreneurship), innovation management, sustainability, circular economy, Chinese Economy and Business, happiness, and well-being. She embraces phenomena-based analysis teaching methodology, integrating cross-disciplinary knowledge into the classroom.

 

Prof. Dr. Ir. ZHANG cherishes the Tradition of Chinese Philosophy and Yoga Sutras. She is dedicated to Yoga, Tai Chi, and Chinese Traditional Medicine. She designed/taught the theme of Mind-Body integration and is a licenced TCM practitioner (acupuncture and herbal medicine) in Switzerland and the Netherlands.