Prof. Bijan Azad is a Full Professor of Innovation and Strategy at the Olayan School of Business (OSB), American University of Beirut (AUB), and Director of the Samih Darwazah Center for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship.
Before joining academia, Azad spent over 25 years in industry, managing innovation, digital transformation, and strategic change initiatives across the private and public sectors. He holds both Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
At AUB, Azad teaches in the Executive MBA, MBA, MSBA, and Executive Education programs, covering innovation management, business strategy, venture building, change management, and operational excellence. He pioneered the hands-on Venture Building Practicum, and has developed several SME scale-up programs including AUB’s SME Growth Readiness Program (2016), the Global Scale Up Program in partnership with IE (2019), and the SSS Program (2023–24) in collaboration with SPRAK NGO and the EU in Lebanon.
Azad is highly active in the startup ecosystem, serving as a mentor and instructor with numerous accelerators including Arab Bank iHub Fintech, Flat6Labs, SPEED, and Agrytech. He has also been a mentor with IM-Funding MIT Venture Mentoring Service in Lebanon.
An entrepreneur himself, Azad co-founded GIS/Trans, a successful map technology startup in Cambridge, MA, later acquired by Google Maps, and International Land Information Systems, acquired by ARCADIS in the Netherlands.