Biography
Thomas Åstebro is the Executive Director and Professor at the ION Management Science Lab at HEC Paris; and Scientific Director and Founder of the Creative Desctruction Lab in Paris. Leading the ION Lab he directs a group of researchers on the selection and training of talent, with a focus on AI augmentation of these human processes. He recently concluded an RCT at scale in Ecuador where over 30,000 high school students were touched with various new online training initiatives. He is now scaling up an RCT with France Travail, seeking to train the unemployed in useful skills using online and AI tools to get them to employment or to become entrepreneurs. With Carlos Serrano, CDL and the HEC Incubateur he is also exploring how to better identify and select ventures and to augment training and mentoring of founders using new AI tools. He has held various high-level administrative positions at HEC and University of Waterloo and has been an entrepreneur four times. He is listed in Marquis Who's Who in the World, is among the top 2 percent most downloaded authors on www.ssrn, has made over 300 presentations, published over 40 academic journal articles, and has been mentioned in business media over 50 times (including The Economist, Business Week, The Times, and Wall Street Journal). He has previously held positions at University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, and KU Leuven. He earned his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in the United States and holds both a Master of Engineering and an MBA from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
Scientific articles
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, July 2007, vol. 20, n° 3, pp 253-272, (in coll. with S.A. Jeffrey, G. Adomdza)
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, October 2007, vol. 20, n° 4, pp 381-403, (in coll. with D. Koehler)
Management Science, July 2006, vol. 52, n° 3, pp 395-409, (in coll. with S. Elhedhli)
Journal of Product Innovation Management, July 2005, vol. 22, n° 4, pp 322-335, (in coll. with J. Michela)
Small Business Economics, 2005, vol. 24, n° 1, pp 63-78, (in coll. with I. Bernhardt)
Research Policy, November 2005, vol. 34, n° 9, pp 1404-1418, (in coll. with K. Dahlin)
IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 2004, vol. 51, n° 3, pp 314-321,
Journal of Industrial Economics, September 2004, vol. 52, n° 3, pp 381-399,
Canadian Investment Review, 2003, vol. 16, n° 1, pp 18-25,
Economic Journal, January 2003, vol. 484, n° 113, pp 226-239,
Chapters in edited books
Proceedings
Working papers
Scientific articles
Small Business Economics, 3 February 2016, vol. 47, n° 4, pp 819–834, (in coll. with Gordon ADOMDZA, Kevyn YONG)
Journal of Business Venturing Insights, June 2016, vol. 5, pp 37–49, (in coll. with N. VULKAN, M. FERNANDEZ SIERRA)
European Economic Review, October 2016, vol. 89, pp 129–147, (in coll. with J. TAG, P. THOMPSON)
Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, July 2016, vol. 40, n° 2, pp 381-400, (in coll. with K. YONG)
Chapters in edited books
Proceedings
Working papers
Cahier de Recherche du Groupe HEC , 2014
Mimeo , 2026
Mimeo , 2026
Mimeo , 2026
Education
-
Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University - USA
-
Licentiate of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology - Sweden
-
Master of Science, Chalmers University of Technology - Sweden
Academic appointments
Academic Responsibilities at HEC
- 2025- ION Management Lab Executive Director HEC Paris
Scientific Activities
Membership in Academic or Professional Organisation
- Member of the Executive Committe, SEI (Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation)
- Member of selection committee, Canadian Young Entrepreneur Award
Editorial activities
Conference organisation
Awards & honors
- 2016 Best Empirical Paper, AoM Entrepreneurship Division, AoM conference
- 2016 Chair of Excellence
- 2015 Finalist, Prix Academique de la Recherche en Management
- 2014 Management Science Distinguished Service Award
- 2003 Best Paper: Administrative Association of Canada, Technology and Innovation Management Division.
- 2001 National Award: 2nd place - Most Promising Technology, Awarded by the Innovations Foundation, University of Toronto
- 1999 Best Paper, Runner Up: Canadian Council on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference
- 1995 National Award: NSERC/SSHRC/CIBC Associate Chair in Management of Technological Change.
- 1991 1994 - National Scholarship: Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation for Research in the Social Sciences
- 1991 National Scholarship: The Sweden-America Foundation.
- 1989 Scholarship: The Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology, Sweden, 10 year Jubilee Stipend.
- 1988 Scholarship: Arvid Lindmans Memorial Foundation
- 1988 National Scholarship: The Swedish Natural Science Research Council.