Business
Do ‘tech deans’ make better leaders?
As students demand more technical savviness from their business schools, are technology leaders the logical answer?
By Chloë Lane
"More than one-third of students now say a university's visible stance and tools for AI directly influence their enrolment choice."
“Understanding technology helps you ask the right questions, avoid superficial adoption, and integrate AI meaningfully into both curriculum and operations.”
"The real value will come from combining disciplines, connecting ideas, and understanding how technology intersects with business, society, ethics and human behaviour.”
In brief
- Business schools are increasingly appointing "tech deans" to lead in the age of AI, responding to student demands for technical fluency and digitally-integrated learning environments.
- While technical backgrounds offer strategic advantages in problem-solving and innovation, experts warn that “human skills” remain essential for effective academic leadership.
- Universities must bridge the gap by embedding mandatory AI literacy into curricula while prioritising human-centred education that prepares graduates for a rapidly shifting global job market.
As AI dominates business school strategy conversations, institutions are increasingly appointing deans who have expertise in tech instead of traditional business backgrounds.
More than one-third of students now say a university's visible stance and tools for AI directly influence their enrolment choice, according to QS’ 2025 Education Trends Snapshot.
The demand for AI education is there, but do technology experts actually make better business school leaders, and does this technical expertise at the top-level ever really trickle down into the curriculum?
”A technology background changes how you approach problem solving”
For José Esteves, Dean of Porto Business School (PBS), a background in technology has had a huge bearing on the way he makes decisions. "A technology background changes how you approach disruption, problem-solving and innovation,” says the dean, who trained as an informatic engineer, and has worked in AI technology, and innovation for 30 years, both in the corporate world and in education.
Esteves has been Dean of Portugal-based PBS for three years, after more than 21 years at IE Business School in Spain, where he redeveloped and launched Europe’s first Tech MBA.
He says technical fluency is a source of strategic advantage in this new Age of AI, and deans who have this background in technology are therefore better equipped to lead at this time. “The issue is not whether a dean experiments occasionally with chatbots or dashboards,” he says, “but whether they understand how advanced systems — AI agents, robotics and automation — are reshaping industries, organisations and leadership.”
According to Esteves, business schools need leaders who can directly engage with these technology shifts, rather than delegating them to technical specialists. They need leaders who understand how technology is reshaping learning, operations, and competitiveness, and who are prepared to make bold bets. “Technology is now a strategic advantage. But what makes this shift possible is not access to tools — those are everywhere. It is mindset,” he says.
Esteves believes the modern dean needs a broader mix of technological, behavioural, structural and human capabilities. In practice, this means understanding AI orchestration, leading through ambiguity, redesigning learning into more modular and work-integrated formats, all while building emotional resilience.
The overarching goal for Porto Business School is to encourage students to think more fundamentally about transformation. Under Esteves’ lead, PBS has made the bold move to embed a compulsory AI for Business course into the curriculum for each of its programmes, designed to be treated as a shift in how organisations create value, make decisions, design processes, and compete.
Similarly Federico Frattini, Dean of Italy’s POLIMI Graduate School of Management, says his background in engineering and technology management means he naturally gravitates toward evidence-based thinking, embracing uncertainty as a driver of progress.
POLIMI invests heavily in digital platforms and lifelong learning models that Frattini says allows them to continue to adapt, rather than rely on static structures.
“I would not say that deans with technical expertise are inherently better equipped to lead in the AI era — but they do bring a valuable perspective,” he says. “Understanding technology helps you ask the right questions, avoid superficial adoption, and integrate AI meaningfully into both curriculum and operations.”
”The role of a dean is to address the problems in front of us’
It’s not about having a technology background but a systems background, says Dean of UK-based Imperial Business School Peter Todd,. A systems background is useful for a dean as it teaches them to look at how all the pieces connect.
A self-labelled “accidental academic”, and an expert in information technology, innovation management and technology strategy, Todd was drawn to Imperial because it’s one of the world’s leading STEMB (STEM plus business) universities. He saw the opportunity to help bridge these worlds and help Imperial to bring science to humanity.
Todd sees the role of a business school dean to coalesce the energy of the people around them and bring people together to address the problems in front of us. AI is one such problem – or opportunity, depending on your view. At Imperial, programmes like the MSc Business Analytics include modules like machine learning, causal modelling and generative AI/LLMs. Similarly, the finance and analytics programmes now also embed AI-driven modelling and data science skills. “We’re just coming out of the experimentation phase and getting into the structuration phase,” says Todd.
Now, more than ever, it’s important to know what questions to ask, rather than thinking you have the answers, he advises, as geopolitics and technology are more complex than they were five years ago.
“Understanding something about technology is important but organisations are still all about people; what's critical isn't understanding or mastering pieces of technology but understanding how they affect those people,” he reveals. “Those of us who look at systems maybe have an advantage therefore in a time when the future is very uncertain.”
‘Technical expertise alone does not make someone a better leader’
OPIT, short for Open Institute of Technology, is a technology-focused higher education institution that offers a variety of tech-heavy online specialised bachelor’s and master’s on topics such as responsible artificial intelligence, applied data science and enterprise cybersecurity.
Although his technology background has “absolutely” shaped how he approaches higher education leadership, the school’s founder, Riccardo Ocleppo, does not believe that it’s essential for business school leaders.
“I do not believe the future belongs only to narrow technical specialisation,” he says. “Deep expertise in technology will remain essential for some roles, especially in research and advanced technical fields, but the real value will come from combining disciplines, connecting ideas, and understanding how technology intersects with business, society, ethics and human behaviour.”
The real value of his background, he says, is that it pushes him to think in an interdisciplinary way. In the AI era, higher education leaders need depth to grasp the significance of emerging technologies and breadth to interpret their wider implications. While a tech background does help with this, it is not the only way.
“What matters to me personally is that we approach AI with both openness and discipline,” he explains. “As a higher education institution our role is not to chase every trend or become overly enthusiastic about whatever is new. We have a responsibility to distinguish between short-term hype and long-term transformation, and to build programmes that remain relevant over time.”
A university leader today, then, cannot focus solely on academic quality, but must understand how rapidly skills are changing, how students’ expectations are evolving and industries are transforming. They must adapt responsibly without losing academic rigour.
“Technical literacy is certainly a great asset, especially in the AI era, but leadership ultimately depends on judgment, vision, and the ability to shape education around what society will need next,” Ocleppo adds.
But Sankar Sivarajah, Head of Kingston Business School and Professor of Technology Management and Circular Economy, says that the real challenge for business schools is moving too slowly with AI and eventually becoming irrelevant.
To combat this, Kingston Business School is adding a dedicated module on AI for Business and Innovation across all business and management undergraduate programmes, while also launching new AI focused programmes – such as its soon to be launched MSc in AI for Business and Innovation.
“My focus has been to ensure this goes beyond technical capability. It is about future skills and employability, taking a human centred approach that equips graduates to work alongside AI with creativity, critical thinking and ethical awareness,” he says.
While Sivarajah agrees that leaders with a technology background are differently equipped, he too says they’re not necessarily better. “Technical expertise helps leaders ask sharper questions and approach challenges through a problem-solving lens, which can be valuable. However, it can also narrow focus towards technical solutions.”
Instead, effective leadership requires a broader perspective, he believes – seeing the bigger picture, balancing innovation with purpose, and understanding the wider organisational and societal context. “The greater risk is not a lack of understanding, but overestimating what AI can solve,” adds Sivarajah. “Poor judgement will always outweigh technical skill. Technical knowledge matters, but it cannot replace the ability to make balanced, well considered decisions.”
Do business school leaders need a tech background?
Having a technology background evidently does come with some benefits, including shaping leaders’ mindsets towards business education, particularly when it comes to integrating AI into the curriculum. Yet it is a benefit that is by no means a necessity.
When we look at the skills a great business school leader possesses, we realise what is more important is the ability to understand students: what they are looking to gain from a business education, and the challenges they’re facing in the job market. This makes exceptional human skills a non-negotiable for business leaders.
Students clearly want AI and technology integrated into the curriculum, but they need a business school leader who possesses the skills to help them understand what’s important and why.