Université de Sherbrooke awards honorary doctorate to Taïeb Hafsi
October 16, 2025
Taïeb Hafsi, HEC Montréal Professor Emeritus, has been awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by Université de Sherbrooke.
The honorary insignia was presented to him at Université de Sherbrooke’s annual convocation ceremony, which took place on September 20, 2025. The ceremony was held in the University’s outdoor stadium, and it celebrated the achievements of 3,550 graduates in front of around 12,000 spectators.
This doctorate which was awarded to Taïeb Hafsi shines the spotlight on an outstanding career in the field of management. The University announced that it was bestowing this honour upon him to “highlight the breadth of his research, his international outreach and his social commitment, demonstrating an influence that extends far beyond academia.”
Jean-Pierre Perreault, Rector of the Université de Sherbrooke, with Taïeb Hafsi.
About Taïeb Hafsi
Taïeb Hafsi holds a PhD in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, and an MSc in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was a professor at HEC Montréal for 38 years, and he retired in January 2022.
His research mainly focuses on the strategic management of complex organizations. His contribution to research is acknowledged worldwide, in particular thanks to the Walter J. Somers Chair in International Strategic Management, which he directed from 2000 to 2020. He has authored and co-authored more than 100 research articles published in leading journals, 25 books and 31 chapters, in addition to numerous conference papers. Several of his publications have won awards from journals, academic associations and publishing houses.
Professor Hafsi’s reputation extends far beyond Quebec, thanks to his interventions abroad as a guest speaker and professor. Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada’s Academy of Social Sciences and lifelong Fellow of the Economic Research Forum, he was also actively involved in Executive Education HEC Montréal and served on various boards of directors, including that of Centraide, which gave him the Michèle-Thibodeau-DeGuire Award in 2020.
Founder of the International Management journal and the case method teaching group that led to the creation of the International Journal of Case Studies in Management, he is also a co-founder of the Strategic Management Society.
He received several major research and teaching awards from the School, including the following:
- Pierre Laurin Award for Research Excellence (1991)
- Jean Guertin Award for Teaching Excellence (2000)
- Alma-Lepage Award (2001)
- François-Albert Angers Award (2001).
