Ivana Modena, Ph.D.
Founder and President
Dr. Ivana Modena is the Founder and President of Sustainability Management School (SUMAS), the first business school in the world to launch BBA, MBA and DBA programs in Sustainability Management.
Building on her extensive academic and business experience, she founded SUMAS in two prestigious locations, the Lake Geneva area in Switzerland and in Milan’s fashion district, to inspire students from around the world to become innovative and responsible leaders.
With over thirty years of academic teaching, research experience, international publications and conferences, Dr. Modena has led SUMAS to achieve prestigious accreditation and reputable international recognition and rankings. She is particularly proud to offer academic programs in business and sustainability to a student body of over 30 nationalities, and to educate students of many different ages, starting from high school, as part of the International Baccalaureate, and extending to bachelor, master and doctoral levels.
In 2022, the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) appointed SUMAS as one of its Career-related Studies (CRS) Strategic Providers for its program in Business and Sustainability. The business school is one of five institutions worldwide to be recognized with this status.
Dr. Modena personally leads doctoral students to achieve their Doctorate of Business Administration and her main areas of expertise are Systems Thinking, Leadership and Research Methods.
She is of Italian nationality and holds Swiss Citizenship; she is fluent in English, French and German.
- Ph.D. Degree in Sociology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat, Frankfurt, GERMANY
- Master of Arts with Merit in “Intercultural Communication with International Business”, (awarded grant), University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
- BA Degree in Sociology, Faculty of Sociology, University “La Sapienza”, Rome, ITALY
- Systems Thinking in Business Practices
- Waste Management
- Executive Communication
- Leadership and Change Management
- Research Methods