About Sebastian Fixson
Sebastian Fixson is Founding Faculty Director of the DBA Program and Professor of Innovation & Design, at Babson College.
Dr. Fixson concentrates his work on helping people and organizations build innovation capabilities, an increasingly important aspect of the future of work. In his research, he investigates how factors such as structure and governance of innovation processes, practices like design thinking, and the use of digital design tools and Artificial Intelligence (AI) affect the nature and outcome of innovation work.
Dr. Fixson teaches innovation, design, and operations management related courses and executive education programs at Babson College, USA, and Universities and Companies around the World. He has also innovated on new ways of how to teach innovation, including programs, spaces, and simulations. In addition, he is serving the College in various leadership roles. From 2014-2017, he served as the founding Faculty Director of Babson’s Master of Science in Management in Entrepreneurial Leadership (MSEL) program, from 2018-2019 as Chair of the Technology, Operations, and Information Management Division, from 2019-2024 as Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Innovation, and since 2024 as the Founding Faculty Director of the College’s Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program. He also works with industrial clients and partners in industries ranging from health care, to manufacturing, to defense, to software.
Dr. Fixson’s writes for both academic and practitioner audiences, and his work has appeared in books and journals such as Concurrent Engineering, Creativity and Innovation Management, Design Management Review, European Management Review, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Informs Transactions on Education, International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, MIT Sloan Management Review, Research Policy, Research-Technology Management, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, as well as online outlets such as Harvard Business Review online. His latest book “Transform by Design,” co-edited with Jochen Schweitzer and Sihem BenMahmoud-Jouini, provides detailed insights into multi-year innovation implementation stories in large organizations around the World (published by University of Toronto Press in October 2023).
Dr. Fixson holds a Diplom-Ingenieur (MSc) degree in mechanical engineering from Technical University Karlsruhe, Germany, and a PhD in Technology, Management, and Policy from MIT.
