Keynote Speakers

Dr Justin Paul holds three Doctoral Degrees: a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Brighton, England, a Ph.D. in International Business from IIT Bombay, and an honorary doctorate from Calcutta. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Consumer Studies (IJCS), a Q1 journal indexed in Web of Science and Scimago, from 2020 to 2025.

A former faculty member of the University of Washington, and former Provost & Dean of the AACSB & EQUIS accredited NMIMS, he is a professor of PhD & MBA programs at the University of Puerto Rico, USA, and holds/held honorary or distinguished visiting professor positions at the University of Reading (UK), Korea University, Corvinus University of Budapest, Lebanese American University, University of Versailles (France), and IIM Kozhikode (India).

Ranked among the world’s top 72 most-cited academics in Business & Economics with an H-index of 101, Professor Paul is internationally recognized for introducing several influential frameworks, including the Masstige Model for branding, the CPP Model for firm internationalization, the SCOPE Framework for small firms, and the TCCM and SPAR-4-SLR approaches for systematic literature reviews.

Alexander D. Stajkovic is a Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with extensive research in leadership, work motivation, and organizational psychology. His work, widely published in leading academic journals, has generated significant global impact and close to 17,000 citations. He focuses on evidence-based leadership and the role of leaders in addressing complex societal challenges, combining academic excellence with international teaching, research, and executive education experience.

Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke is an internationally recognised expert in economic development and international cooperation, holding a PhD in Economics. He has built a distinguished career advising governments, development agencies, and international organisations on sustainable development strategies, with over 30 years of consulting experience spanning Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

As a co-founder of Mesopartner, he specialises in quality infrastructure, cluster and value chain development, and regional competitiveness. He facilitates systemic change processes and translates complex development challenges into actionable strategies. He currently serves as an advisor to the Single Market Academy, supporting capacity-building for organisations involved in market surveillance, standardisation, accreditation, and metrology across the six Western Balkan economies.

Ulrich is also actively engaged in applied research on economic development, consistently bridging theory and practice to generate meaningful and lasting impact.