Isabel Fernandez-Mateo

A native of Spain, Dr Isabel Fernandez-Mateo holds the Adecco Chair at London Business School. As Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, she has taught in various degree programmes at London Business School, including the required core Strategic Management course for the full time MBA and Executive MBAs, as well as an elective course on “Building your Career Strategy.”

She has also taught PhD-level courses, and is involved in a variety of custom Executive Education programmes, where she teaches on the value of social networks for client management, careers, and leadership.

Her work has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Organization Science, Management Science and other journals. She is on the editorial board of Administrative Science Quarterly and Sociological Science, and is an associate editor of Management Science.

Dr Fernandez-Mateo is an economic sociologist and strategy scholar. She studies how firms and individuals can use relationships to create and capture economic value. Much of her research focuses on how social networks influence career outcomes, particularly in hiring, job transitions and career advancement.

Dr Fernandez-Mateo’s current research projects focus on understanding the organisational and social barriers that prevent women’s access to top management positions. She is especially interested in the role that executive search firms play in increasing female representation in senior management jobs. She is also studying the processes by which negative interactions in hiring processes affect relationships between employers and workers.