INSEAD
I was a Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD (Innovation & Policy Initiative) at the Abu Dhabi campus from 2015-19. In that role, I collaborated on scholarly research and supported the institution’s academic commitments.
INSEAD bio:
Dr Kai L. Chan
Distinguished Fellow, INSEAD Innovation & Policy initiative
Dr Kai L. Chan is a Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD Innovation and Policy Initiative. He is also part of the senior management team of a Montreal-based technology (cloud software) company.
Previously Dr Chan was a special adviser to the UAE federal government on competitiveness and statistics, where he focused on that country’s positioning on global performance indices. He was also a member of the Dubai Expo 2020 bid team.
Prior to moving to the UAE in 2011, Dr Chan served as an associate and the in-house economist for a consumer finance merchant banking firm in Manhattan. Before that, he worked in the Singapore office of a global management consulting firm with assignments in Asia and Europe covering risk management and strategic planning for banks.
Dr Chan’s expertise/research cover education, income distribution, migration, government & policy, and performance measurement. He is the creator of the Power Language Index, Gender Progress Index, and Intelligence Capital Index. His works and analysis/commentary are often covered by the media.
Dr Chan holds an undergraduate degree (BSc) in economics & mathematics from the University of Toronto, and graduate degrees (MA, PhD) in economics from Princeton University, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on monetary policy. He has taught courses in economics, mathematics and statistics at Princeton, the University of Toronto and Concordia (Montreal).
Kai grew up in Toronto, Canada, but currently resides in Montreal. He speaks English, French, Cantonese, Mandarin and German, and is currently learning Russian. He enjoys playing (ice) hockey, training mixed martial arts (Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu), gastronomy and travelling in his free time.
***
***
INSEAD Knowledge (26 December 2018) article about which countries have the most efficient education sector
The Countries Getting the Highest Return on Education
Read the article here.
***
INSEAD Knowledge (12 July 2017) article about the Intelligence Capital Index
The World’s Smartest Countries
Read the article here.
***
INSEAD Knowledge (22 May 2017) article about the Power Language Index
The World’s Most Powerful Languages
Read the article here.
***
INSEAD Knowledge (20 April 2017) article about the Gender Progress Index
Societies should look beyond where women fall behind and instead try to tap the full potential of both sexes.
A New Global Measure of Gender Progress
Read the article here.
***
International Women’s Day
I spoke at the Abu Dhabi INSEAD campus’s International Women’s Day event (8 March 2017). The subject of the talk was the Gender Progress Index.
***
IIPI Policy Breakfast Series – May 2016
The Power Language Index – The Most Influential Languages in the Word
Speaker:
Dr. Kai Chan, Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD Innovation & Policy Initiative (IIPI). Dr. Chan is also an advisor to the UAE federal government on national competitiveness and statistics.
Wednesday, 25 May 2016
INSEAD Middle East Campus in Abu Dhabi, 08.30-10.30am
The Power Language Index – The Most Influential Languages in the World
A rigorous assessment of the efficacy of language in geography (travel), economy, communication and diplomacy. (Does language predict the outcome of the global elite?)
***
I contributed as a peer reviewer for a work by my colleagues at INSEAD (Abu Dhabi) on the challenge of opening access to talented underprivileged students from least-developed countries to elite centres of higher learning in developed countries. The project was sponsored by Credit Suisse.
White Paper: Higher Education – Investing in Future Leaders (Mahroum & Al-Saleh, 2015)
How impact investing can enable underprivileged talents to access best-in-class higher education
***
The new economic norm: jobless growth
The WEF, through its Global Agenda Council (GAC), identified “persistent jobless growth” as one of the top 10 trends of 2015.
I was asked to submit a comment on the phenomenon of jobless growth and the role of automation: “Jobless growth — the new norm in developed markets.“
