AABS Accreditation Governance
AABS Accreditation Governance

Franklyn Manu
Former Dean, GIMPA Business School and Rector

Helmi Hammami
A full professor of Accounting at Rennes School of Business – France.

Jean-François Fiorina
Vice Dean, Grenoble Ecole de Management

Jean Philippe Ammeux
Dean, IESEG School of Management

Mark Smith
Director, Stellenbosch Business School, Cape Town

Rihab Khalifa
Commissioner at the Commission for Academic Accreditation

Thami Ghorfi
President, ESCA School of Management
Nicola Kleyn
Dean, Executive Education, RSM Erasmus University

Professor Nicola Kleyn is the Chair of the AABS AccreSys Committee and Dean: Executive Education and Professor of Corporate Marketing at RSM Erasmus University. She is an active researcher and teacher in the areas of Corporate Branding and Reputation Management.
Former Dean of the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), she is also a member of the Executive Senate of the University of Pretoria, former President of South African Business Schools Association (SABSA), a member of the CEEMAN board and a member of the EYQ Fellows Program.
Professor Nicola Kleyn holds a B Com (Hons), MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand, and a DBA from the University of Pretoria.
Franklyn Manu
Former Dean of GIMPA Business School and Rector

Professor Manu is a Professor at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and was the Rector from August 2012 to August 2016. He has over twenty-five years’ experience in consulting, training, and education. During this period, he has exhibited extensive capabilities in strategic planning, program design and assessment in higher education.
He has been heavily involved in designing and reviewing programs to improve university and corporate education in such institutions as Loyola College in Maryland, Morgan State University, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Association of African Business Schools, Global Business School Network, International Academy of African Business and Development, and the Ghana TALIF project.
He has also consulted for a variety of companies in the areas of strategic planning, marketing strategy development and corporate social responsibility. Additionally, he has substantial experience lecturing in strategy, decision-making and leadership for corporate education clients. Professor Manu serves on the Boards of Bedrock Venture Capital Fund of Ghana, Buck Press Ltd., Private Clinics Ghana (Ltd), Media Reach OMD (Ghana) and GN Bank. He also chairs the MTN Ghana Foundation and the AngloGold Ashanti School and is Vice-Chairman of Trojan Power.
Professor Manu earned Ph.D. (Marketing and International Business) and MBA (Finance and International Business) degrees from New York University, Graduate School of Business Administration (Stern). His undergraduate degree was received at the University of Ghana, School of Administration where he earned a B.Sc. (Administration) degree.
Jean-François Fiorina
Vice Dean, Grenoble Ecole de Management

Graduate of INSEEC Bordeaux and an MBA graduate of the University of America – San Francisco, Jean-François Fiorina began his career as an international consultant, before becoming professor of international trade. After being the Director of the Grande Ecole Program (ESC) and of international relations at Groupe Sup de Co Amiens-Picardie, he arrived at Grenoble Ecole de Management in 2000 as the director of Specialized Masters. In 2003, he becomes the Director of ESC Grenoble (one of the four schools of Grenoble Ecole de Management). He has also been the president of Passerelle since 2007 and vice-president of Atout+3 since 2008.
Avid advocate of differentiated pedagogy, Jean-François actively promotes an open to society and to the world training for future managers, based on building bridges between different fields: management, engineering, design, art, geopolitics…fine connoisseur of the world of higher education in France and the education market abroad, he is recognized by his peers for his ability to explore new territories.
JF Fiorina is very much involved in Geopolitics, as editor of a weekly bulletin on Geopolitics notes CLES (notes hebdomadaires d’analyse géopolitique), and as co-founder of the Geopolitics Festival held at GEM annually (Festival de Géopolitique et de Géoéconomie de Grenoble). He holds a blog: http://blog.educpros.fr/fiorina/.
In September 2012, Fiorina is appointed as Vice-Dean / director of programs of Grenoble Ecole de Management. He has been ranked NO.1 in 2017 and 2018 as best influencer dean and universities presidents on twitter.
Jean Philippe Ammeux
Dean, IESEG School of Management

Education
1984: Ph.D. in Economics and International Finance, University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne
1980: MSc in International Economics, University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne
1978: MSc in Management, IÉSEG (Lille)
Specialisation Fields:
• International Economics
• Macroeconomics
Publications and Communications in Conference:
Until the beginning of the 90s, several publications and communications on «Internationalisation of corporations in the 1980 decade».
Teaching Activities:
Since 1979:
Jean-Philippe AMMEUX has taught international economics, macroeconomics, and politic economics at the following institutions:
• IÉSEG School of Management, Lille (France)
• Faculty of Economic Sciences, Lille Catholic University (France)
• Louvain Catholic University (Belgium)
• Reims Business School (France)
Current Responsibilities
Since 1994:
• General Director of IÉSEG School of Management, a leading Business School that offers a five-year program, compatible with international standards. Founded in the city of Lille, in France, in 1964, member of Lille Catholic University, IÉSEG is one of the French top schools of Management.
• Member of the FESIC (Federation of Higher Education institutions with public interest)
• Member of the CNESER (National Council of Higher Education and Research)
• Member of the CCESP (French Committee of the Private Higher Education) (Ministry of Higher Education)
• Member of the Board of Lille Catholic University
Rihab Khalifa
Professor, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU)

Prof. Rihab Khalifa has nearly 20 years of academic and professional experience spanning international top ranked universities and business schools. Previously she was Acting Dean, as well as Vice Dean and Professor of Accounting at the College of Business and Economics (CBE) at United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). She was also the founding Director of the Emirates Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (EILOA), setting in process major changes in learning outcomes practices for the country, region and internationally. A key strength of hers lies in the strategic alignment of organisational structures and processes.
She holds a PhD from the University of Manchester. Before her professorship at UAEU, she held positions at Manchester Business School, the London School of Economics, and Warwick Business School, UK. She has extensive experience in three key areas; higher education, governance and auditing, and leading strategic change.
Prof. Khalifa is an internationally renowned expert in auditing and governance and has published research on a broad range of public and private sector governance issues, including the governance of academia, the UAE and UK audit profession, the governance of development NGOs through audit, new technologies and risk in financial audit, corporate governance research methodologies, the governance of local government, university governance and international accreditation schemes, and sociology of professions and gender. Her expertise in university governance practices, in particular, is evidenced by her ties with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the oldest international business school accreditation agency. She is the first female Arabic speaker to become a workshop trainer and business school mentor for AACSB.
She is one of nine Steering Committee Members of the AACSB Women Administrators in Management Education group. Her scholarly work has appeared in leading accounting journals, including Accounting Organizations and Society (rated A* by ABDC list), Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal (A*), Critical Perspectives on Accounting (A), the European Accounting Review (A*), and Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management (A), and has been funded by leading research funding agencies, such as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and various British professional accountancy bodies. Total grants amount to over $500,000. She is frequently asked to speak on questions of higher education, governance, auditing, gender-responsive budgeting, futures studies and, in particular, the futures of higher education and university governance in the context of economic development and the knowledge economy more broadly.
Helmi Hammami
Professor of Accounting, Rennes School of Business – France.

Professor Helmi Hammami is a full professor of Accounting at Rennes School of Business – France. He currently serves as the Senior Advisor for Knowledge Transfer at the same business school. His portfolio covers research valorization and making research more entrenched in society and societal issues.
Until September 2021, Prof. Hammami has been the Academic Dean of Rennes SB, where he managed the academic affairs of the school. He also held several other leadership positions including the Senior Advisor for accreditations, the Head of the Department of Finance and Accounting, and the Head of the Department of Strategy and Innovation at Rennes SB.
Before joining Rennes SB, Prof. Hammami worked for several years at Qatar University where he was very active in university reform. He held the position of the Head of the Department of Accounting and Information systems, with a portfolio of responsibilities covering several facets of the academic affairs of the school.
Helmi led several committees related to quality assurance, faculty affairs and accreditations. With an extensive international experience, Prof. Hammami is well-versed in academic reforms especially in relation to the requirements of international accreditation bodies with whom he is very engaged, and faculty management in multicultural settings. Besides, he has good knowledge of the North American and the French education systems, in particular.
He holds a PhD in Accounting and Finance from Bocconi University – Italy. He is a former resident fellow of the Collegio di Milano, and recipient of the French Government fellowship to outstanding overseas academics.
Helmi specializes in accounting related topics notably financial reporting (IFRS), fraud risk governance, and accounting for economic development. He has several publications in international academic refereed journals. Helmi works extensively with accounting professional bodies to strengthen the academic-pr ties. He acted as the vice-president for academic relations at the IMA French chapter and he is active with the French and other accounting bodies. As part of the give-back to the community, Helmi sits on the board of several SMEs and provides advice to bourgeonning entrepreneurs.
Piet Naude
Former Director, University of Stellenbosch Business School

Prof Piet Naude is the immediate past Director of the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) and currently a visiting professor in Business Ethics at Technical University Munich (TUM). He is Director of EDAF (Deans Across Frontiers), the business school development agency of the EFMD as well as a non-executive director of the Good Governance Academy, a non-profit working on a global scale to increase the quality of corporate governance. Before his appointment at the USB, he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic at the Nelson Mandela University (NMU) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Piet is a rated researcher and has published more than 80 articles in academic journals and has presented at more than 100 national and international academic occasions on topics related to public ethics and forms of social justice.
He is an active public speaker and a consultant on value-driven organisations. He has more than 25 years of Higher Education leadership experience and teaches Business in Society and Leadership Development on the MBA and executive MBA.
Thami Ghorfi
President, ESCA School of Management

Thami Ghorfi is President of ESCA School of Management, (an African leading Business School based in Casablanca, Morocco) where he teaches communication strategy and change management. Prof. Thami Ghorfi has developed an expertise on management practices in Morocco and the Maghreb region, in entrepreneurship and change management.
He is advisor to several organizations in the strategic fields, multicultural human resources management and leading change.
Thami Ghorfi is also present during important economic events in Morocco and is given the opportunity to contribute to the success of high-level professional meetings. Ghorfi was appointed in 2011 as an expert member of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, a constitutional institution of Kingdom of Morocco.
Ghorfi, through his position as Vice President of the AL AMANA foundation – leading micro finance organization in the MENA region- is strongly involved in charity and the fight against financial exclusion. He is an International Academic Member of the EDAF Committee “EFMD.” Thami is graduated from ISG-Paris and ESSEC Business School. He holds a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Grenoble Ecole de Management.
Previous Accreditation Members

Nicola Kleyn
Dean, Executive Education, RSM Erasmus University

Karim Seghir
Chancellor, Ajman University, United Arab Emirates

Piet Naude
Former Director, University of Stellenbosch Business School
Mark Smith
Director, Stellenbosch Business School, Cape Town

He is former Faculty Dean & Professor Human Resource Management at Grenoble Ecole de Management (France). At Grenoble, he was Faculty Dean, Director of the Doctoral School, Head of Department, and research team leader for “Work Life Careers”. Prior to working in France he worked at Manchester Business School (UK). His research interests focus on careers and labour market policy & outcomes for women and men including working conditions, working-time, and work-life integration.
With colleagues, he has carried out research work for a number of supra-national, European, and national institutions on gender equality, young people, and labour market policy. He has recently finished work on a large-scale European project on the impact of the crisis on youth and the role of pay transparency in closing gender pay gaps.
He has authored or co-authored over fifty books, book chapters and journal articles. He publishes regularly in the media about his research and the management of business schools. His most recent books include – “Youth Employment” (with Jacqueline O’Reilly, Clémentine Moyart, and Tiziana Nazio published by Policy Press in 2018), “Business Ethics – A critical approach: integrating ethics across the business world” (with Patrick O’Sullivan & Mark Esposito, published by Routledge in 2012), and “Gender and the European Labour Market” (with Francesca Bettio and Janneke Plantenga, also published by Routledge in 2013).
office hours
M-F: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Address
26 Melville Road, Illovo Sandton, South Africa 2196
Phone
27 (0) 11 771 4382
