Loredana Padurean is an Associate Teaching Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business. Her teaching and research center on entrepreneurship, corporate innovation, leadership, and the “smart skills” — the human skills work actually runs on — along with the use of artificial intelligence in business education, for which she received the school's Teaching Innovation & Excellence Award in 2023 and was named Best Undergraduate Teacher at DMSB by the Class of 2026.
Before joining Northeastern, Padurean spent eight years as Senior Associate Dean of the Asia School of Business in Kuala Lumpur, established by MIT Sloan and Bank Negara Malaysia, where the MBA program's action-learning curriculum earned repeated international recognition. She has taught in MIT Sloan's executive programs for more than a decade and has led executive education for clients including the European Commission, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, State Street, and Maybank. During her doctorate in Switzerland she took over a bankrupt ski resort and turned it into a case study in destination governance.
She is the author of The Job Is Easy, the People Are Not (Global Edition, 2026), whose Brazilian edition, O Trabalho é Fácil, as Pessoas Não, co-authored with Júlio Volpp, appears in December 2026. With MIT Sloan's Charles Fine she co-created the smart/sharp skills framework and cowrote the forthcoming The Wayfinder: Nail It, Scale It, Sail It. A TEDx and keynote speaker, she has spoken on more than five hundred stages worldwide; yet her favorite stage remains the classroom.
Education
- PhD in Economics, Università della Svizzera italiana
- MS in Economics and Communication, Università della Svizzera italiana
- BA International Relations, Babeș-Bolyai University
Selected publications
- Padurean, L., & Volpp, J. (2026). O trabalho é fácil, as pessoas não [The job is easy, the people are not; Brazilian edition].
- Padurean, L. (in press). The job is easy, the people are not: Global edition. Expected 2026.
- Fine, C. H., & Padurean, L. (in press). The wayfinder: Nail it, scale it, sail it. Expected 2026.
- Haywood, S., Padurean, L., Mortlock Tobias, J., & Ralph, R. (2025). From intimidation to innovation: Cross-continental multiple case studies on how to harness AI to elevate engagement, comprehension, and retention. Education Sciences, 15(7), 902. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15070902
- Fine, C. H., Padurean, L., & Naumov, S. (2022). Operations for entrepreneurs: Can operations management make a difference in entrepreneurial theory and practice? Production and Operations Management, 31(12), 4599–4615. https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.13851
- Padurean, L. (2022). The job is easy, the people are not: 10 smart skills to become better people. START Disrupt.
- Padurean, L., & Fine, C. H. (2019). Enough with “soft” and “hard” skills — let's get smart and sharp instead. MIT Sloan Experts.
- Fine, C. H., Padurean, L., & Naumov, S. (2018). Managing operational capabilities in start-up companies. Academy of Management Global Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.5465/amgblproc.telaviv.2018.00179.abs
- Fine, C. H., Werner, M., & Padurean, L. (2014). The Tesla Roadster (A): Accelerated supply chain learning (Case No. 14-157). MIT Sloan School of Management
Selected presentations
- Haywood, S., Mortlock Tobias, J., Ralph, R., & Padurean, L. (2025, July 24–29). From intimidation to innovation: Harnessing AI to elevate engagement, comprehension, and retention [Conference presentation]. Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Haywood, S., Ralph, R., Padurean, L., & Mortlock Tobias, J. (2025, May 26–29). Supercharging learning and collaboration with GenAI [Conference presentation]. CAUCE 2025 Annual Conference, St. Catharines, ON, Canada.
- Padurean, L. (2024, November 28). AI in entrepreneurship and innovation [Keynote address]. International Entrepreneurship Education Summit, Media University Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany.
- Padurean, L. (2024, August 7). AI in education — from intimidation to innovation [Keynote address]. Academy of Management Teaching and Learning Conference, Chicago, IL, United States.
- Padurean, L. (2024, March 19). AI in entrepreneurial education [Conference presentation]. 10th California Entrepreneurship Educators Conference, San Diego, CA, United States.
Awards & recognition
- Best Undergraduate Teacher Award, Class of 2026, D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University (2026)
- Teaching Innovation & Excellence Award, D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University (2023)
- Distinguished Woman Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award, World Women Economic & Business Summit, Kuala Lumpur (2022)
- Research grant, Swiss National Science Foundation (2009)
- Research grant, Swiss National Science Foundation (2008)
- Twice Recipient of the Swiss National Research Foundation grant in 2008 and 2009 for action/experiential research.
