Juan Antonio Pérez López

He was the dean of IESE from October 1978 to September 1984. During his tenure, IESE saw major growth in its international diversity, reaching a total of 7,663 alumni from 36 countries, along with a highly international group of faculty. That period included the launch of the bilingual MBA in 1980, and the Master's Degree for Experienced Professionals (now called Executive MBA) in 1982. IESE also helped found two business schools: the School of Management at the University of Piura (PAD) in Peru in 1979 and the Associação de Estudos Superiores de Empresa (AESE) in Lisbon (Portugal) in 1980. There was also an expansion in the selection of training programs for executives in Spain, offered in cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Pamplona, Sevilla, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela.

After studying actuarial insurance at the Escuela Central Superior de Comercio of Madrid, Pérez López spent five years in Hidroeléctrica Española SA. In 1961, he began to teach at the IESE Department of Quantitative Analysis (today Department of Accounting and Control). In 1970, he received his Ph.D. (1970) in business administration from Harvard Business School with the thesis Organizational theory: A cybernetical approach. From there on he delved into issues like motivation, learning, rationality, etc.

Juan Antonio Pérez López (1934–1996) was a Spanish business theorist. He was professor of Organizational Behavior at the IESE Business School (Spain), where he became Dean (1978–1984). He was also a visiting professor at PAD Business School of the Universidad de Piura (Peru) and IAE Business School of the Austral University (Argentina). His research and publications focus on Action Theory and its implications for Organizational Behavior. They collect and integrate economic, sociological, and ethical aspects.