With great sadness, we say goodbye to our dear colleague and friend, prof. Gordon Shenton, whose accomplishments and contributions to the management education community are immense.

Prof. Gordon Shenton was the Director of EFMD’s Quality Services for many years and also Emeritus Professor at EM-LYON Business School. He dedicated his career to promoting quality and impact in management education globally. He was the founding father of some of the most innovative and transformational services in the management education area, such as EQUIS, CLIP, SLR and BSIS.

Gordon actively contributed to the establishment of the EQUIS accreditation system (you can listen to his thoughtful comments on the genesis of EQUIS in this video interview), subsequently accompanying many schools around the world in pursuing their quality development objectives with diligence and care. Then, he helped to bring the EQUIS quality framework to the corporate learning environment by establishing CLIP.

Gordon was a dedicated senior member of the Quality Services team and participated in 52 EQUIS and CLIP peer review visits, chairing 33 of them. He also contributed to the international development of the Business School Impact System, lately co-directing the department and participating in most of the impact assessment visits.

Gordon advocated for the internationalisation of business education and led numerous collaborative efforts across the network with enthusiasm and conviction. He also believed in the transformational power of quality processes. He often said that “EQUIS is not only a quality assessment but also a quality improvement process, very much rooted in the mission of EFMD.”

Besides his excellent leadership, research record and industry insights, which helped schools climb the quality improvement ladder, Gordon was a wonderful man, full of kindness, compassion and humanity. His humbleness and thoughtfulness inspired colleagues and partners at EFMD.

The management education community has lost an outstanding leader and a genuine and beautiful person. Gordon has been a long-standing and great friend of EFMD, and words can’t express our grief. Our sympathy, thoughts and prayers are with his family, colleagues and the whole academic community. Please accept our sincere condolences.

– Eric and the EFMD family