With enormous sadness, we need to say goodbye to a dear colleague and friend, George Bickerstaffe, who sadly passed away just before Christmas.

Over the past 40 years, George was one of our community’s most pre-eminent management education journalists. George was the author of the Economist Group’s annual Which MBA? guide and contributor to the Which MBA? website. He was Editor of two management magazines, Director and Chief Executive, and Associate Editor of International Management, and worked for the Financial Times and the Confederation of British Industry.

In 2005 George joined the EFMD team for the launch of its new business magazine, Global Focus, as the editor-in-chief. What started as an idea has grown and flourished into a world-class publication which EFMD is very proud of, which is a testament to George’s writing & editorial skills, professionalism and good spirit. George proved to be an outstanding colleague, a great friend, and someone who was always kind and worked with good humour and a smile. After 15 highly successful years, 60 issues of Global Focus magazine and over 800 articles, George took a well-deserved retirement from EFMD in 2020 but always remained engaged and interested in EFMD and its continued development.

EFMD and the management education community have sadly lost a wonderful person, a brilliant journalist and a remarkable voice for management education. On a personal note, I have lost a great friend, mentor and all-around good guy – it was an immense pleasure working with George for 15 years, and I will miss him greatly.

Our sympathy, thoughts and prayers are with his lovely family, colleagues and the whole academic community.

Matthew Wood

Director of Operations and Editor of Global Focus, EFMD