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Bio
Dr. Anja Merz is a negotiation professional, senior lecturer at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (SUAD), and executive trainer at INSEAD. She specializes in negotiation and leadership, integrating AI-assisted training and immersive learning technologies. As the founder of Freedom-Space-Negotiation, she bridges theory and practice to equip executives with advanced negotiation strategies and tools. With over 17 years in the UAE, Dr. Merz has developed a deep understanding of negotiation dynamics in the Middle East. For instance, she co-initiated and moderated the INSEAD-SUAD Negotiating in the Middle East conference in 2024 as well as 2025, bringing together senior business and government leaders. Most recently, she contributed to the Majlis Mohamed bin Zayed session The Founding Father’s Lessons on Cooperation, drawing on her research on Sheikh Zayed as a negotiator — including an INSEAD-published case study series and a related book chapter co-authored with Horacio Falcão — to highlight Sheikh Zayed’s cooperative approach, trust building, listening, managing disagreement, and focus on long-term value creation as valuable sources of insight for leaders and negotiators today. Watch the full session here.
Her experience at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and BMW Group in Europe, where she led, for many years, projects in top management consulting, corporate strategy, M&A, and PMI, provides a strong foundation for her work in negotiation today. She holds a Maîtrise from the University of Toulouse/France, a Master’s in Business, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Passau/Germany, where she was also an assistant professor. She was a visiting scholar at Harvard University, USA.
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