About me

Welcome!

Hi there! Thanks for visiting my website, which has become a very nice way to organize both thoughts and content about those things that -as far as I believe- may add some value to my surroundings.

A little intro about me. I live at the crossroads of storytelling, consulting and academia (the applied sciences). Raised between the US and Colombia, I was born in 1986 in Bogotá. In my 20s, I went back to search for my roots in Europe. I now live in Berlin and work as professor of economics and public policy at Berlin International University of Applied Sciences, where I have been Dean of the Business Faculty since 2020. I am affiliated to Tecnológico (TEC) de Monterrey's Dept. of Economics, where I have taught behavioral economics for several years. Additionally, with my work on incentives and storytelling, I have had the pleasure of offering consulting solutions to firms and governments. Giving in to the power of STORY is a journey for life.

With regards to academics, I am detached from a single specific field, but I set my work under the umbrella of "Public Value" or seeking to improve what Marcus Aurelius called "the good of the community" (ad commune utilitatem), and this involves transforming organizations, including corporations, startups and governments. In research, I have been involved in projects related to efficiency, incentives and the effects of the Law (legal-formalism, to be more specific) on people's lives (See the Academics section).

I firmly believe policymaking (corporate and public) can improve; we can build better policies if we use more evidence than narratives; we have tons of work to do to improve people's lives. I am happy if we both share that goal.

Beyond these academic projects, I am obsessed with storytelling, in

a) the classroom (yes, it is a fantastic tool that I have been figuring out for myself in order to deliver fun classes and transform the way teaching works. The student surveys show a very good path in this direction)

b) business & public policy consulting (yes, it is an amazing way to do better branding, bring in change and foster leadership, both for the government and for firms).

c) life (writing is beautiful).

You will find a small selection of my short stories and links to my novels on this website.

If you are a fan of languages, you will find some interesting resources here. I am a member of HYPIA, the International Hyperpolyglot Association, which fosters multilingualism. I have not learned my languages for work or pleasing others; I've only done this for pleasure, including the one to understand others and go beyond our usual surroundings. If this somehow inspires you to learn more languages, I will be very happy to support this.

If you are interested in any of my workshops / training / conferences, I am happy to talk!

Prof. Dr. Erick Behar-Villegas