Dr. Anna Zeis is Director of Learning Innovation at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, where she designs learning experiences that prepare leaders and instructors not just to use AI, but to lead with it. Her work sits at the intersection of educational psychology, student-centric learning design, and the human dimensions of technological change - grounded in the conviction that the most urgent task in education today is developing what no algorithm can replace.

Recognised early for exceptional scholarship, Dr. Zeis received the Polish Academy of Sciences Award for her doctoral thesis - awarded for best scientific work in managerial science - as well as the PRELUDIUM Grant from Poland's National Science Centre and a Young Scholars Research Grant. Her commitment to teaching has been equally distinguished: she holds a Rector's Award for Teaching Excellence (Didactical Innovation) from Kozminski University and was nominated for the Universitätspreis at the University of Cologne. Her academic formation extends to executive education at Columbia Business School, the University of Pennsylvania, and other leading institutions.

Her international career spans research, program leadership, and institutional transformation across continents. Before joining WHU, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cologne, deepening her expertise in management theory under scholarly mentorship. Prior to that, as Deputy Dean and Director of the International Management Program at Kozminski University, she co-led a full business school transformation - redesigning curriculum, driving student engagement, forging industry partnerships, and building exchange networks with global institutions. She held visiting positions at Singapore Management University, Universität St. Gallen, and HULT International Business School in Boston. 

Most recently, a UN-Certified Academic Leadership Suite participant, Dr. Zeis moderated and led workshops at the AI Summit 2026 in Berlin, designed and facilitated a human-centred AI workshops for staff, faculty, students and alumni of WHU, and was featured in a Handelsblatt interview (2026) on human skills in the age of AI - a conversation increasingly central to her work and to the field. 

As a judge for the QS Reimagine Education Awards, she brings a practitioner's rigour and a researcher's critical eye to evaluating what genuinely transforms learning outcomes. She believes the future of education lies in cultivating the capacities that make us distinctly human: adaptive leadership, creativity, critical thinking, and the resilience to act with clarity in uncertain times.