Lecuona and Anthony Win 2026 Teaching Excellence Awards

For teaching in the core curriculum, students chose clinical professor Ramon Lecuona for his Strategy course. In the elective curriculum, students selected Scott Anthony D’96, also a clinical professor, who teaches Global Insight Expeditions in Singapore and Switzerland, along with the on-campus courses Leading Disruptive Change, Disruption Through History, and AI and Consultative Decision-Making.

The Teaching Excellence Awards were set up by the Class of 2011 to “celebrate the learning environment at Tuck by honoring the faculty who, in the eyes of their students, have made an outstanding contribution to the quality of the educational experience.” Each year, an academic representative from the graduating class surveys his or her classmates about their favorite teachers and meets with a committee to examine the comments and data and select the winners.

Lecuona has been teaching at Tuck since 2018. Prior to that, Lecuona served as a staff member of the Office of the President of Mexico for more than seven years. His academic research is focused on the design of organizational structures that make firms more productive and innovative, and he has specific expertise in the field of mobile communications and the implementation of business strategy in emerging markets. This is the third time he has won the Teaching Excellence Award—he was selected in 2020 for teaching the core Strategy course, and again in 2022 for teaching the elective course Strategy in Emerging Markets.

The core Strategy course Lecuona teaches is an introduction to the principles of business strategy and covers issues such as the dynamics of competition and the conditions that lead firms to outperform their rivals. The topics covered range from the crafting of strategies for specific businesses to the creation of strategies for corporations that manage multiple businesses. The course uses a mix of traditional case studies and an analysis of current events.

Lecuona works hard to help students uncover the insights behind the facts. “As in real life, case studies are filled with information and data that is not really material to solving the problems at hand,” Lecuona says. “The key for a good case discussion is to have everyone engaged, thinking very hard about what is it that actually matters. We push hard to get students to zoom into the issues that are truly strategic and merit the attention of top managers. I just love it when, after a great case discussion, insights start to emerge and I start seeing the characteristic spark of an ‘aha’ moment in the eyes of the students.”

Lecuona’s students appreciate how he pushes himself and the class to go deeper than the superficial facts and explanations, and how he takes the time to make personal connections with them:

“Ramon consistently goes above and beyond for his students and the Tuck community. I‘ve had the privilege of participating in two of his GIXs, and I‘m still blown away by the level of detail and commitment he brings. To learn from Ramon is to dive into the deep end: he doesn‘t just ‘recreate’ the real world—he brings you into it. I‘ve learned so much from him and I‘m lucky to be his student. Thank you, Ramon!” —Lily McCarthy T’26

“Professor Ramon is the kind of professor that makes Tuck not just a school, but a family. This is especially true for the Latino community, whom he takes under his wing and makes feel at home from day one. He works hard to make sure our traditions are present in the Upper Valley, but most importantly, he shares them. Because of him, people from all backgrounds get to experience our Latino culture, and love celebrating it with us.

In the classroom, he brings incredible energy to his legendary ‘strateeeegyy,’ and somehow gets some of the best speakers from around the world to Hanover. Through his work with companies and leaders across the globe, he pushes us to think bigger and use business as a force to improve the world, especially through the examples he sets in emerging markets. He reminds us that opportunity is everywhere, and that if you look at the world the right way, you can see value, potential, and impact in every place and every person.

But more than anything, Professor Ramon has taken care of me like a son, and I know many students feel the same way. Tuck honestly would not be Tuck without him.” —Diego Martinez Ponce T’26

Scott Anthony began teaching at Tuck four years ago, after 20-plus years as a consultant at Innosight, where he advised large organizations on disruptive change. To build LDC, he drew from that experience along with his executive master’s degree from INSEAD in systems psychodynamics, which he describes as “business meets psychiatry.” He pursued that degree to help understand why some of his consulting work was not being implemented by his clients’ organizations. He learned to appreciate not only the human element of strategy implementation, but also the organizational histories and hidden dynamics that can hold firms back.

The result is a course that rests “at the unique intersection of the disciplines of strategy, innovation, leadership, behavioral psychology, and systems psychodynamics,” Anthony says, and “integrates academic research and practitioner-oriented tools and frameworks to give students practical ways to act wisely and decisively through the fog of disruptive change.”

As a mini-course, LDC has nine sessions, and roughly two-thirds of the sessions feature case studies and discussions. The remaining third are more experiential, with reflection exercises, simulations, and activities that teach students how to surface differing perspectives that can easily go unsaid but hamper future progress. “When you’re leading disruptive change, you need to hear the voice that doesn’t speak,” Anthony offers.

Anthony, the author or co-author of nine books published by Harvard Business Review Press, expected to love teaching, and he does. One reason is his ability to make an impact on hundreds of students, versus just a handful of executives on a consulting project. “It’s really rewarding when you see it click, and when people say, ‘I didn‘t see that before, now I see it,’ or ‘I couldn‘t do that before, now I can.’ It‘s amazing. It just pays dividends well after people leave the room,” he says.

While Anthony loves teaching, it’s clear his students love learning from him:

“I might be one of the few students with the full Scott Anthony experience, which is such an honor! Between his elective, two of his sprints, and his GIX, that is a lot of Scott Anthony, and none of it was an accident. What sets Scott apart is the way his impact reaches well beyond any single classroom. He has a rare ability to make every person feel deeply heard, and that same presence carries into hallway chats, small group dinners (yes, I hosted him, and yes, it was the most fun), and the GIX trip to Singapore that reshaped how I think about my career. Ten years from now, I am confident I or any of my classmates could email Scott and hear back within a day, because that is simply who he is. He has set the standard for what an incredible professor looks like, and I am deeply thankful for everything he has poured into us.” —Madelyn Flores T’26

“As I progressed through Professor Anthony’s class, Leading Disruptive Change, I began to feel that I was learning how to handle the kinds of challenges I had seen organizations face and had come to business school to prepare myself to lead through. As he compellingly teaches that with great challenges there is often no clear ‘one right answer,’ he helps students truly feel the ambiguity leaders face. By pairing energy, technology, and thoughtful discussion orchestration, Professor Anthony consistently brings out the best in an MBA classroom, helping students build the wisdom and decisiveness that Tuck strives to develop in its leaders.” —Ben Bosworth T’26

As is tradition, Lecuona and Anthony will deliver the Last Lecture for the Class of 2026 on Friends and Family Day on June 5, the day before Investiture.