Taylor’s University is hiring a Founding Professor in Family Business to build its School of Family Business, and it has retained Axe Talent to lead the search. The appointment sits in Taylor’s Centre for Family Business, which the university opened three years ago inside its School of Management & Marketing as Malaysia’s first research centre for family business, on the Lakeside Campus in Subang Jaya, Greater Kuala Lumpur. Five PhD scholarships are already funded for 2027.
The choice of subject is personal for the university. Taylor’s is itself a family business, run today by the next generation of the Loy family, who took a stake in Taylor’s College in 2001 and turned it into a full university in 2012. It now stands 253rd in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2026, with 20 subjects ranked by QS, and the professor appointed will be building a field of study inside an institution that lives it every day.
What does the Founding Professor in Family Business do?
The professor leads Taylor’s Centre for Family Business and its research on family firms, with Asian family firms at the centre of the agenda, and is expected to secure external grants as principal investigator. The role carries the work of building a school rather than inheriting one: industry partnerships with business families, an alumni family business network, executive education programmes, family governance workshops and family business forums, and collaborations with family business centres across the region. Teaching runs to about four to six hours a week in modules on family business.
Who is this role for?
The job requirements ask for a PhD in family business, entrepreneurship, management or a related field, at least eight years in teaching, research or industry, and at least ten Q1 or Q2 papers in the last five years in journals such as Family Business Review, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and Small Business Economics. They also ask for external grants as principal investigator worth about US$37,000 to US$49,000, at least three PhD students supervised to completion as main supervisor, and a Scopus h-index of 20 or more. Experience advising business families, family councils or family offices, and an understanding of Asian family firms, complete the profile.
What does Taylor’s offer expat families?
Children of expatriate employees receive a full tuition fee waiver at any of the international schools in the Taylor’s Education Group, which matters to a professor moving to Kuala Lumpur with a family.
How to apply
The full job description is public: read it here or download the PDF. To discuss the role, book a call on Natalia’s Calendar or email your resume to natalia@axetalent.com; Natalia Rostova leads this search personally. Because Taylor’s University has retained Axe Talent for this appointment, a conversation with us is the route to the Founding Professor in Family Business. If a colleague fits the profile better than you do, forward this page or introduce them to Natalia. Anyone who writes to you about the role can be checked on axetalent.com/verify.