Curriculum vitae
Milan Ambrož is a researcher, author and business consultant whose work connects organizational effectiveness, leadership, research methodology, tourism and photography. It combines experience from business, higher education and research with practical work with people and organizations.
Education and early career
He was born in 1953 in Škofja Loka, where he finished grammar school. He continued his studies at the College of Administrative Sciences and at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana, where he graduated in defence studies and earned a master’s degree in management. He received his doctorate from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences of the University of Maribor in the field of organizational culture and organizational change.
He gained his first professional experience in criminal investigation and forensics, and in organizing security and disaster protection systems. He developed approaches to fire protection and the training of professional firefighters and wrote a textbook. For leading an earthquake protection project he received an award from the municipality of Ljubljana-Center and a medal for project management in the Slovenian Armed Forces.
As a member of the professional staff of the Rog Ljubljana and Sava Kranj clubs and of the national team, he contributed to the development of Slovenian cycling, including at world championships and the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Business consulting and leadership development
At Sava Kranj he headed the Training Centre, where the Academy of Operational Management was created. Several hundred participants from Slovenian companies completed it, and Continental included it in its internal training system for operations managers.
As a business consultant he has worked with about forty organizations in the public and private sector. He carried out projects in human resource development, organizational change and performance improvement at companies including Kolektor, Perutnina Ptuj, Mura, Valkarton, Talum and Energetika Ljubljana. He also took part in the international TEMPUS programme.
Academic and teaching work
At the College of Tourism in Portorož he worked as a lecturer, vice-dean and dean. He helped integrate the college into the University of Primorska, develop its study programmes and research tourism. He organized the first international tourism conference ENQUENTROS in Portorož, attended by representatives of eighteen countries.
He has lectured at several Slovenian higher education institutions, including the Faculty of Organisation Studies in Novo mesto, the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security of the University of Maribor, the Faculty of Economics of the University of Ljubljana, Gea College and Alma Mater Europaea – European Centre Maribor. His teaching has covered organizational theories, leadership, ethics, research methodology, tourism and social gerontology.
As director of the Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia he led research and development projects, among them the family assistant project.
Research and publications
His research focuses on organizational culture, effectiveness, change, leadership and social responsibility. In tourism he studies travel cultures, safety and the photographic gaze of the tourist, and in social gerontology the lifestyle of older people and their role in the working environment.
He pays particular attention to the methodology of social science research: the role of the researcher, research design, interpreting findings and combining research methods. He discusses these questions in the monographs Researcher’s Gaze and Research Methodology in the Social Sciences.
He is the author, leading author or co-author of 12 scientific and 3 professional monographs, 30 original scientific articles and 30 professional articles. He has taken part in domestic and international research projects and at many conferences. His publications are listed in the bibliography.
Photography
He connects photography with research into perception, communication and the experience of the world. He discusses the photographic gaze in tourism in the monograph Tourismscapes of Difference: Tourism, Tourists and Imaginary, and the phenomenon of the photographic image in the monograph The Attraction of Photography: A Phenomenology of the Gaze (2026).
He has received several awards for his photographs at exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. He has exhibited his photographs six times, including two solo exhibitions. His photographs have also been published in scientific monographs, on their covers and in four proceedings. He is a member of the Slovene Anthropological Society and of the Anton Ažbe photo club in Škofja Loka.