Sylvain Bureau explores the similarities between creative practices in the worlds of science, art, and business. He co-founded the Art Thinking Collective and the Jean-Baptiste Say Institute at ESCP. His work has led to numerous academic articles, which have frequently been featured in the media (Financial Times, Forbes Japan, France Culture, Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review France, Les Échos, Usbek & Rica). Sylvain also co-authored Free Your Pitch (Pearson).

Building on his research, Sylvain developed Art Thinking, a method he teaches through the Improbable seminar in France (ESCP, École Polytechnique, CentraleSupélec, 42, École de Guerre) and abroad (Stanford, HEC Montréal, University of Oulu, Catholic University of Milan) in collaboration with artists and cultural institutions, particularly the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre Museum. The participants trained by Sylvain are often executives and engineers from organisations such as Airbus Defence & Space, BPCE Group, CNES, EDF, Daher, Galeries Lafayette, Orange, and Sacem.

To enhance his teaching practices, Sylvain has completed two courses on online and offline teaching at Harvard Business School (in 2009 and 2020) and the International Teacher Program (2017 and 2018). In 2021, the Improbable seminar was recognised as one of the top 10 pedagogical innovations worldwide.

Sylvain holds a PhD from École Polytechnique (recipient of the best thesis award in 2007) and is a graduate of École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay in economics. He has also been a visiting scholar at Duke University, UC Berkeley, and the City University of New York.