Bob retired recently. Over his illustrious career spanning 42 years, he held senior leadership roles at eminent organizations including McKinsey & Company, Duke University, and Aladdin industries, and served on a number of corporate boards. His work was published in leading business journals and marketing handbooks.
Most recently, Bob was Executive-in-Residence at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he taught the Marketing Practicum course. He was Director of the International Center and guest lectured in the areas of marketing, strategy, and international organization.
Prior to joining the Fuqua Faculty, Bob served as interim President and CEO of Aladdin Industries, a $200 million international manufacturer of insulated containers for consumers and food service systems for hospitals, in Nashville.
The bulk of Bob’s career (27 years) was spent in the Cleveland office of McKinsey & Company, an international management consulting firm. He left McKinsey as a senior Director (fifth in seniority), where he had been the Firm’s practice leader in Pricing and Marketing. Although he focused on marketing, pricing, and strategy issues with his clients, his experience spanned the range of management problems from operations to organization, both domestically and internationally. His industry experience concentrated on both industrial and consumer goods manufacturers. He has lived and worked abroad in Switzerland (twice), Spain, and Australia.
In 1987, Bob took a six-month leave of absence from McKinsey to become the interim CEO of the troubled 2600 person Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, earning the Federal Government’s prestigious Urban Mass Transit Administrator’s Award for “Outstanding Public Service.”
Bob has published a dozen articles on pricing, marketing, sales management, and segmentation. He co-authored an industrial marketing chapter in the 1994 edition of theDartnell Marketing Handbook and an introductory chapter on marketing in the 1986 McGraw-Hill Modern Marketing Handbook. Some of his articles include “A Strategic Approach to Market Segmentation,” “The Role of Marketing in Management,” “Use Tactical Pricing to Uncover Hidden Profits,” “Are Your Sales People Driving Home Profits or Just Driving Their Desks?” and “Price Wars.”
Bob attended Duke University on a football scholarship. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta PI, Omicron Delta Kappa and second in his engineering class with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering in 1961. He was President of his junior and senior engineering classes. He played on the victorious 1961 Cotton Bowl team. He received a full fellowship and an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1963.
Bob currently sits on two corporate Boards, INTIGRAL (a private insulated glass manufacturer) and RHFS (a private industrial distributor). Over the past 15 years, he has served on four other corporate Boards. He serves on the Westminster College (Salt Lake City) Board of Trustees.
Bob has been active in Duke affairs. He is past Chairman of Fuqua’s Board of Visitors (BOV), has recently stepped off the BOV of both the Duke Engineering School and the Fuqua School of Business, and is the past Chairman of the Duke Athletics Advisory Board. He currently serves on the Athletics Advisory Board.