Robert E. Kennedy

Robert E. (Bob) Kennedy, became the Dean of Western University's Ivey Business School in October 2013. Prior to joining Ivey, Kennedy was executive director of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan and the Tom Lantos Professor of Business Administration at Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business, where he taught Corporate Strategy and International Business courses in the MBA and Executive Education programs.

Kennedy came to the William Davidson Institute from Harvard Business School, where he was associate professor of business administration. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, he spent five years as a partner in a Poland-focused venture capital fund and worked in more than a dozen countries as a management consultant.

Kennedy received bachelor's degrees in economics and political science from Stanford University, a master's degree in management science from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and master's and doctorate degree in business economics from Harvard University.

Research and publications

Kennedy is a well-known speaker, educator, and academic researcher. He has authored more than 120 articles, notes, and case studies on emerging market issues. Since 2003 (through 2010), his teaching materials have been used at every one of Business Week's top 25 business schools. (Data from Harvard Business School Publishing).

Kennedy’s research focuses on the opportunities and challenges facing businesses in emerging market countries and has been widely published in leading economics and strategy journals. In the mid- and late-1990s, much of this work focused on industry dynamics and business strategy in post-liberalization economies. Since 2000, Kennedy has explored the drivers and implications of the globalization of service activities, also known as "offshoring." The globalization of service activities is having a profound impact on businesses and governments in both developed and developing countries and has proved a fruitful area for research, curriculum development, and public speaking.

Kennedy recently released a book on outsourcing and offshoring titled The Services Shift - Seizing the Ultimate Offshore Opportunity in conjunction with Ajay Sharma, a previous WDI employee who led the Institute’s Globalization of Services initiative. The book is published by Pearson Education, one of the world’s leading educational publishers, on the Financial Times Press label.

Many of his best-selling case studies are exclusively available through WDI's publishing site "globalens".

Kennedy serves on several advisory boards for social enterprise and offshoring organizations, including: