Biography: Dr. Dennis Ray is a professor in international business and entrepreneurship. He is responsible for the Global Business Environment courses in the BCom and MBA programs and is developing a new international entrepreneurial stream within the MBA program.

Dennis holds a doctorate in International Relations and Economics from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver and was a post-doctorate in Chinese Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He focused on Chinese economic development strategies and later on overseas Chinese entrepreneurs. His field work is based in Singapore.

After teaching the international business environment and strategy course in the world’s first Executive MBA International program at Pepperdine University, he sought to acquire international business and international living and work experience. He served as a VP of International Marketing - Asia-Pacific for a small U.S.-Canadian manufacturing firm and developed a market subsidiary in Japan. Later he lived and either taught or did research in the Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and New Zealand.

He co-edited with Harvard economist Harvey Leibenstein a UN publication on “Entrepreneurship and Economic Development” in 1988, was a British Council Scholar at the University of Stirling, and in 2006 he was the Hall-Fulbright Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship in Bulgaria and Romania. He taught what may be the first MBA course on international entrepreneurship at New Venture Development at the University of Calgary in 1987, published the first paper on new ventures “born international” at the Babson Research Conference in Entrepreneurship in 1989, and created the first university-based global technology incubator, called the Global Business Accelerator, at the University of Texas at Austin in 1999. He has worked with over 100 start-up ventures and interviewed over 150 entrepreneurs in the last two decades. He created a national angel investor network in New Zealand as a consultant to Industrial Research Ltd, the largest R&D company in the country. He has over 50 published articles.

Before coming to Royal Roads University, he was the 3M Endowed Chair in Global Strategy and Management at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis from 2001-2006. There he taught the capstone MBA course in Strategy and the capstone Master of International Management course in International Business Strategy. He also taught MBA courses in International Entrepreneurship, Technology Entrepreneurship, and Doing Business in China. His teaching and research interests focuses on the interface between strategy, international business, and entrepreneurship. His most recent work has focused on business ethics, corporate governance, and corporate power. Current research focuses on the impact of the Multilateral Agreement on Investments and related initiatives on local and national entrepreneurship.

Dennis has a wife, a daughter at the University of Victoria and a young son.

Area of Expertise: International Business & Entrepreneurship

Contact Information:
Telephone: (250) 391-2600 ext. 4788
E-mail: dennis.ray@royalroads.ca  
Office: Grant 303F