GFNA Program Director, Sheila M. Puffer, Honored by University 

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Sheila Puffer, GFNA's Program Director and Professor of International Business at Northeastern University, has been selected as this year's Robert D. Klein University Lecturer.

The University Lectureship was established in 1964,and in 1979 it was renamed in tribute to the late Robert D. Klein, Professor of Mathematics, Chairman of the Faculty Senate Agenda Committee, and Vice Chairman of the Faculty Senate. The primary purpose of the award is to allow the University to honor a member of the teaching faculty who has contributed with distinction to his or her own field of study and, via the University Lecture, to share the fruits of that scholarship with the University community and the general public.

Professor Puffer received her B.A. (Slavic Studies) and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Ottawa, Canada, and her Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. She also received a Diploma in Management from the Plekhanov Institute of the National Economy in Moscow. Prior to joining the CBA faculty in 1988, she held the position of Assistant Professor at SUNY Buffalo for four years, and was an administrator in the Canadian government for six years.

In a recent study of 12 leading academic journals over the past 15 years, Dr. Puffer has been recognized as the #1 scholar in the world in academic publications on business and management in Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Central and Eastern Europe. Northeastern University ranks first in this discipline internationally as a result of the research that she and her frequent co-author, Professor Daniel McCarthy, have published. Professor Puffer is a prolific researcher, having more than 100 publications, including nine books, 20 book chapters, and more than 50 articles in refereed journals. She has made more than 130 presentations, including 80 at national and international professional meetings. Her research covers a broad range of topics, including strategy, entrepreneurship, privatization, business ethics, management education, leadership, values, and cross-cultural comparisons. Professor Puffer has also developed considerable expertise in the use of literary works in management education. She has edited three books and taught electives on this subject at the undergraduate honors, graduate, and executive levels.

Professor Puffer's expertise has been sought by policy makers in such agencies as the World Bank, the National Science Foundation, the Academy for Educational Development, USIA, the National Intelligence Council, and USAID, and she has advised Russian business schools on their curricula. She has also been appointed as a fellow at the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University for more than a decade. Additionally, she has served on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Management, the world's leading professional association of management scholars, and received wide recognition for her three years as editor of the prestigious journal, The Academy of Management Executive.

Dr. Puffer's lecture, "Is Putin's Russia Ready to Enter the World Economy?" will be delivered at noon on Thursday, March 6, 2003 in the Raytheon Amphitheater, Northeastern University.

Read the complete story from the Northeastern Voice here.