Bios

Biographies

Allan Bird, Ph. D. holds the Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Professor of Japanese Studies in the College of Business Administration, University of Missouri-St. Louis. His Ph.D. (1988) is in Organization Studies from the University of Oregon. He received his his M.A. (1983) in Comparative Culture and International Management from Sophia University in Tokyo. Allan’s research activities focus on several different areas relevant to managing in a global environment: Japanese top management team, career, and compensation issues; expatriate management, global leadership, and HRM in Japanese overseas affiliates. His work has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, the Strategic Management Journal, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, the Journal of International Business Studies and numerous other academic and practitioner journals.

He is also the author of a book on Japanese boards of directors, Executive no Kenkyu (in Japanese). Other books include Japanese Multinationals Abroad: Individual and Organizational Learning (Oxford University Press, 1999) and The Encyclopedia of Japanese Business and Management (Routledge, 2002). He published with Roger Dunbar and Tom Mullen, Bridging Cultures, a CD-ROM and workbook, for expatriates and their families. Bridging Cultures won an International Gold Medal for Interactive Educational Software at the 1998 New York Film Festival. Allan has served as a consultant to Japanese and American companies as well as to the Japanese government and several trade organizations. His advice and commentary are also sought after by the media, as reflected in his appearances on business-related broadcasts at CNN, FNN and CNBC, as well as regional television and radio in the US and Japan. His comments have appeared in Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, and various regional newspapers such as the Dallas Morning News in the United States and national dailies in Japan such as the Mainichi Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun and Japan Times.

Mark E. Mendenhall, Ph. D., is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of international human resource management. His areas of expertise are in the areas of global leadership development and assessment, and the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates. He currently holds the Frierson Chair of Excellence in Business Leadership at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. He held the Ludwig Erhard Stiftungsprofessur Chair at the University of Bayreuth, and is a faculty of member of the Europa Institut, the first MBA Program established in Germany. He is past president of the International Management Division of the Academy of Management. His most recent books are: Managing Human Resources in Mergers and Acquisitions (Stanford University Press, 2005); International Assignments: An Integration of Strategy, Research, and Practice (Lawrence Erlbaum Press, 2004); and Developing Global Business Leaders: Policies, Processes, and Innovations (2001, Quorum Books). His book, Developing People Through International Assignments (1999; Addison-Wesley), is widely read by HR executives involved with expatriate management programs.

He has consulted with, and conducted numerous training programs for many firms, some of which include: IBM-Asia Pacific, IBM-Japan, National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), Boeing, Monsanto, and J.C. Bamford Excavators (JCB). Mark has published numerous scholarly articles some of which appear in Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Organizational Dynamics, Human Resource Management, Management International Review, and International Journal of Intercultural Relations.

He has regularly taught outside the United States, including such places as the National Economics University, Hanoi; Ecole de Management, Lyon; the University of Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and has been a research associate at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). In addition, Dr. Oddou has regularly consulted with multinational firms in the areas of expatriate and repatriate management both in the United States and in Europe.

Michael J. Stevens, Ph. D. is a management professor at the University of Texas--Pan American. He also consults widely with organizations in the business and not-for-profit sectors. His primary areas of expertise include: improving organizational performance through empowerment and teamwork; individual assessment and selection (especially for teams and cross-cultural assignments); executive coaching and leadership development; the impact of of leadership on organizational culture and employee performance; and interpersonal effectiveness in the workplace.

He received his Ph.D. from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University, where he won the Ralph G. Alexander Best Dissertation Award from the National Academy of Management. He has published book chapters and research articles in highly respected management journals, and regularly gives presentations at professional conferences and seminars.

Dr. Stevens is a widely cited researcher who has conducted pioneering work in the area of measuring a person's interpersonal aptitude for working successfully in teams, and is the lead author of the commercially distributed "Teamwork-KSA" employment test. He is currently active in several professional societies and has held management and board positions in industry, government, consulting, and not-for-profit organizations.

Norihito Furuya, Ph. D. is Senior Representative of the Kozai Group in Japan. He is also CEO of IGB Network Co., Ltd (Global Organization and Human Capital Development Institute). IGB Network specializes in global training and coaching for managers, global HR assessment, global HR capital solutions, HRM system and organizational development, and research and development. Mr. Furuya has lived and worked in the United States, the Middle East, and the UK, totaling nine years of overseas working experience as an expatriate manager for Japan Airlines. He has over 30 years experience working internationally, and has extensive experience in conducting training and consultation services in the arena of global human resource management for 35 of the leading firms in Japan.

Twelve years ago, he initiated the International Training Division of JAL Academy, a collaborative venture with JAL, BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), and Thunderbird (AGISM)). He holds a Bachelor’s degree of Social Science from Waseda University and an MBA from Aoyama Gakuin University. He received his Ph.D from Tsukuba University.