Title: Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Management and Business

Education: BS (Accounting), Montclair State; MBA (Economics and International Business), NYU; and Ph.D. (Management and International Business), NYU

Dissertation: The Social and Environmental Performance of Multinational Corporations

Background: The antithesis of an “ivory tower academic,” Jim came to Skidmore after a stint in the Air Force, managerial positions in corporate accounting and finance at Cyanamid, Bristol Myers Squibb, and N.V. Philips, and a mid-career commitment to earning a doctorate and subsequent focus on teaching and research. In addition to his professional and academic background in business, he’s also taken significant graduate coursework in English literature.

Teaching Focus: Foundations of Business in the International Environment; Business, Ethics, and Society; Business and the Natural Environment; and Ireland in the New Century

Research Focus: The social and environmental performance of multinational corporations, and the role of multinationals in fostering, or hindering, sustainable development.

Why Skidmore? “I came to teach International Business but quickly fell in love with Skidmore’s focus on interdisciplinarity and the unusual but very appealing concept of teaching business within a liberal arts context. For me, that was perfect validation both of my deep respect for the power of words – I invariably read poetry or a short story before bed – and of my broad research interests, which include Irish economic and social history.

Last Project: Writing The Kerry Way: The History of the Kerry Group, 1972 -2000, a book about the eponymous Irish dairy cooperative that transformed itself into a successful, publicly-owned multinational food company.

Next Project: Studying the life and contributions of Sir Horace Plunkett, 19th century Irish Unionist Member of Parliament who pioneered cooperative organizations in Ireland and preached the virtues of self-help.