Dr. Dwight Thomas, Professor Emeritus

Dr. Dwight Thomas, Professor Emeritus

Professor Emeritus

Contact information

Email: dwight.thomas@athabascau.ca

Phone:

I joined Athabasca University in 1980 as a Full Professor and served initially as the founding Director/Dean of the Faculty of Administrative Studies (1980-85) and was responsible with colleagues for guiding the development and delivery of Canada’s first accredited undergraduate distance-based management degree programme.

In 1993, I joined with several colleagues, and we initiated the development of Canada’s first distance-based executive MBA which was launched in 1994. Apart from course development and teaching assignments, I have also been commissioned to serve as dissertation and project advisor for many executive MBA candidates at AU.

I also participated as a consultant, project manager and educator in a variety of management programs internationally in settings as diverse as Hong Kong, Macao, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, and Mexico and served as a consultant to the management faculty at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in New Delhi, India.

In 1999, I took early retirement from AU and remained actively engaged as an adjunct professor at AU. In 2002, I was confirmed as a Professor Emeritus. Since that time, I have been involved as an academic coach, an applied project and dissertation advisor for MBA candidates and served as an SME on the development of MBA elective courses in global marketing management and the management innovation and technology. I also have had the privilege of serving as an external co-supervisor for three successful AU DBA candidates.

In addition. I served as honorary lecturer with the online executive MBA programmes offered by the University of Liverpool (2003-2019) and am presently engaged as an online learning facilitator with the University of Lincoln UK in their executive MSc programmes in management.

Research interests

  • Global marketing
  • Marketing management & strategy
  • Services marketing & business incubators
  • Management of technology and innovation
  • Supply chain management
  • Consumer behaviour
  • Informatics
  • E-commerce
  • SME/Entrepreneurship development
  • Internet of things (IOT)
  • Decision models & digital transformation
  • Neural networks, AI
  • CSR
  • Distance/online education
  • Emerging markets

Educational credentials

  • B.Com, University of Alberta
  • MBA, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
  • PhD, University of Colorado (Marketing & Admin. Policy)

Professional affiliations

  • Member, American Marketing Association