The International Business Faculty
We are fortunate to have a globally diverse and experienced faculty of both full time Ph.D. and executive-in-residence.
Roxane DeLaurell
Roxane DeLaurell joined the faculty in 2004. She is a NASBITE Certified Global Business Professional along with a record number of College faculty, and is also World Trade Certified by the South Carolina World Trade Center. She has served as a visiting professor at Appalachian State University and the University of Oklahoma. After completing her law degree at the University of Arkansas, Roxane was awarded an LL.M with highest honors in International and Comparative Law from George Washington University, Washington DC. She entered into private commercial practice where she represented clients in the areas of banking, securities, manufacturing and import-export. Here at the College, she teaches the International Legal Environment of Business on the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as Commercial Law, Honors Business Law and Special Topics Courses, such as Securities Law. Dr. DeLaurell was awarded a doctorate in international political economy from the University of Texas at Dallas (dissertation title, “Globalization of Regulation: The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods”). She has served as a commentator for the “Central Eastern European Initiative for Legal Reform” sponsored by the American Bar Association, reviewing proposed commercial legislation and, as a member of the US delegation to the Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation.Dr. DeLaurell’s research interests are cross border regulation of business, from model laws in bankruptcy to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards. She has been published in the Asper Review of International Business and Trade Law, the South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business, the Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, and the Journal of Legal Studies in Business among others.
David E. Desplaces
Dr. Desplaces is the Director of the International Business major and an Assistant Professor of International Commerce at the School of Business and Economics. He joined the College of Charleston in the summer of 2007 from the University of Hartford where he founded the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development and directed student community-based consulting projects in cooperation with the Connecticut Economic Gardening Group. Dr. Desplaces is a Certified Global Business Professional, is fluent in French, and has lived in the Middle East for 15 years. He was designated as the Middle East Affairs specialist for the SC Department of Commerce trade mission to the United Arab Emirates and has served on the South Carolina World Trade Center board of directors including holding the educational chair. Dr. Desplaces teaches Global Commerce and Enterprise, International Management and Introduction to Business Courses.His research has been published in the New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, Journal of Business Ethics, Organization Management Journal, Journal of Academic Ethics, Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, and the International Journal of Case Method Research and Application.
Jose Gavidia
Dr. Jose V. Gavidia joined the faculty of the College of Charleston School of Business and Economics in August 2000, where he teaches global management of technology, statistics, and international business. He earned his Ph.D. and M.B.A. in international business and operations management at the University of Texas Pan American. Dr. Gavidia is a NASBITE Certified Global Business Professional. Before joining the faculty at the College of Charleston, Dr. Gavidia had been an economic analyst, taught a variety of economics and management classes, and directed the Mexican business information center at the University of Texas Pan American. Before his graduate studies, Dr. Gavidia was a quality engineer at ITT Automotive in Reynosa, Mexico, and a computer programmer at Plexi, Roehm Group of Germany, in his native city of Valencia, Spain. Dr. Gavidia’s main research interests focus on the use of information technology in international operations, including e-commerce, electronic data interchange, and virtual teamwork. Currently, Dr. Gavidia is researching gender impact on entrepreneurial intention across 15 countries.
Marvin Gonzalez
Dr. Gonzalez joined the College in 2003 to teach Decision Sciences courses (Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department). He received a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from The Institute Technology of Costa Rica, a M.Sc. in Quality and Information Systems from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, (ITESM) and his Ph.D. in Engineering Management from Purdue University. He has been active in the area of Global Operations for over 15 years and has been a frequent contributor to several Universities in Argentina, USA, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Canada, Spain, Mexico and Costa Rica in the area of Global Strategy. Dr Gonzalez was the Director of the Information Systems Center in the ITESM, Mexico. This Center was dedicated to provide In-Company education to the industries located in Mexico. His international experience includes higher education programs and consultancies in Mexico (ITESM, Universidad Panamerica), Costa Rica (ITCR, INCAE), United States (University of Arizona, Southern Illinois University and College of Charleston) and Spain (Instituto de Empresa and IESE, top ranking Universities in Europe). His current research involves International studies in benchmarking, QFD as control and design tool in service industries and the Greening the Supply Chain Management. Dr. Gonzalez has been professor in different programs in universities such as; Instituto de Empresa, University of Arizona, British Columbia, Southern Illinois University, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) among others.Ben Lever
Ben Lever is one of our executive in residence who has held various executive positions over the past three decades at Ford Motor Company, from which he retired in 1999. He has been actively involved in international general and strategic management, product development and marketing at Ford from both working in Asia and on global products developed in the US for worldwide distribution.At the College of Charleston, he has taught various courses including International Management, International Marketing, International Business, Management & Organizational Behavior, Introduction to Business, and Marketing Concepts. In addition, he has been a member of the school’s Board of Governors.
Mr. Lever’s extensive international background includes three years as President of Ford Motor Company (Japan) Ltd., Director of Mazda Motor Corporation (Hiroshima) and Kia Motors (Seoul). During this time, he established a distribution presence for Ford in Japan and directed an operation that represented the sixth largest foreign company in Japan. He also developed plans for imported luxury cars in the U. S. in conjunction with Ford of Europe and advised European operation on marketing of products for sale within Europe.
Ben received his Master of Business Administration degree from the The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech. He has worked with a number of colleges including Wharton, the Fuqua School of Duke University, University of Michigan, Michigan State University and others in various roles.
Hao-Chen Liu
Born in Taiwan, Dr. Liu received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Alabama in 1994 and 1995, respectively. From 1995 to 2002, he was actively involved in both research and trading in the financial industry including equity, banking, foreign exchange, and money markets. In 1997, he was the recipient of the First Place Award of the International Financial Market Program from the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance. As a foreign exchange and money market trader, he traded with international financial institutions in several international financial centers. In 2003, Dr. Liu returned to the University of Alabama for his Ph.D. in Finance. He joined the College of Charleston as an Assistant Professor of Finance in the Fall of 2007 after completing his degree to teach Business Finance and International Financial Markets. Dr. Liu has acquired the Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) credentials as designated by NASBITE.Dr. Liu’s areas of research interest include financial institutions and markets, international finance and market microstructure. He has presented his work at several national academic conferences including Financial Management Association, Southern Finance Association, and Academy of Economics and Finance.
James Mueller
Dr. Jim Mueller joined the School of Business and Economics faculty in 1997, where his main teaching responsibilities are in strategic management and international business. He received his BA in Economics from Grove City College, PA and his MBA from UNC Wilmington. His Ph.D. is in International Strategic Management (1996) from DeMontfort University in England, where he investigated the activities of western engineering contractors operating in the Soviet Union and its satellite nations. Having lived in Europe for eight years, he was able to visit the countries of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, East Germany and Russia while researching their transition to free-market economies. He has also published research on Macedonia and Moldova, and is currently broadening the scope of his central/east European research to include lesser-developed nations as well.Dr. Mueller passed NASBITE’s Global Business Professional Certification exam in 2008, and also received a certificate in International Human Resource Management (1998) after completing SHRM’s training workshop. In addition to his teaching & research interests, he has also served in a number of academic administration positions: academic director for Webster University’s undergraduate and graduate programs in SC; director of faculty & student services at Thomas More College in Kentucky; and director of the international business program at the College of Charleston. He has also co-authored two federal Dept. of Education (BIE) grants.
Prior to his career in higher education, Dr. Mueller served for six years as a Russian linguist with U.S. military intelligence. While stationed in Europe, he also studied and received proficiency certification in the German language. His experience in industry includes work as a front-line supervisor in the U.S. steel industry and in road construction, as well as stints in the U.S. oil refining, construction and agriculture sectors. His primary international consulting work involves conducting market-entry feasibility studies for the Central European markets.
Rene Mueller
Rene Dentiste Mueller, Ph.D. is a Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Global Trade Initiatives and the Global Scholars programs at the College of Charleston. Dr Mueller began her international career during the Cold War when she served as a German Linguist with the US Army’s Military Intelligence Corps. She has taught in Austria, China, and England and holds a PhD in Marketing from DeMontfort University (England). As a grants writer and PI, Dr Mueller has secured over $1 million in federal funding for the development and expansion of international business education programs at the College of Charleston. Dr. Mueller received the CGBP certification in March 2009.Her research interests include national identity, cross-national marketing and cross-national research methods and she has published in numerous journals including the top ranked Journal of International Business Studies.
Gioconda Quesada
Dr. Gioconda Quesada joined the College of Charleston in 2003. She received her Ph.D. in Manufacturing Management and Engineering from University of Toledo, Ohio. A native of Costa Rica, Dr. Quesada studied Industrial Engineering at Institute of Technology of Costa Rica. She worked as a process engineer at Costa Rican Brewery Company (part of Florida Ice & Farm Co.) before she started her Masters program in Manufacturing Management at University of Toledo, Ohio. She completed an internship at GM Powertrain Plant in Michigan, Ohio with the objective of analyzing inventory management policies. Then, she worked as statistician for a study to analyze traffic problems in Tucson, Arizona. She then started working as database designer and analyst for Southwest Door Company. She lived a short period of time in Vancouver, Canada, where she was working on her Master’s thesis. She then moved to Madrid, Spain where she lived for two years. In Madrid, she worked as an adjunct professor at Instituto de Empresa (ranked 1st MBA program in Europe) teaching quantitative analysis and information systems courses at the graduate level.Dr. Quesada is a Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) by NASBITE. As part of her professional and personal interest, she has experienced international networking in countries such as Spain, Argentina, Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan and Turkey. Her publications show her interest in exploring differences and similarities in business practices globally. She has being part of multiple international studies in manufacturing strategy, supply chain management, sustainability and social responsibility, information technology, e-commerce and quality management. Her work has been published in top journals in Logistics (International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management) and Supply Chain Management (The Journal of Supply Chain Management: A Global Review of Purchasing and Supply; and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal). She has more than 10 journal publications and more than 18 conference proceedings in the last five years.
YU (HENRY) XIE
Dr. Xie is an Assistant Professor of Marketing and International Business at the School of Business and Economics. He is also a Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) as designated by NASBITE. Dr. Xie joined the College of Charleston in August 2006. Originally from China, Dr. Xie has significant academic and professional experiences in international arena. Dr. Xie received his MBA degree from University of South Carolina and his PhD from Saint Louis University. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Xie worked as an international trade manager and research analyst in a number of countries such as China, South Africa, and the U.S.A. Dr. Xie teaches Marketing Concepts, International Marketing, and Marketing Management.Dr. Xie has engaged in active research in international business and marketing. His research has been published in academic journals such as Journal of Product & Brand Management, Journal of Marketing Management, and Marketing Intelligence & Planning; as well as in conference proceedings of national academic associations such as Academy of International Business, American Marketing Association, and Academy of Marketing Science.