David Dunne

Bio

David Dunne is a Senior Lecturer Emeritus of Marketing and Co-Director of Rotman Teaching Effectiveness Centre. David is an award-winning educator, holding the President’s Teaching Award at the University of Toronto and the 3M National Teaching Fellowship. He has taught and directed several executive programs on marketing, innovation and strategy worldwide. David consults in strategy and marketing to leading companies. He is regularly quoted in the media on marketing strategy, advertising and related issues. His research interests include management education, creativity and problem solving and health education in developing countries.

Other Info

Customer understanding, creative thinking and strategy are the foundation of David’s managerial and academic expertise. From his early years in product innovation and marketing with Unilever, London, he learned the value of questioning assumptions and deeply analyzing customer needs to develop winning brand strategies. He took this knowledge into advertising, where he worked on global brands with Young & Rubicam, and later to Lipton and Lever in Toronto, where he managed global consumer brands such as Cup-a-Soup, Sunlight and Dove. His Ph.D. thesis at the University of Toronto applied game theory to manufacturer strategies in packaged goods. He has won many teaching awards, including Canada’s most prestigious teaching award, the 3M National Teaching Fellowship and the President’s Teaching Award, the highest award at the University of Toronto. He was co-founder and Director of the Rotman Teaching Effectiveness Centre. He is an accomplished educator who teaches strategy, innovation and marketing worldwide. At UVic, he teaches Innovation and International Marketing, while at Rotman he teaches Deep Customer Insight (ethnographic research) and is an advisor to Rotman’s Business Design studio, Designworks. His executive teaching clients include AstraZeneca, Bank of Montreal, Corus Entertainment, GlaxoSmithKline, Mt Sinai Hospital, Rogers Cable, and Telus. His consulting practice focuses on customer insight, innovation and customer experience. He is currently writing a book about how in-depth user research and creative thinking methods can unlock “wicked” problems in business and society. His research can be read in business and design journals, including Harvard Business Review and Academy of Management Learning & Education. He has held appointments at design schools in the Netherlands, the US and Mexico. He co-founded Radius, a social innovation lab at Simon Fraser University; he is Board Chair of Academics Without Borders and travels frequently to Nepal, where he is a volunteer professor with a medical school in Kathmandu. He is an avid yoga practitioner and loves to tour by bicycle.

Academic Positions

2014-Present  Professor; University of Victoria

2012-2014  Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor; Simon Fraser University

1998-Present  Adjunct Professor of Marketing

2000-2012  Co-Director, Rotman Teaching Effectiveness Centre; University of Toronto

1995-1998  Lecturer, Marketing; School of Business, Queen''s University

Honors and Awards

2002, 2003, 2004, 2005  Rotman Teaching Award; Joseph L. Rotman School of Management

2001  Dean''s Award for Excellence in Teaching; Joseph L. Rotman School of Management

2005  3M Fellowship; Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

2007  President''s Teaching Award; University of Toronto

Selected Publications - Papers

Questioning and Bridging Across Claims to Generate New Ideas: The Theory and Practice of Generating Reasoning Through Integrative Moves David Dunne and Mihnea Moldoveanu Working Paper

User-Centred Design and Design-Centred Business Schools David Dunne Working Paper

Beyond the Valley: A Wicked Problem on the Roof of the World David Dunne Rotman Magazine 2009

PAHS: A Nepali Project with International Implications CA Courneya and David Dunne Clinical Governance 2009

Learning to Love Mess David Dunne Rotman Magazine 2008

Standing on Guard for Tims David Dunne Literary Review of Canada 2008

Designing Your Way to Innovation David Dunne Times of India 2007

Want to Join the Great Innovators? David Dunne Globe and Mail 2007

Designing a New MBA David Dunne University of Toronto Bulletin 2006