Wendell Earl Dunn, III

Background

Wendell Earl Dunn III was born on August 20, 1945, in Boca Raton, Florida, the son of Wendell Earl Dunn Jr. and Lillian Daniels Dunn.

Education

Dunn earned a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1966. He received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California in 1973 and completed a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1981.

Career

Dunn began his professional career as assistant to the director of personnel at Johns Hopkins University from 1967 to 1968. He then moved to Australia, serving as pilot project manager for Chlorine Technology Ltd. in Sydney from 1968 to 1971. After returning to the United States, he worked as a securities analyst with Alex. Brown & Sons in Baltimore from 1973 to 1974. During the same period, he served as legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Paul W. Fannin.

While pursuing his doctoral studies, Dunn taught business administration at the University of Michigan, where he was a lecturer from 1977 to 1980. He subsequently joined the College of William and Mary as assistant professor of business administration from 1980 to 1981.

From 1981 to 1991, he was principal of W. E. Dunn & Associates in Philadelphia. During the 1980s and 1990s, he held numerous teaching and administrative appointments at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, including senior lecturer, adjunct associate professor, adjunct professor of management, entrepreneurship curriculum coordinator, academy director of entrepreneurship programs, and faculty member of the Wharton Executive MBA Program. He also served on the advisory board of the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center.

Dunn held additional academic appointments as adjunct assistant professor of fine and performing arts management at Columbia University and adjunct associate professor of emergency medicine at The George Washington University.

From 1991 to 1996, he served in leadership roles at the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center, including associate director and academy director. In 1996 he joined the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia as professor of business administration and became executive director of the Batten Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

Beyond academia, Dunn worked as a management consultant and executive educator for organizations including AT&T, DuPont, General Motors, IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, SmithKline Beecham, and ASEA Brown Boveri. He also participated in national innovation initiatives through the U.S. Department of Commerce and served as a special advisor to the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Hopkins/Nanjing Program.

He served on the board and executive committee of the University of Virginia Patent Foundation and on the advisory board of Virginia Gateway.

Achievements

• Dunn was a Robert Rodkey Foundation Fellow in 1974. He was certified as an Emergency Medical Technician in New Jersey and was a registered mine manager in Queensland, Australia.
  
  He was listed by Marquis Who’s Who as a noteworthy business educator.

Membership

Dunn was active in numerous professional and civic organizations. He served as president of the American Society of Inventors from 1985 to 1986 after previously serving on its board of directors. He was also a member of the Academy of Management, the United States Distance Learning Association, the Association of University Technology Managers, and the Licensing Executives Society of the United States and Canada.

His community involvement included service with the Haddonfield Ambulance Association, where he was an Emergency Medical Technician and later co-captain of the Express Mail Service Squad. He also served as trustee of the International Peace Policy Research Institute and as a founding trustee of the Consortium for MBA Enterprise Corps.

Interests

• Flying, sailing, gardening.

Connections

Married Kathleen Ann Riley, March 29, 1981;1 child, Elissa Brooks. 1 child, Elissa Brooks.

Father:

Wendell Earl Junior D.

Mother:

Lillian (Daniels) D.

Spouse:

Kathleen Ann Riley

child:

Elissa Brooks III