Denis Simon
Current Position
Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs of the Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce under the State University of New York in New York City.

Background
Prior to joining the Levin Institute, Dr. Simon served as Dean of the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. In his capacity as Dean, Dr. Simon engineered a fundamental re-structuring of the overall MBA curriculum. The new modular MBA curriculum reflects a distinct move away from the traditional discipline-based approach existing in most business schools toward a problem-based form of pedagogy that emphasizes experiential learning and focuses on those key tasks aspiring managers and business leaders need for success.

Dr. Simon also has served as professor of international business strategy and technology management at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (1987-1995) and as the Ford International Professor of Management and Technology at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1983-1987). At the Sloan School and Fletcher School, he taught courses dealing with international business and management, international technology transfer, international manufacturing, and comparative government-business relations, especially with respect to promotion of high technology industries.

Prior to joining Rensselaer, Dr. Simon was President of Monitor Group (China). As a senior member of the Asia leadership team within Monitor Group (Asia), Dr. Simon helped drive overall business development and provided high-level management support and intellectual leadership for Monitor’s strategy engagements in China. Prior to joining Monitor, Dr. Simon was Managing Director of the Business Strategy and Architecture Innovation Center in Singapore for Scient Corporation. In addition, prior to his tenure at Scient, he was an Associate Partner at Andersen Consulting China, where he served as Director of the China Strategy Group. He also served as the General Manager for Andersen Consulting’s China practice in Beijing from 1998-1999. From 1990-1995, Dr. Simon served as President of China Consulting Associates (Boston), which was one of only four foreign consulting firms approved by China’s State Council to operate as a domestically registered management consulting company in the PRC. Dr. Simon also has served as a private consultant to numerous Fortune Global 500 firms regarding their business entry and operations in China.

Throughout his professional career, Dr. Simon has been an innovator in intellectual thought and program development. He is well-known in many circles for his academic as well as corporate “entrepreneurship.” Along with his consulting experience, during his academic career at the Fletcher School, Dr. Simon served as Director of the China Executive Program (1988-90), a customized training program for mid-level Chinese managers to prepare them for long-term leadership positions in the PRC. From 1990-1993, he served as Director of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the Fletcher School/Bentley College.

Selected Scholarly Work
Dr. Simon has written and lectured widely regarding innovation, high technology development, foreign investment and corporate strategy in the PacRim and is frequently quoted in the Western and Asian business press regarding commercial and technology trends in China, HK and the Asia-Pacific region. Among his key publications are: Technological Innovation in China [with Detlef Rehn] (Harper Books, 1987), Science and Technology in Post-Mao China [edited with Merle Goldman] (Harvard University Press, 1989), The Emerging Technological Trajectory of the Pacific Rim (ME Sharpe, 1995), Corporate Strategies Towards the Pacific Rim (Routledge, 1996), and Techno-Security in an Age of Globalization (ME Sharpe, 1997). He currently is working on a book-length manuscript dealing with the development of the computer industry in China—1949-2004.

Education
He received his M.A. degree in Asian Studies in 1975 and Ph.D. in Political Science in 1980 from the University of California at Berkeley (Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Robert A. Scalapino). He received his B.A. degree in Asian Studies from the State University of New York in 1974. He reads and speaks Mandarin Chinese fluently.