Prof. Lynette Louw (Rhodes University) South Africa

Lynette Louw, appointed in the Raymond Ackerman Chair of Management, Department of Management, former Head of Management Department, and current Deputy Dean, Faculty of Commerce at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. She obtained her Baccalaureus Commercii Honoures Cum Laude and Magister Commercii Cum Laude in Business Management and her Doctor Commercii (Business Management) at the University of Port Elizabeth. Her areas of speciality include Strategic management, International Organisational Behaviour, and Cross-cultural management. She is an active researcher and was the Chairperson of the Research, Technology and Innovation Committee in the Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Lynette was a National Research Foundation (South Africa) rated researcher and is the recipient of research awards for conference papers and publications in rated national and international journals. She has also received merit awards for outstanding performance, research merit awards (20012003), and one of the University of Port Elizabeth’s top twenty researchers in 2003. In 2004 she received the research merit award for Business Management at the Port Elizabeth Technikon and the Faculty of Commerce researcher of the year (2012) at Rhodes University. She is also on the editorial board of rated national and international journals. . Lynette is a co-author of a text book on Management: A South African perspective 1st to 5th editions; co-author of a chapter in the book on Management and change in Africa: A cross-cultural perspective; main editor and author of a chapter in textbook in Strategic Management: Developing sustainability in Southern Africa 1st to 3rd edition (current). She was a South African member of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) Council and previously held the positions of Vice President: Public Relation, and Finance as well as that of Chairperson: Commission on Socio-economic Development and Trade. She was the Chairperson for an International Conference on Trade and Investment in South Africa, 2005; the Finance Chair for the ICTe Africa 2006 conference in Nairobi, Kenya, 17-21 May 2006 and an advisor to the Europe-Africa summit held in Hamburg, Germany in April 2008. Lynette was also a member of the MBA Higher Education Quality Committee for Council on Higher Education in South Africa (2003 - 2004). A reviewer to the National Research Foundation for researcher ratings in 2007 and have been invited since 2007. In 2008 she served as a NRF Advisory Panel member for the Human Institutional Capacity Development (HICD) meeting on Economics and Management Sciences (EMS) 5 September 2008. She was invited by the Directorate of Higher Education Reviews (DHR) at the National Authority for Qualifications and Quality Assurance of Education and Training (QQA) in Bahrain to review two business programmes offered by the Bahrain Polytechnic, and attended the South African Commerce Deans’ Association (SACDA) (2013) and a CHE meeting on the “four year degree programme” on behalf of the Dean (2014). Currently she represents the Rhodes University Faculty of Commerce on the Council on Higher Education (CHE) Bachelor of Commerce Standards Working Group. Her knowledge of HEIs and Rhodes University, in particular, has been developed with involvement at various levels: Faculty Board, Senate, Executive of Senate (since 2011), Deans Forum (since 2011), and the Academic Leadership Forum (since 2011). In addition, serving on various university committees, task teams, review committees, interview committees, chairing the Higher Degrees committee and the Internationalisation committee from time to time, and serving on the Rhodes Business School Board of Advisors and Management have provided insights into academic leadership at Rhodes University. In 2012, she was the chairperson of the task team for the curriculum review of the Commerce Extended Studies Programme and currently the chairperson of the Faculty of Commerce working group on curriculum review. Lynette was involved as a collaborative international research partner in: (a) England-Africa Partnerships in Higher Education: Cross-Cultural management and health sector project delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa; (b) Multilateral and academic programme: Intercultural communication and management skills across Africa (with Neurtingen-Geisling University Germany and USA partner). She is currently part of a China Africa/Africa China research group which was constituted at Rhodes University and the research leader of an extensive research project on Chinese management in Africa. This project is in collaboration with a colleagues in the UK and China, for which funding from the Sandisa Imbewu Fund at Rhodes University was received (over R1 million for a three year period). She is a member of the Southern Africa Institute for Management Scientists (SAIMS) and an honorary member of the Golden Keys Awards Society in recognition for national and international community/business contribution. She also has experience of being a Board member to various institutions. As a Board Member of the Amatola Water Board, she served on the Executive Committee, previous Chair on the Finance; Strategy and Development Committees. She has been re-elected onto the Board for another term of offices Deputy. Work experience comprises of 30 years lecturing at academic institutions and three years’ experience in business. International experience includes lecturing for one year (2002-2003), in the Fachbereich Wirtschaft on the International Management Programme at the University of Applied Sciences, Osnabrueck in Germany. She was also a guest lecturer in Contemporary Management Issues: An international perspective at the Faculty of Economics, University of Utrecht, Netherlands during 2002. External moderator for Makarere University, Kampala in Uganda (2005-2007), a guest lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrueck and Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (SUIBE) in Shanghai, China (since 2007). Lynette is an external examiner for post graduate courses and theses for a number of universities in South Africa.