Lecture Series Features Faculty on Gun Control, Management of Family Firms April 4, 11

Leading Middlebury Institute faculty will address timely issues in public lectures the next two Tuesday evenings as the Grover M. Hermann Lecture Series welcomes Professor Ed Laurance, former dean of the Graduate School of International Policy Studies, and Professor Sandra Dow, chair of the MBA in Global Impact Management program. Both lectures will take place from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Room 102 of the McGowan Building at 411 Pacific Street on the Institute’s downtown Monterey campus. Each lecture will be followed by a light reception.

As the Gordon Paul Smith Chair in International Studies, Professor Ed Laurance’s April 4 lecture will reflect on his 45 years of involvement with efforts to reduce and prevent armed violence, working with the U.S. Government, the United Nations, and international NGOs, including one he founded. “Looking back on 45 years has reminded me of many dead ends, failures and some successes,” says Laurance. “But one reality remains: you can’t have armed violence without arms. The work must continue.”

Professor Sandra M. Dow, the Grover M. Hermann Foundation Chair in International Business Management, will give a talk April 11 titled “How Culture Shapes the Family Firm.” Dow’s remarks will focus on the publicly traded family firm and how capital markets and culture mediate the performance / ownership relationship. “Sometimes family owners behave as paragons, while in other settings they turn out to be parasites!” observes Dow.

Both lectures are free and open to the public. The lecture series is supported by a generous grant from the Grover M. Hermann Foundation.