J. Colin Dodds - Career

Career

Dodds began teaching Finance at Saint Mary's University in 1982 and went on to become Department Chairperson, Director of the MBA Program, and Dean of the Sobey School of Business (then known as the Frank H. Sobey Faculty of Commerce).

Beginning in 1991 he went on to serve as Academic Vice President for nine years. On July 1, 2000 Dodds became the 33rd President of Saint Mary's University. In 2005, the Board of Governors at Saint Mary’s unanimously appointed him to a new five-year term, which begins this year, July 1, 2006.

He is also currently the President of the Council of Nova Scotia University Presidents and President of the Canadian Bureau for International Education.

He has been a force behind the globalization of the Saint Mary's campus - making it one of the most internationalized campuses in Canada. The University now attracts students from over 80 countries around the world, and faculty and students are involved in community outreach projects/study abroad program all around the globe. The University, under his leadership, continues to solidify its mission in making education accessible to all students.

From 1991 to 2000, Dodds served as the Vice-President, Academic and Research at Saint Mary's, a position that has allowed him to pursue the University's far-reaching goals such as the establishment of Saint Mary's programs in Gambia, the marketing of Saint Mary's education in every country and on nearly every continent around the world, and the establishment of the University as a consistently high-ranking performer in Macleans' Annual Rankings.

In 1992, Dodds was also a driving force behind a thirteen episode televised entrepreneurship training program called "Owning My Own Business", which was broadcast on the Atlantic Satellite Network to Canada's four Atlantic Provinces, and produced by the Atlantic Provinces Chamber of Commerce. The program, adapted from a similar French-language offering at Université Laval in Quebec, saw the development of a text book, 13 television modules of 30 minutes each covering all of the key topics in the text, and a student workbook, all designed to assist Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurs to start and run their own businesses.

Since 1982 the University has managed over $40-million in academic initiatives and projects around the world. Under his leadership, the University now offers three PhD. programs, 14 Masters programs, and a variety of diverse programs in its faculties of Arts, Commerce, Science and Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. External funding for innovative research opportunities now stands in the millions, and only continues to rise.

Dodds helps journalists deal with issues that are changing our world, such as bank mergers, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the future role of universities. He is also a widely known author with a long list of academic credentials and academic publications.

Dodds began teaching Finance at Saint Mary's in 1982. He then went on to become Chair of the Finance and Management Science Department, Director of the MBA Program and then Dean of The Frank H. Sobey Faculty of Commerce, the leading business school in Atlantic Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree (The Open University), a Bachelor of Science in Economics (Honours) (University of Hull), and a Master of Arts and Ph. D. (University of Sheffield).