David Dunne, Ph.D.

David is Professor and Director of MBA Programs at the University of Victoria's Gustavson School of Business. He is an accomplished educator who teaches strategy, innovation and marketing worldwide.

Customer understanding, creative thinking and strategy are the foundation of David's managerial and academic expertise. From his early years in product innovation and marketing with Unilever, London, he learned to question assumptions and deeply analyze customer needs to develop winning brand strategies. As a marketing and advertising executive, he worked on global brands with Unilever and Young & Rubicam in the UK, and later Unilever in Toronto, where he managed brands such as Cup-a-Soup, Sunlight and Dove.

His research is centred on design thinking, about which he has published several articles. Currently, his focus is on the pitfalls and promise of design thinking in large organizations. He has won many awards for his teaching, including Canada's most prestigious teaching award, the 3M National Teaching Fellowship, and the President's Teaching Award, the highest award at the University of Toronto.