Richard Li-Hua
Founding Director of China-US Strategy and Innovation Centre (CUSIR), in Sias University, and Professor of Strategic Management and Leadership
Area of Specialization: Strategic Management and Leadership, Innovation and Technology Management
Professor Richard Li-Hua, Ph.D., is the Founding Director of China-US Strategy and Innovation Research Centre (CUSIR). He was President of Sias University, China, between May 2014 and September 2015. With his leadership, the university has set a bold, ambitious, and innovative Vision 2030 that Sias will become an influential international university with strong features of global engagement, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and make a strategic shift from a teaching-focused into a research-informed university. The university has made solid steps and significant strides in achieving the great vision. He has launched Sias Academy for Open Innovation and Sias Academy for Global Entrepreneurship – both of which are virtual schools but recruiting students across the university among the 14 schools along with the consolidation of World Academy for the Future of Women, which are underpinning the creation of Bilingual Campus, Innovative Campus and Entrepreneurial Campus which I referred as “three invisible campuses”.
He is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Penn State University, Erie, USA, Windsor University, Canada, Sun Yat-Sen University, China, Sunderland University, U.K., and the Special Advisor to the Dean of Odette School of Business, Windsor University, Canada. He has over 30 years of leadership experience in international development and branding & marketing in the global higher education and international business between West and East. He was the President and Dean of Washington Academy of Management of Technology, UK. As Professor of Strategic Management and Development, he launched in early 2011 the International Centre for Research into Innovation, Sustainability and Entrepreneurship (RISE), Sunderland University, which led the development and the implementation of a well-crafted strategy in transforming the faculty from “teaching-focused” into “research-informed”. His over 30 years of career in both private commercial companies and the public sector in global higher education has been marked by its strongly international focus. After a highly successful career as Managing Director of China Henan European Information Centre and Chairman and CEO of Henan Yuxin International Economic & Technical Cooperation Corporation, with spells in a number of Middle East and North African countries, Europe and Southeast Asian countries, he moved to the UK to begin his Ph.D. research and a new career as a university academic in 1997. Since then he has worked as a senior academic and initiated and contributed significantly to the development and implementation of innovation and internationalization strategy in a number of institutions, including Northumbria, Salford, Sunderland, Plymouth, Sun Yat-Sen University (China), Windsor University (Canada) and Penn State, Behrend (USA). After 16 years of achievements in the global higher education in the West, he moved back again to China, taking the helm of Sias University.
His Strategic Vision on West Meets East
With over 30 years of working experience in the East and West (15 years of governmental and industrial working experience in China and 16 years in UK’s higher education, his leadership experiences and extensive interactions, teaching, consultancy, and engagement globally, in particular, UK, US, Canada, Europe, and China, as well as his in-depth research on international technology transfer between West and East, he has insightful observations and interpretation about what happened in the last 35 years between West and East, notably China and how a university/firm can be well-positioned in the 21st century. It was in early 2009, that he delivered his Keynote Speech on The Integration of Western Management with Eastern Philosophy in the Current Recession at Cambridge CUALA International Conference. Since then, he has devoted huge efforts to achieve this strategic vision, which has allowed him to develop a creed for business management education from West Leads East to West Meets East then to East Leads West. He has been instrumental in transforming such a firm strategic vision into reality with passionate and relentless insistence on (1) the integration of Western management with Eastern philosophy and (2) the integration of world-class research with teaching and learning in global higher education and (3) the integration of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship with business management. In the last 10 years, he has been frequently requested to provide strategic advice, leadership coaching, and support to senior management teams in pursuing strategic organizational changes in universities and business/management schools in the East and the West.
His Leadership on Research and Innovation
He has significant leadership experiences in the design and implementation of a robust and well-crafted strategy for the promotion, enhancement, and re-conceptualization of employability, entrepreneurship, innovation, internationalization, and sustainability in the global higher education, which are informed by his undertaking several high profile research projects, including Two UK Prime Minister Initiative 2 UK-China Connect (7 Chinese universities, including Zhejiang University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and UK-US Connect (6 US universities, including MIT Sloan School of Management and Penn State University, PMI2), EU-China Intellectual Property Initiative2 (IPR2) and EU FP7Marie Curie Actions- International Research Staff Exchange Scheme. He has published over 60 academic papers in leading international journals and conference proceedings and 6 books in English and 3 books in Chinese. His strong links to global higher education include him being a Visiting Professor to a dozen prestigious universities and Honourable Dean and President to half a dozen university/international business schools in China and the West. He was the Founding Editor of the Journal of Technology Management in China and the Journal of Technology Management and Strategy in China (Chinese version). He is the Consulting Editor of the Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship, the Journal of Knowledge-Based Innovation in China, the Journal of Chinese Economic and Foreign Trade Studies, and the Journal of Science and Technology Policy in China. He is a leading expert on innovation management and technology strategy and internationally recognized authority on international technology transfer as well as Chinese business and management. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences and was an invited senior expert of science and technology by EU IPR2 and MOST of PRC in 2010. He was a Visiting Scholar in 2009 at Judge Business School, Cambridge University. He has been Senior Economic Adviser to Henan Provincial Government in China since 2003. He was International Advisor to ARMCO in Saudi Arabia and Emerald Insight in the UK, Study Group in Australia, and Innovation Management in Sweden. He has been the President of the China Association for Management of Technology since 2006. He has led the organizing of 5 successful and high-profile CAMOT International Conferences in universities, since 2008, including Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Tsinghua University.
His Ph.D. Supervision and Delivery to MBA, EMBA, and EDP Globally
He has significant experience in Ph.D., DBA, and Professional Doctor Supervisions and successful examination in his research areas of strategic management of technology and innovation, technology strategy, international technology transfer, and innovation management. His teaching and delivery to Executive MBA, EDP, and International MBA in China, UK, US, and Canada on modules of Strategic Management and Technology Strategy and Innovation, with West-Meets-East, integration of theories and practical case studies from West and East, reflecting his research, engagement, consultancy and industrial experiences in West and East, has been extremely welcome and inspiring, interactive and appealing. In the meantime, he has led the launch and development of featured EMBA and EDP programs in Plymouth University, Washington Academy, and Windsor University. Owing to his senior managerial role in international business, he has been well connected through his teaching and delivery of academic seminars with the leading MBA, EMBA, and EDP programs of many prestigious universities, including Cambridge, Penn State, Windsor, Tsinghua, Tongji, Shanghai, Wuhan, Tianjin, ECUST and Sun Yat-Sen and Plymouth University.
He holds cross-disciplinary degrees. He earned a BA in English Language and British and American Literature and History from Henan University in 1982, a MA in Construction Management and Building Economics from Southeast University in 1992, and a Ph.D. in Management (International Technology Transfer) from Northumbria University in 2001.
