Academic and Media Executive

International Education / Creativity / Management

Dr. Robert Edgell is Executive Director of Ameursian, a San Francisco based management and research consultancy that provides strategic direction, organizational design, creativity and management training, and relationship development solutions for socially responsible businesses, startups, nonprofits, and universities. In addition, Dr. Edgell is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at American University’s Kogod School of Business (undergraduate program nationally ranked at #28 by BusinessWeek) in Washington DC and a Visiting Professor at the Swiss Business School in Zurich. Previously, he taught at San Francisco State University’s College of Business.

Dr. Edgell’s research contributes to a new integrated view of innovation, social responsibility, and management. His current scholarly research focuses on a range of interdisciplinary topics including media as a lever for corporate governance, responsible innovation and harm (in collaboration with colleagues from Stanford University Law School), top management team innovation processes, and organizational social impact. 

During his stay in Switzerland, he served as Executive Director of the MBA in Media and Communication at the University of St. Gallen. He has spent over twenty years in digital commerce, marketing, publishing, Architecture, consulting and executive education. Prior to Ameursian, he served as Vice President of Club Marketing at Carclub.com. While at Bertelsmann, he held various executive positions. He had P&L responsibility for annual revenues of over $200 million at Doubleday Direct's entertainment clubs and was in charge of strategic planning at Book Group North America.

St. Mary's College of California selected Dr. Edgell to serve as the first Visiting Executive at the School of Economics and Business Administration. He has taught with the American Management Association and has authored seminars and companion books including, PROFITABLE MARKETING AND BRANDING IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY. In addition, he has served as a steering committee board member of BAIDO and advised various groups. He has developed strategic alliances with a diverse range of organizations, from Columbia House Clubs to the Contra Costa Software Business Incubator to the League of American Theaters and Producers.

Dr. Edgell received his Ph.D. in international multicultural management (magna cum laude) from the University of St. Gallen (AACSB accredited). He holds an MBA from Columbia University Business School in the City of New York and a Bachelor of Architecture (5 year degree, cum laude) from Kent State University. Through Columbia's Chazen Institute of International Business, he studied at the Rotterdam School of Management in The Netherlands. He is a registered Architect and has studied at Harvard's Graduate School of Design.