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case method books
About the Authors
J. David M. Wood
David Wood is a member of the faculty in Operations Management and former Faculty Director of the MBA program at The Ivey Business School as well as a graduate of both the HBA and MBA program. He has spent many years in industry as the Director of Sales & Marketing in the US and then VP Manufacturing before becoming President for W. C. Wood Company, a global manufacturer of home appliances. David has had extensive experience in international business, mergers and acquisitions, and currently sits on several corporate boards. He has also worked as a consultant to medium and large corporations in strategic planning and operational restructuring.
David's interests are devoted to developing operational processes in a broad range of industries, applying strategy to logistics and supply chain management, and establishing operations management as a fundamental tool for business excellence.
David has worked with Ivey Publishing to explore how technology can enhance the case-based classroom, and introduced the first blended learning program at Ivey. He has produced a number of written and multimedia cases.
In 2014, David received the David G. Burgoyne Teaching Award for Outstanding Commitment to Student Development. In 2019, he also won The Case Centre's Outstanding Case Teacher competition which recognizes exceptional teachers who are achieving excellence through innovative and creative approaches to case teaching.
Michiel R. Leenders
Mike, Professor Emeritus at the Ivey School of Business, Western University, is the former Leenders Purchasing Management Association of Canada Chair and Director of the School’s PhD program. He chaired the operations management group for 25 years. He received a degree in mining engineering from the University of Alberta, his MBA from Western and his doctorate from the Harvard Business School.
Mike has written a large number of articles in a variety of magazines and journals. His four supply management texts have been translated into ten languages and include Reverse Marketing (The Free Press) and nine editions of Purchasing and Supply Management (McGraw Hill- Irwin). Mike has taught and consulted extensively both in Canada and internationally. He has received six major national and international awards including those from The Case Centre and the Financial Post. He was a Director of the ING Bank of Canada since its inception in 1997 until its sale in 2013. An active entrepreneur, he has founded six small companies.
James A. Erskine
Jim has taught operations management in all the teaching programs at the Ivey Business School and is a former chair of the Honors Business Administration Program. During a leave of absence in 1988-89, he served as dean of the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan. He has designed and conducted training and development programs for several large Canadian corporations as well as universities and government agencies. Jim is especially interested in management challenges at the operating level and issues surrounding implementation. Jim has over 40 years of experience in teaching and learning with cases and in writing cases.
Jim has been recognized as an Outstanding Contributor and World Ambassador by The Case Centre (formerly ECCH), by the World Association for Case Method Research and Application (WACRA) and by the North American Case Research Association (NACRA). Jim is a 3-M Teaching Fellow, an award that recognizes him as one of Canada's best university professors. He is the recipient of the Edward G. Pleva Teaching Excellence Award, the highest teaching honour at Western University and six other major teaching awards.
Louise A. Mauffette-Leenders
Louise holds an MBA from HEC, The University of Montreal. She was a case writer and research associate at the Ivey Business School for eight years. She wrote over 50 cases in various areas of management, including the non-profit sector. In addition to the three text books on the case method, she co-authored A Stepping Stone: Recollections from Troubled Childhood (1999) and Women of Zaña (2001).
She has worked in social services and the non-profit sector since 1985, including The United Way of Greater London and Across Languages, an interpretation and translation agency for immigrants in need of assistance. As partner of Leenders and Associates Inc., she continues to teach educators from various countries on how to use the case method. She has received the same award from The Case Centre as her co-authors.
Since 2000, her volunteer work has focused on international development, primarily in Northern Peru, where she travels twice a year to support a school for disadvantaged children through a small family foundation called Petirojo. Locally, her community engagement includes: founder and past president of La Ribambelle, a non-profit French multi-service child care centre; Chair of the Metropolitan United Church Hospitality Meal Program since 1999; and loan officer for the Goodwill Industries Impact Loan Program since 2014.