Fred McDougall

Professor Fred McDougall is the founding Vice-Chancellor and President of Torrens University Australia, the first new university to be established in Australia in over 20 years.

Prior to his current appointment, Fred held a number of senior executive positions at the University of Adelaide including the positions of Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic), Executive Dean of the Faculty of the Professions, Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), and Head/Dean of the Graduate School of Business. He also served as Acting Vice-Chancellor and President for various periods.

Fred was appointed to the Foundation Chair in Management at the University of Adelaide, an industry sponsored position, in 1987. Prior to this appointment, Fred held the Foundation Chair in Accounting at the Flinders University of South Australia. He has also held academic appointments at the University of Melbourne, the University of Glasgow, and Macquarie University. In addition, Fred has held visiting appointments at Southampton University (UK), Concordia University (Canada), Universidade Catolica Portugesa (Portugal), the University of Reading (UK), the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration (Finland), and Texas Christian University (US). He has acted as external examiner/assessor for the University Sains Malaysia, and the Hong Kong City University.

Fred served as Head/Dean of the University of Adelaide’s Graduate School of Business from 1987 – 1997, and again from 2000-2002, overseeing a tripling in the numbers enrolled in the MBA, the introduction of executive development programs, a substantial increase in the number of staff, the development of close relations with business and government, and also relations with business schools in a number of countries. Fred was a founding director of the Consortium of Australian Management and Business Schools (CAMBS – now the Australian National Business School), and Chair of the CAMBS committee that established the very successful Asia Intensive School of Management in Penang, Malaysia, that attracted MBA students from Australian and other countries.

Fred’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of corporate strategy, corporate and international finance, and mergers and acquisitions. He has published in numerous journals and other publications both in Australia and overseas, and presented papers at numerous conferences and seminars.

In 2002 Fred was the Saastamoinen Visiting Professor in the MBA Program at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration in acknowledgement of his 12 year association with this program, one of the top such programs in Europe.

Fred has also acted as a consultant to numerous companies, organisations and governments in Australia and overseas, and has served on the Boards of a number of companies including the role of Board Chair at three companies.