Dr. Phil Deaver: (Writing About Global China)

Phil Deaver, PhD is Associate Professor of English and Writer in Residence at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL.  He  was born in Chicago and grew up in Tuscola, Illinois, oldest of two children. His father, Philip Deaver, grew up in Alliance, Nebraska and was a physician and surgeon. His mother, Althea Samples Deaver, was from western Nebraska also (Haigler, Litchfield, and mainly Grand Island) and a nurse. Many of his stories, which are published widely in the literary magazines, are set in Douglas County, Illinois. In 1986, he became the 13th winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, resulting in the publication of his collection Silent Retreats, re-released in paperback by the University of Georgia Press in the spring of 2008. He is the author of a collection of poetry, How Men Pray, Anhinga Press, 2005. He co-edited an anthology of writing from central Florida entitled Orlando Group and Friends (Arbiter, 1998) and was the editor of an anthology of creative nonfiction essays on baseball, Scoring From Second: Writers on Baseball.

Reading from How Men Pray at Borders in Champaign

He has lived in Florida since 1984. Since 1998 he has been writer in residence and professor of English at Rollins College, in Winter Park on the near north side of Orlando. He was married in 1968, divorced in 1998. He has three grown children – Michael, Daniel and Laura.

He graduated in 1968 from St. Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, IN and received his MA from Ball State and his doctorate (Ed.D.) from the University of Virginia. After undergraduate school, he taught English at St. Francis High School in Wheaton, IL for one year, then was drafted into the United States Army.  For eight years, Philip worked in administration at Murray State University in Kentucky at a time when the writing program there was burgeoning under the leadership of Delbert Wylder. Though Deaver was not on the English Department faculty there, he played a lot of racquetball with them. Mark Jarman, Christopher Buckley, Ralph Burns, Aaron Fischer, and fiction writer Ken Smith. Joe Ashby Porter, Pam Durban, Jorie Graham and Jim Galvin were also there during Philip’s eight years in Murray.  During those years he helped to organize the Jesse Stuart Writers Workshop, and it was through that program that he met Charles Wright, William Matthews, Larry Levis, Jonathan Penner, William Stafford, Bobby Ann Mason, the great Mary Gordon, and many others.

It was the late lamented Ken Smith, a great fiction writer and teacher of writing, who brought Phil Deaver into tune with his own generation, the story writers hitting their stride then – Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff, Kevin McIlvoy, Richard Russo, Ann Beattie, Richard Ford, Tim O’Brien.

Philip Deaver has attended Bread Loaf only once, in 1991, as a Fellow, working with Larry Brown and Francine Prose.  He was awarded the first John Gardner Memorial Fellowship to Bread Loaf in the mid-1980’s but was unable to attend.  In retrospect, that was probably pretty important.  This sounds kind of like an orbituary; however, it is not.

Dr. Andrew Field: (US-China Relations)

Andrew Field, PhD is currently Adjunct Professor at New York University in Shanghai.  He holds a PhD in East Asian Language & Cultures from Columbia University with a specialization in Modern Chinese History.  He has written and published extensively.  Dr. Filed's most recent publications include: Shanghai Nightscapes: Nightlife, Sexuality, and Globalization in the Chinese Metropolis, 1920-2010 (co-authored with James Farrer); Cabarets as Sexual Contact Zones in Shanghai, 1916-1936; Shanghai's Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics, 1919-1954; Early History of the Automobile in China,1900-1920.

 Dr. Tomas Casas Klett: (Chinese Business & Economic Development)



Over a decade ago a native from Barcelona, Tomas Casas, started a new career in Shanghai. Until his move to the Middle Kingdom, Tomas had lived in Tokyo where for three years he worked at the headquarters of a leading multinational electronics corporation “as a Japanese employee.” His springboard into China was Fudan University where in 2000 he completed a Masters Program at its prestigious School of Management. In parallel, by partnering with Chinese firm founders, Tomas started to hone his business skills becoming a serial entrepreneur. Most of his ventures are in software and information technology. He takes an early stage involvement and once a venture matures, Tomas will moves onto a strategic or supervisory role. Fortune has at times been on his side and three of his firms have seen an exit. His insights into China business have been featured in business cases and books such as “China CEO: A Case Guide for Business Leaders in China” (Fernandez, Liu, Wiley, 2006) or “War for Management Talent in China” (Fischer, IMD, 2007).

Tomas obtained his undergraduate degree at the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in finance, multinational management and political science. He has attained the Japanese language JLI-Level 1 (highest) proficiency from Sophia University in Tokyo. His doctoral dissertation was completed at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland in 2005 (“k-efficiency Theory of Entrepreneurship”) under the mentorship of professors Martin Hilb and Walter Busch. After its publication, Tomas renewed his dedication to academia on the teaching and research fronts.
Regarding teaching, Tomas has since 2006 been a Lehrbeauftragter (Lecturer) at the University of St. Gallen. His main focus is entrepreneurship and corporate governance. Course taught include “The Entrepreneur; Wealth Creation and Luck”, “Biases and Heuristics in Venturing and Intrapreneurship” and “Doing Business in China” (and, “Japan”). These courses are often complemented with lectures on Asian culture, institutions, history. He is also a portfolio partner at the University of St. Gallen’s Institute for Leadership and HR Management and is active at the Center for Corporate Governance. In addition, Tomas regularly works with executives at institutions like the Rotman School of the University of Toronto, INSEAD or Fudan University’s School of Management. Moreover, he is regularly involved in executive education for a wide range of clients such as Vivendi-SFR, Christies or Berlitz.

Tomas’ main research subjects are (a) behavioral economics models of entrepreneurship and intra-preneurship, (b) corporate governance and ‘uncertainty governance’ models of value creation, and (c) the entrepreneurship function (uncertainty-undertaking, pure profit-seeking position) in general macroeconomic models. Moreover, he is concerned about the role of Asia’s existing and raising powers in the world. In this regard, his first book “Japan's Open Future: An Agenda for Global Citizenship” (co-authored with Lehmann and Haffner, March 2009), is a multi-disciplinary advocacy work examining Japan’s strategic choices, business models and opportunities after two decades of stagnation.

The next challenge for Tomas is to leverage his multi-layered understanding of China into an in-depth analysis of what he thinks is the foremost challenge of the 21st Century. That is, how the emergence of the “Chinese businessperson” will result in a new geopolitical, industrial and business ‘world order’ and ‘creative disorder’. Given that this question will impact the organization of industries, the standards of living, competition, even culture and the environment across the world, Tomas proposes creative, counter-factual and engaged contributions to this exciting debate.
Tomas communicates in English, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese and Catalan. He is a FC Barcelona football fan and an avid traveler. Other personal interests of his include history and skiing.


Dr. Susan Lackman: ( 1. The Role of the Artist in Chinese Society, 2. Music Business)

Susan Cohn Lackman, Ph.D., M.B.A., is Professor of Theory & Composition at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL.  Sh is an internationally-known composer and author whose articles and lectures about music, as well as creative arts management solutions, increase access to and understanding of music throughout the world. After a youth spent absorbing the music and art from a variety of cultures around the world as the daughter of a Naval officer, she earned her B.Mus.Ed. degree at Temple University, an M.A. at The American University, and a Ph.D. at Rutgers University. Dr. Lackman came to Rollins College in 1981, and she credits her insatiable curiosity for the fact that she has taught courses in harmony, counterpoint, Jewish music, music business, arts administration, Russian music, music criticism, and music history. Her activity in arts management, including serving as General Manager of WPRK-FM, Treasurer of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and Board Chair and Executive Director of the Festival of Orchestras led her to receive the M.B.A. from the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins. Dr. Lackman is also in demand as a choral adjudicator, and her essays about music have been enriching and delighting concert-goers for years. Audiences from Boston to Beijing have heard her music in concert; her first symphony was recorded by Vienna Modern Masters at a music festival in the Czech Republic.

Dr. Lackman is a champion for people seeking their full potential. The closeness she shares with her daughters, one a Rollins grad (A.B.Hon, '00) and attorney, one a “desk” with the State Department and a symphony musician, is her true delight.