Robert Spich

Following the completion of his bachelor’s degree in international relations, Robert S. Spich served in the Peace Corps in Chile and later at the Agency for International Development (AID) in Washington, D.C., where he focused on programs in economic development and technical assistance. After completing both his MBA and Ph.D. at the University of Washington, Spich received several research and teaching fellowships to Latin America from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University and the Fulbright Scholars Program.

Since joining UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1992, Spich has taught courses in international management, emerging markets, negotiations, organization design and social-cultural issues in global business. He has been an active faculty advisor for teams in all three of Anderson’s MBA field study programs for more than 20 years.

Spich has also developed and taught a variety of innovative courses in other institutional programs. With a $100,000 grant from ALO/USAID, he partnered with the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego to develop and co-teach a tri-university, international web-based course to train public and private officials in Peru. He developed and taught one of the first online web courses in negotiations for the international management program of the University of San Diego. He was a founding faculty member of the Principals Leadership Institute (PLI) at the UCLA School of Education, a program for teachers planning to work in administration.

In conjunction with the Global Windows Partners and Professor Kleingartner at UCLA, Spich authored two web-based modular strategic management training courses. He has also developed and taught special sessions on a wide variety of topics for executive MBA programs and seminars at UCLA, University of Washington, the University of Victoria, the American Business School in Prague, the Government of New Zealand and the executive extension programs at UC Berkley and UCLA. With his extensive Latin American experience, Spich has been a guest lecturer at universities, including the PUC and UAI in Chile, ESAN in Peru, INCAE in Costa Rica and others in Mexico and Argentina.

He served as faculty director for the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at UCLA Anderson, a federal grant program designed to facilitate the internationalization of business education via programs in curriculum development, IB research and public outreach programs. The success of that program led to the launch of the Center for Global Management, which provides global immersion courses and opportunities — in addition to supporting international field study projects focused on social enterprise and community impact, including telemedicine, mobile health, conservation and social entrepreneurship.

Working with business and diplomatic communities, Spich co-founded and financially supported, in partnership with the USC CIBER, the Asia Society and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the Pacific Cities Sustainability Initiative, a cooperative network of organizations, institutions and professionals interested in the design of sustainable cities. He has worked with the Brookings Institution of Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles Chamber and the Mayor’s Office of Los Angeles to develop the Los Angeles Regional Export Council. Spich has also worked as a consultant and trainer with companies that include Hughes Space and Communications, Northrop-Grumman, ENEL of Italy, CCMC of Chile, Amgen, Akzo-Nobel, Disney, Isabella Fiore, Sierra Systems and the Getty Conservation Institute. He is also an invited reviewer of entrepreneurial proposals for state funding for the CalTIP program of the California Technology and Trade Agency.

Spich continues to write and publish pieces on various aspects of international management, trade and globalization.

Education

• Ph.D. International Business, University of Washington
• MBA, University of Washington
• B.A. Industrial Relations, Lafayette College

Areas of Expertise:

• Cross-Cultural Issues
• Globalization
• Management of Cultural Organizations