Larry French honored with emeritus status
J. Lawrence French, associate professor of management in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of “associate professor emeritus” by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emeritus title may be conferred on retired professors, associate professors, and administrative officers who are specially recommended to the board of visitors by Virginia Tech President Timothy D. Sands. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board of visitors receive an emeritus certificate from the university.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 1987, French supported the teaching, research, and outreach missions of the Department of Management and Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech’s National Capital Region campus.
French brought international visibility to Virginia Tech through his work in global business ethics and the social and economic problems of emerging economies. He taught and conducted research in Brazil, Portugal, and other countries and participated actively in international faculty and student exchange programs.
His scholarship focused on human resource management and international business, with a particular interest on child labor in developing economies. His studies of child labor in Brazil’s shoe manufacturing industry show that most of the child workers are employed by their parents in family businesses that are subcontractors to the shoe manufacturers.
A two-time recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship, French spent the second fellowship in Lisbon, Portugal, at Instituto Superior de Ciéncias do Trabalho e da Empresa, University Institute for Labor and Business Studies, in the summer of 2006. There, he taught MBA courses in small business management and entrepreneurship and participated in research projects.
In the classroom, French taught undergraduate and graduate courses across the management curriculum, placing emphasis on standards and student learning. He served as director of the Northern Virginia Center for two years in the mid-1990s during which time Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia were involved in planning exercises that culminated in the construction of a new building in West Falls Church.
French received a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, a master’s degree from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
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