Professor Wijnholds Starts Business Column

In November 2005, Dr. Heiko de B. Wijnholds, a professor of Marketing, broadened his professional endeavors by turning to journalism. He has started a business column titled "Money & Marketing" in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that now appears every Monday in the Metro Business section, both in hard copy and online. The articles cover a wide range of topics relating to marketing and money matters, usually with public policy implications.

This is not Dr. Wijnholds' first column. Before coming to VCU, he was a professor at his alma mater, the University of South Africa as well as a business columnist for Rapport, a Sunday paper with a nationwide circulation. He maintained this column for seven years until his emigration to the U.S. This was his second migration - he first moved as a child with his parents from the Netherlands to South Africa.

In addition, he has authored and co-authored numerous publications in academic and professional journals, conference proceedings and textbooks - both in the U.S. and abroad, e.g. in Canada, Europe and Africa. Among others, he has published in such journals as the Journal of International Business, the Journal of Euromarketing and the Journal of Services Marketing. He has also presented papers at meetings of leading academic and professional organizations such as the American Marketing Association, the Academy of International Business, the Academy of Marketing Science and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research.

His current academic research interests are focused on the marketing of (potentially) harmful products and services on the Internet such as gambling, cigarettes, alcohol and prescription drugs.

For over 14 years he served in academic administration as a department chair at three different schools. He has taught at various universities in the U.S., South Africa and the Caribbean in either a tenured or visiting capacity. After starting out as a tenure-track Economics professor he switched to a similar position in Marketing. Currently, he teaches graduate courses in international marketing and marketing research and undergraduate courses in international and introductory marketing.

Dr. Wijnholds has also consulted for various major foreign and local corporations such as Toyota South Africa, has acted as a speechwriter for a prominent business leader and has provided local housing forecasts for the National Association of Home Builders. He has also dabbled in forensic marketing in his capacity as an expert witness for litigation.

Here are recent articles written by Dr. Wijnholds in the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Nov. 28, 2005: Market, not law, makes or breaks illegal immigration.

Dec. 5, 2005: Will the housing market affect holiday shopping?

Dec. 12, 2005: For U.S. automakers, it's about product, not prices.

Dec. 19, 2005: Cuts in boomers' benefits may hurt whole economy.

Dec. 26, 2005: Globalization movement slowed, but not stopped.

Jan. 2, 2006: Are the Chinese playing fair with currency policy?

Jan. 9, 2006: Housing prices, Katrina recovery cloud '06 outlook.

Jan. 16, 2006: Predicting the stock market can be hazy.

Jan. 23, 2006: Marketers run big risk by ignoring older consumers.