Gerhard Apfelthaler is Dean and Professor at the School of Management at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California. He received his Ph. D. in Social and Economic Sciences from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (WU) in Vienna, Austria after studies in Austria, Taiwan, and the United States. He authored several books in English and German, and he published articles in leading academic journals including Industrial Marketing Management, the Service Industries Journal, the Journal of World Business, the European Journal of International Management, the Journal of Small Business Management, the International Journal of Management Education, the Journal of International Learning, and several others. He is also a co-founder and editor of the European Journal of International Management. He has lectured at universities in a number of countries including Austria, Australia, Austria, Colombia, Iceland, Oman, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States, and is the co-founder of several companies including Oak Therapeutics, Inc., (USA), CURE Pharmaceutical (USA), AT Consult (USA and Austria), and the non-profit organization Start-Up Kids. Before moving to California, he has been the Chair of the Department of International Management at FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences in Graz (Austria). Previously, he served as Commercial Attaché to the Austrian Embassy in Singapore, as Austria’s Deputy Trade Commissioner to the United States (Los Angeles office), as Dean of International Business Studies at FHS Kufstein Tirol, and as coordinator of the international postgraduate program of the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS), among others.