Secretariat

Obituary: Professor Jim Lynch

Members will be very sorry to learn of the death, on 24 October 2003, of Professor James (Jim) Lynch, Yorkshire Bank Professor of Marketing and Strategic Management in the Business School and Director of the Institute for Corporate Learning.

His longstanding friend and colleague, Professor Paul Michell, who worked with Professor Lynch at both Bradford and Leeds, has contributed the following obituary:

"Professor Jim Lynch read English at Oxford, where he was an Open Scholar of St Johns College, and he subsequently became an accomplished linguist. He joined Procter and Gamble as a graduate trainee in 1964, and rose to be a Senior Marketing Manager working on a number of famous brands. In 1971, Jim took up an appointment as Marketing Director with a Yorkshire firm of clothing manufacturers, and two years later moved to become Managing Director of another firm in the textiles industry. Jims entry into the academic world took place in 1974, when he joined the Management Centre at the University of Bradford as an FME Teaching Fellow in Marketing, going on to hold appointments as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer, including a highly successful period as Acting Head of the Marketing Department. While at Bradford, Jim was awarded the degrees of MSc (1975) and PhD (1982), for dissertations on marketing and strategic marketing planning in UK universities.

Jim joined Leeds in October 1991 as the first holder of the Yorkshire Bank Chair of Marketing and Strategic Management, based in the Business School. At the time of his appointment, he had already established himself as an international authority on marketing strategies and systems in organisations, and the impact of technological change on these. He was the co-holder of several research grants from bodies including the British Council, the EPSRC and the Higher Education Information Services Trust (HEIST), and continued to publish throughout his time at Leeds. He sat on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the European Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Management and the International Journal of Advertising. Jim was External Examiner at a number of Universities, including the National University of Ireland at Dublin, Galway and Cork. In 1995, Jim was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Jim played a very prominent part in the organisation, management and development of the Business School and its teaching and research programmes. Jim was acknowledged as a teacher of true excellence across all the Schools courses, including the new postgraduate degree programmes in International Marketing Management and in Advertising and Management. He was a joint founder of the Relationship Marketing and the Media Research Centre within the School. Jim had natural leadership abilities and relished the major responsibility and challenge of initially chairing the Schools Western Campus Fundraising Steering Committee, and then leading the Institute for Corporate Learning as its inaugural Director from 1999. The quality of the leadership and intellectual drive brought by Jim to this position was reflected in the successful establishment and progress of the new Institute and the excellent reputation it has established with a wide range of corporate clients. Under his leadership the Institute has made a substantial contribution to the Universitys knowledge transfer activities and created valuable partnerships with significant external organisations. Within the Business School, Jim had latterly been closely involved in the creation of the Chairmans Business Forum, a London-based networking activity, and in the setting up of a management development programme in Delhi for Indian managers, organised jointly with The Indian Institute of Management.

Highly respected and widely liked, Jim was closely involved in other areas of University life. He served on the Knowledge Transfer Board and the Cultural Studies Working Party and was associated from its inception with the cross-disciplinary Keyworth Institute of Manufacturing and Information Systems Engineering, of which he had been Deputy Director since 1998. His extensive external commitments included serving as the Universitys representative on the Council of the Leeds Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Industrial Development Board and as a Governor of Wakefield College. The fruits of all Jims initiatives and co-operative networks will benefit the University for many years ahead, a fitting tribute to Jims commitment, energy and leadership.

Always a widely respected academic, Jim will be remembered most of all as a wonderful colleague. He was always generous of his time and wisdom and will be much missed. The Senate of the University, the members of his Institute, all School members, and his many ex-colleagues at Bradford and other Universities extend their heart-felt sympathy to his wife, Wendy, and his family.

The funeral of Jim Lynch has taken place in Italy. The Memorial Service will take place in the Business School at 11am on Sunday 16 November. All are welcome. Those wishing to come are asked to inform Mrs. Julia Barr (e-mail julia@lubs.leeds.ac.uk; telephone (0113) 384 6080) in the Institute for Corporate Learning."

Published: 6 November 2003