Rick Rochester
Contact Information:
Email: rprochester@fhsu.edu
Degrees: J.D., McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, 1992
B.A., International Relations and Economics, University of California, Davis, 1985
CELTA Certification, University of Cambridge, UK, 2012
Courses Taught:
LDRS 300: Introduction to Leadership Concepts
LDRS 302: Introduction to Leadership Behaviors
LDRS 310: Field Work in Leadership Studies
LDRS 650: Principles of Organizational Leadership
Rick brings over thirty years of corporate leadership, strategic planning and corporate education experience to the Chinese market, where he found his home in the FHSU and Leadership Studies family. Rick was born and raised in Los Alamos in mountainous northern New Mexico. After practicing law for several years, Rick became Vice President and General Counsel for the largest medical and scientific book distributor in the US, where he also developed the company's international sales division into a multi-million operation. He served as Chief Operating Officer for a regional telecommunications engineering company in the Southwestern US, and later President and CEO of a regional computer services and telecommunications company.
Since moving to China in 2004, Rick has both taught at nationally-ranked universities, offered his successful business practices as a strategic business planning consultant and corporate coach, has developed successful English language-based training programs in the Chinese market, and has consulted for both start-up and established business and higher education entities in the US and China. For his teaching efforts, Rick was named as Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher three times, and Outstanding Postgraduate International Teacher, and received a grant to study and develop cutting edge Project-Based Learning curricula for the Chinese education environment.
In addition to raising a bicultural family, Rick is highly motivated by the interaction with university students eager to experience a global intellectual perspective, and to continue learning about the varied and rich culture China offers. Currently living in Shenyang, Rick's principal research interests include comparative business and leadership practices, the psychology of leadership and business, legal issues and trends in leadership in China, and the integration of ESL and business and leadership curricula.