Associate Professor Tony Ward has been handed the reigns of research within the Faculty of Business and Informatics (FBI) at CQU.

FBI Dean Gus Guerson recently announced Associate Professor Ward’s appointment as Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty.

Associate Professor Ward is delighted to receive the position as he believes the Faculty “has much to offer CQU, the Central Queensland community and the world with its research capabilities”.

“Our research is an integral part of our teaching activities and of developing our overall academic capabilities. I look forward to the many challenges of the position and to working with colleagues both inside and outside the Faculty”.

“There is clearly much research expertise in the Faculty of over 100 academics, plus a very healthy cohort of some 75 research higher degree students”.

He sees his role being focused in two directions, “firstly, encouraging, supporting, facilitating and celebrating research in the Faculty, and secondly in implementing a focus on specific research themes”.

Associate Professor Ward is currently employed as an Associate Professor in Marketing, where he has been an academic for over 16 years. He has an honours degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (Loughborough 1969), and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Marketing (QUT 1995).

He has been directly involved in research since he conducted his first research survey in 1967. During the first 23 years of his career he was employed by British Aerospace in Europe and North America as an international marketer and then manager of a market research department at BAe.

Since joining CQU in January 1990, Associate Professor Ward has published over 50 fully refereed papers on marketing topics worldwide.

His research focus is in customer service, customer satisfaction, service marketing, relationship marketing, international marketing and regional development.

In 1993/4 he was the editor of the Central Queensland Journal of Regional Development and he has continued his long-term interest in regional Queensland to the present.

For example, he is a member of the Department of State Developments Mentoring Panel, a group that gives free advice to small and medium Central Queensland businesses.

Associate Professor Ward has undertaken a range of consulting assignments for local and national organisations over the last 20 years.

His focus has mostly been on market research activities, and in particular on service quality, relationship marketing, service products, hospitality, word-of-mouth, and other consumer related issues.

His main research project at CQU is directed at recruiting the ‘right’ customer service staff, for both industry and government.