R. Edward Freeman (vitae, )
Darden School

R. Edward Freeman is the Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration at The Darden School, Academic Director of the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. From 1986 to 2009 he was Director of Darden's Olsson Center for Applied Ethics, one of the world's leading academic centers for the study of ethics. Freeman is also Professor of Religious Studies and a Faculty Advisor to the University's Institute for Practical Ethics and Adjunct Professor of Stakeholder Management at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. Prior to coming to The Darden School Mr. Freeman taught at the University of Minnesota and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Freeman’s new book, Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation and Success,  published by Yale University Press, enables current and future business leaders to develop a critical competency for our globalized economy—the ability to successfully manage stakeholder relationships. He is also writing Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art. He is the author or editor of over twenty volumes in the areas of stakeholder management, business strategy and business ethics as well as more than eighty articles in a wide variety of publications. Freeman is perhaps best known for his award-winning book: Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, published in 1984, in which he suggested that businesses build their strategy around their relationships with key stakeholders.

Freeman has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Washington University and a B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy from Duke University. He has received a number of awards for teaching excellence from The Wharton School, the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, and The Darden School. In 1993 he was chosen for the Outstanding Faculty Award by the Darden student body, in 2001 he was honored by the World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute with a Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2005 he received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Virginia State Council on Higher Education. In 1991, 1998, 2002, 2004, and 2007, he was selected by the graduating class of the Darden School to be a Faculty Marshall. Mr. Freeman is a lifelong student of philosophy, martial arts, and the blues.