Professor Eric Drouart has accepted the position of Chair of Southern Vermont College’s McCormick Division of Business. Drouart, a native of France, was most recently Associate Professor of Business in the Business Administration Division at Rivier College in Nashua, N.H., where he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in management, marketing, advertising, international business, market research and strategic management since 2000. He was the Chair of the Rivier College Business Administration Department for three years between 2002 and 2005.
Before joining Rivier, Drouart had extensive international marketing and general management experience, including 15 years with New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb in international business development. “Professor Drouart comes to Southern Vermont College with broad academic as well as global, corporate experience,” said SVC Provost Albert DeCiccio. “As a chairperson for our faculty and a professor to our students, I believe that his ongoing work, like SVC’s, will be responsive to the fiscal, ethical, intellectual and social challenges of the 21st century.”
At Bristol-Myers Squibb, he led the company's successful introduction of ‘over-the-counter’ medicines into Eastern Europe, oversaw the creation of new operations in Switzerland and Greece, and directed marketing and business development strategies in Europe and Asia. Drouart also worked in international marketing research for General Foods Corporation and Burke International Research Corporation.
Drouart is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Mass., with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing Management and a Master of Science degree in Business Administration. He also received a Business Administration diploma in 1973 from the Institut de Préparation à l'Administration et à la Gestion (IPAG) in Paris, France.
Drouart is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Academy of International Business and the Greater Nashua Human Resources Association. His recent research projects have been focused on the impact of globalization on US employment levels and off-shoring trends. He is a member of the American French Canadian Cultural Commission of N.H., and the past President of the Nashua Richelieu Club, a French-speaking service club. Drouart currently resides in Nashua with his wife, Antoinette. He is an avid skier and has a first-degree black belt in Kendo (Japanese fencing).
Founded in 1926, Southern Vermont College offers a career-enhancing, liberal arts education with 21 academic degree programs for approximately 500 students. Southern Vermont College recognizes the importance of educating students for the workplace of the twenty-first century and for lives as successful leaders in their communities. SVC is part of the New England Collegiate Conference, made up of nine institutions participating in 14 NCAA Division III sports. The college is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.