Dr Larry Clay is an Assistant Professor of Business at Marymount University – College of BILT (Business Innovation Leadership & Technology).  He teaches strategy & entrepreneurship with an emphasis on sustainable-as-flourishing and conscious design principles. He is passionate about his research in designing entrepreneur ecosystems and human-centered designing from products and services to critical infrastructure in our cities.  Dr Clay is also Business Coach and Dean of Humanity’s Team Conscious Business Change Agent Master’s Program, an online hybrid learning system that trains entrepreneurs to become agents of change in organizations and entrepreneur venturing.

Research Interest and Connection to Practice:
My research focuses on sustainable cities, particularly in sustainable development performance, multi-stakeholder processes through positive action, and quantum leadership management.  My key theory interests include conscious capitalism, complex systems theory, meta-organizational designing, innovation ecosystem management, and positive organizational scholarship (POS).  Watch my short video link to learn more about my perspective about sustainable cities (UN Sustainable Development Goals #11 and #9) and how they relate to my research focus.  

Beyond my passion for knowledge and business management, I am also active with several service and non-profit organizations.  Since 2013 I’ve worked with the NBMBAA’s Annual Fiat Chrysler Graduate Case Competition.  My first year at the annual conference I started humbly as a volunteer; but over the last 6 years I have had the opportunity to partner with one of the NBMBAA’s largest corporate sponsors – FCA – in the role as Special Operations Manager.  And in the near future, I plan to transition my role with the case competition and be an advisor for a case competition team to compete for the coveted awards.  

Moving from an M.B.A. to a Ph.D. mindset took mental reconfiguration.  An organization that has been helpful in my Ph.D. journey is the PhD Project.  Not only am I a member of the Minority Doctoral Student Association (MDSA) within the PhD Project and Academy of Management (AOM), but for the last two years I have assumed the role of Sessions Committee Chair for the PhD Project Annual Conference.  As chair I lead the planning, information coordination, and logistics of the session workshops during the MDSA/AOM Annual Pre-Conference hosted by the PhD Project.  If you recognize the pattern, I love being in roles where I lead and work within the team or organization, in contrast to formal roles of hierarchal leadership.  I follow and practice the principles of quantum management, a rather nascent consciousness leadership concept.

I also have a role as program administrator for Conscious Business Innerprise (CBI).  This non-profit is part of Humanity’s Team, and the mission of CBI is to develop the next generation of conscious business leadership to transition society into the evolutionary paradigms of the future in business and innovation, as we move deeper within the information and digital age.  As Program Administrator I manage the social media channels, and I have been instrumental in designing and organizing the content for the CBI digital workshop platform.  By third quarter 2021, we plan to launch our Conscious Business Change Agent (CBCA) professional development workshops on the virtual platform.

Personal:
When I’m not working as a “pracademic”, I love reading, creative writing of manuscripts and poetry, cooking fine cuisines, appreciating art, deconstructing movies and film, listening to different genres of music, global travelling, learning the diversity of cultural experiences, learning about technology, as well as spending quality time with my daughter and family.  When I get the chance, I also love attending and networking at academic and industry conferences.

Land/social and Biophysical Acknowledgement:  
I grew up with a mindset of being a positive steward of planet earth.  I had aspirations of becoming a medical doctor, so my formal college education was focused on the natural sciences (Biology, Chemistry, and physics).  My undergraduate education developed me with an environmentalists perspective of how societies manage and distribute resources.  I did not pursue a  medical degree, but I pivoted to business and management as a pharmaceutical sales manager for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.  Thus experience provided the training and competencies in operating within organizations.  The combination of knowledge in the biological sciences along with the experience as a sales manager got me interested in sustainability, sustainable development, and value creation with embedded sustainability.  That led me to study and research phenomena, concepts, and theories  in sustainability, flourishing enterprises, and conscious capitalism; and  I earned my PhD in Management with a specialization in Designing Sustainable Systems at Weatherhead School of Management @ Case Western Reserve University.   As a sustainable development scholar studying innovation ecosystems (macro research) along with principles of Quantum management (A framework underpinned by consciousness, holism, and practices of interconnectedness), I would the Flourishing Business Model Canvas’ design and utility to be very intuitive for me.  When you have the foundational understandings of natural systems  with business acumen and economics, it tends to result in better ideas generated when approaching the FBC.