About the Authors
About the Authors
Dr. Fred David is a native of Whiteville, North Carolina in neighboring Columbus County, but today is a full-time resident of Ocean Isle Beach in Brunswick County. Fred spent most of the summers since 1965 at Ocean Isle Beach. He is a college professor, historian, and writer. He recently published twelve articles in the local Brunswick Beacon newspaper on “The History of Ocean Isle Beach from the year 10,000 BC to Today.” He and his wife Joy have three children: Forest, Byron, and Meredith. Fred is an avid scuba diver and saltwater fisherman. From 1989 to 2006, he owned and operated the FOLLOW ME charter boat at Ocean Isle Beach and took many hundreds of people deep sea fishing. Fred currently serves as President of the Ocean Isle Beach Land Conservancy.
Fred received a BS Degree in Mathematics, an MBA from Wake Forest University, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina. Currently he is the TranSouth Professor of Strategic Management at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. He has also been a professor at Auburn University, Mississippi State University, East Carolina University, the University of South Carolina, and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. He is the author of more than 180 referred publications.
Fred is sole author of the mainstream strategic-management textbook, Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, published by Prentice-Hall. Currently in its 13th edition, this book is among the best-selling strategic-management textbooks in the world and has been used at more than 400 colleges and universities. This textbook has been translated and published in Chinese, Japanese, Farsi, Spanish, Indonesian, Indian, Thai, and Arabic, and is widely used across Asia, South America, Mexico, and the Middle East.
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Vern J. Bender is a native of Saginaw, Michigan but has been a property owner at Ocean Isle Beach since 1979. Mr. Bender received a BS degree in marketing from Michigan State University and has over 30 years of executive level experience in retail management and marketing. He has held various national management positions with both Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Transamerica Commercial Finance Corp. He has a successful track record in managing turn-around and/or work-outs within the retail industry and the commercial finance industry. Mr. Bender owns the Bender Consulting Group, Inc. and is a local historian at Ocean Isle Beach.
