Public Lecture by Prof Felix Mavondo: Connecting Phenomenon, Theory and Analytical Technique in African Context
Date: 14th JUNE, 2024
Venue: COEBS LT2
Time: 1400HR to 1600HR
Short Bio of Prof. Felix Mavondo
Felix works in the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash University, Australia, as a Professor of Marketing. His research interests include Strategic Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Resources and Capabilities, Tourism, and Sustainability. He is passionate about PhD supervision because he loves to contribute to future generations of researchers and teachers. As a result, he has successfully supervised 78 PhD students. He has been a Director of the Higher Degree by Research program for many years. He has visited or held adjunct appointments at several universities in China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the UK, and other regions. He has been consistently ranked among the top 1000 researcher scholars in economics and management worldwide. He is a prolific publisher, reviewer, and associate editor. His teaching interests are in Strategic Marketing, Advanced Quantitative Methods, and Survey Data Analysis.
Felix Mavondo was born in Zimbabwe. He has a truly rural origin and did not see electricity, a train, or a large town until the age of 16. He still considers himself very privileged, with hardworking parents and a relatively well-to-do upbringing by many standards. He completed his secondary education at Silveira Secondary School (Roman Catholic) and obtained a Beit Scholarship as one of the top 10 students in the country for the national examination. He then attended Goromonzi High School (Government). He struggled to cope in a co-educational environment with regimented leadership and suppression of student political activity, barely qualifying for university. His first offer at the University of Rhodesia was to study Law, the second was Accounting, and the third was Agriculture. He chose Agriculture. People would often say, “Did you go to university just to become an educated farmer?”
He was President of the Student Representative Council and actively involved in national politics. His first job was with an agricultural implements manufacturing company, where he helped develop the reversible plough. Due to the extreme racist attitudes he encountered, he soon left and joined Chibero Agricultural College as a lecturer and shortly thereafter became the Head of the Department of Animal Science. He was preparing to pursue a PhD in Reproductive Endocrinology when independence came, which changed everything. He was appointed the founding principal of a new college (Kushing-Phikelela) for ex-combatants. It was a challenging and politically interesting time, and he made significant contributions, starting with 72 students and leaving four years later with 3,500 students enrolled. He was then moved to the Harare Polytechnic as Deputy Principal, overseeing 54 Heads of Departments and a total of 20,000 students. After three years, Felix decided to pursue a PhD in Agribusiness in Australia. The rest is now history.
