Leadership
Bob Dunn conducts most of his activities through ESI Advisors to provide advisory, consulting and transaction services in the US and Europe. His ongoing mission is to coach entrepreneurs or advised their backers. His work also includes assignments for both business and corporate.
In addition to directing ESI Advisors, he also participates as an executive in a small number of client companies and has served as a Senior Policy Fellow of the Institute for the Economy and the Future at Western Carolina University. http://ief.wcu.edu
Bob has served as a corporate executive leading technology development, product development and engineering, and manufacturing engineering organizations. Since the early '80's, Bob's prior companies have provided venture investor advisory services, software and business process design tools, merger & acquisition advisory services, and corporate development services.
During the 30 years Bob has been serving entrepreneurs, business owners, investors, and corporate executives in a variety of industries, his projects have ranged across information technology, telecommunications, retail services, business services, online services, e-business, manufacturing and manufacturing technology, medical equipment, biosciences, infotainment systems, and multimedia.
He has advised existing companies about business re-design, business expansion, business operations and corporate development. He has coached new business clients about design and launch of entrepreneurial initiatives.
His participation in client companies has usually been as an executive focused on development of both corporate and business strategy and on development of strategic commercial partnerships. He is currently active as a partner in a company providing software for new venture feasibility assessment.
Bob has been a technologist, entrepreneur, advisor and deal maker as well as developing technologies and products for his own companies and employers. He has provided services about corporate development, business development, engineering and product development to global organizations, governmental departments, and to more than 300 small and large companies. He has helped form client companies, develop corporate equity transactions and provide strategic advice to strengthen client positions and performance in diverse markets and geographies. His activities have spanned building and operating companies plus developing and implementing business concepts, business plans, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and marketing relationships.
His company has been a sponsor of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council (BREC) and Bob has served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Blue Ridge Angel Investor Network (BRAIN), member of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, organizer and Chairman of UNCA's AppliedVis 2005 conference, member of the organizing committees for the Carolina Connect capital formation conference series, Board President for the Southern Appalachian Science and Technology Center (SASTC), and an advisor to the NC Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship.
Bob holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, a graduate degree in Systems Engineering, and did some of the earliest research into the architecture and operation of network-based computers systems. He holds several patents, published numerous papers and is a frequent speaker at national conferences, professional development seminars and business development courses.
