Dedication: The Essential Alan Rugman

Alan Rugman, a leading scholar and towering figure in the field of international business, died after a brief illness on July 7, 2014 at the age of 69.

Alan was born in Bristol (UK) and studied at the universities of Leeds and London (SOAS – School of Oriental and African Studies). At the latter institution, Edith Penrose was one of his teachers. Alan earned a PhD at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Canada, with a thesis on international diversification. German-born Herb Grubel was his supervisor. Herb Grubel had been a student of James Tobin at Yale. Together with Harry Markowitz, Tobin had established the mean-variance perspective on portfolio diversification in a context of uncertainty. Alan’s dissertation work was a product of this powerful intellectual lineage.