It’s a quiet Sunday evening at the JB Duke Hotel bar. An affable, soft-spoken Englishman, his accent reflecting seven decades of international living more than his London birth, orders steak. A tattooed writer orders something light and vegetarian. The server delivers the orders to the wrong people and the two share a chuckle about assumptions. The Englishman – among other things – is a student of human behavior.
“I always look for the unoccupied niche. I'm always looking for what's important, but understudied, and then I'll go after that,” John Quelch, the Englishman, says. “Then, when the lemmings arrive, I move on to the next frontier.”
Nutrition in breakfast cereals, temporary price promotions, point-of-sale merchandizing, global marketing – Quelch was on the cutting edge researching all these topics. Today, he is executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University. Previously, Quelch spent 30-plus years a professor at the Harvard Business School and then served as dean for three business schools on three continents. Yet when Quelch wrapped up his latest position as dean of the University of Miami Business School, he wasn’t necessarily looking for a new challenge. He had worked in China before, so initially he wasn’t interested in DKU. But as he contemplated it – and as he saw how serious Duke’s interest in the international partnership was – it clicked that the China of 2024 is not the same as 12 years ago, when he last led a school there. The Chinese economy had changed, Quelch realized, as had U.S.-China relations.
DKU’s second-highest leadership position increasingly looked like critical work, so he took it.
“My role is really that of a bridge between these two economies,” says Quelch. “This is the most important bilateral relationship in the world.”
Each side overstates the other’s weaknesses, he notes. Westerners, he says, overstate China’s economic weaknesses while disregarding its dedication to solar panel, wind turbine and electric vehicle production. One way Quelch builds bridges is by “getting on [his] bicycle” – metaphorically – and visiting DKU stakeholders in the Chinese government. He makes sure to understand the local history, wherever he is, so his counterparts feel seen and respected.
“There aren't so many alumni from DKU yet, but the Duke alumni community in China is very strong,” Quelch adds. “I view myself, to some degree, as Duke’s representative in China.”
On a larger scale, Quelch is not shy about maximizing opportunities. In 2011, he received his CBE appointment – the British honor just below knighthood – so the tattooed writer of course asks what Queen Elizabeth II was like. Quelch makes a few funny observations about the British class system and royal protocol, then says that in the few moments he had with the late monarch, he mentioned to her how important a royal visit to China could be. In Buckingham Palace, in Kunshan or in a sleepy hotel lounge in Durham, Quelch is right at home.
“If you go halfway around the world at the age of six, you're international long before globalization was ever a thought,” says Quelch. “I've never had any qualms or any trouble going into any country with any fear of any problem. It's just very natural, from my point of view.”
Look for more from our in-depth interview with John Quelch, such as details of his international childhood, in an upcoming issue of the magazine.