About The Authors

John D. Kasarda

John D. Kasarda is Kenan Distinguished Professor of Management at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School and Director of its Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. He received his B.S. and M.B.A. (with Distinction) from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Kasarda has published more than 100 scholarly articles and 9 books on economic development and business issues. He is frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the national and international media. He has also served as a consultant to the Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations and has testified numerous times before U.S. Congressional committees on urban and economic development. Dr. Kasarda has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his research on demographics and job creation and a Senior Fellow of the Urban Land Institute. He currently directs the Kauffman Foundation-supported initiative to foster entrepreneurship across the UNC campus and the University's Center for International Business Education and Research.

James H. Johnson, Jr

James H. Johnson, Jr. is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds degrees from North Carolina Central University (B.S., 1975), the University of Wisconsin at Madison (MS, 1977), and Michigan State University (PhD, 1980).

Selected by Fast Company magazine (September 2000) as one of the "17 … brightest thinkers and doers in the new world of work," Jim's current research and consulting activities focus on the workforce and workplace implications of post-1990 demographic changes in the U.S; and on how to create highly competitive and sustainable business enterprises and communities in the current era of economic uncertainty and global insecurity. His research on these and related topics has been widely cited in a number of national media outlets, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Detroit Free Press, Newsweek, Time Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, and Business Week. He has also appeared on a number of national television shows, including The Today Show on NBC, CNN Headline News, the CBS Evening News, ABC Nightly News, Sunday Morning on CBS, Inside Politics on CNN, and This Week in Review on NBC.