Gray, Kenneth R. 1952–

views updated

Gray, Kenneth R. 1952–

PERSONAL: Born January 14, 1952; married; wife's name Doris.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Paragon House, 1925 Oakcrest Ave., Ste. 7, St. Paul, MN 55113-2619.

CAREER: Educator, editor, and writer. Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, Eminent Scholar chair professor of international management. Member of board of trustees, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT.

AWARDS, HONORS: Senior Fulbright scholar to Al Akhawayn University, Morocco.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Jude J. Ongong'a) Bottlenecks to National Identity: Ethnic Co-Operation Towards Nation Building: Proceedings of the Third PWPA Eastern African Regional Conference Held in Mombasa, Kenya, Sept. 15-18, 1988, Professors World Peace Academy of Kenya (Nairobi, Kenya), 1989.

(Editor, with P.P.W. Achola and B. Wanjala Kerre) Trends & the Future of University Education in Kenya: Proceedings of the Sixth PWPA Conference, Eastern Region, Held in Nairobi, Kenya, December, 1989, Professors World Peace Academy of Kenya (Nairobi, Kenya), 1990.

(Editor) Employment & Education: Strategies & Opportunities for Development: Proceedings of the Seventh PWPA Conference Eastern Region, Held in Nairobi, Kenya, December, 1990, Professors World Peace Academy of Kenya (Nairobi, Kenya), 1991.

(Editor, with Kivuto Ndeti and others) The Second Scramble for Africa: A Response & a Critical Analysis of the Challenges Facing Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa, Professors World Peace Academy of Kenya (Nairobi, Kenya), 1992.

(With others) Entrepreneurship in Micro-Enterprises: A Strategic Analysis of Manufacturing Industries in Kenya: Textiles, Woodwork, and Metalwork, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1996.

(With Larry A. Frieder and George W. Clark, Jr.) Corporate Scandals: The Many Faces of Greed: The Great Heist, Financial Bubbles, and the Absence of Virtue, Paragon House (St. Paul, MN), 2005.

Member of editorial board of International Journal on World Peace, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Management, and Journal of African Business.

SIDELIGHTS: Kenneth R. Gray is coauthor with Larry A. Frieder and George W. Clark, Jr., of Corporate Scandals: The Many Faces of Greed: The Great Heist, Financial Bubbles, and the Absence of Virtue. The book focuses in part on the headline-grabbing corporate scandals that erupted at the turn of the twenty-first century and involved such corporations as Enron, Tyco, and World-Com. In addition to bringing about legislation focusing on business reforms, these scandals and others impacted millions of investors and workers, as well as U.S. financial markets and the general economy at large. Although the book closely reviews scandals that took place in the early 2000s, the authors also provide a history of corporate wrongdoings dating back to the early eighteenth century. In addition, they explain the various types of corporate crimes, such as fraud and theft, and the government's role in these scandals, from partial responsibility through lax regulations to government efforts to address the problem. The authors also provide recommendations on how to prevent future scenarios with the same potential for corruption.

Harvey Rosenblum, writing in Business Economics, felt that one of the book's strong points is the questions the authors ask readers at the end of each chapter, noting: "To answer these questions, the reader must reflect carefully, not just about the content of the chapter, but about the moral and ethical dilemmas posed by the incentive systems of the corporate world and the behaviors it sometimes fosters." As Rosenblum went on to note, "the book challenges us to think about the true complexities of the problem and the difficulties of simultaneously encouraging and regulating greed through the forces of Adam Smith's invisible hand." A Library Bookwatch contributor commented that Corporate Scandals "should be on the reading list of corporate CEO[s] and mandatory reading for every student in a 'Business Ethics' class."

Gray told CA: "I became interested in writing while living in Kenya. I lived there for over ten years. My interest in writing stems from the work I was doing in Africa on economic development. My wife, Doris, who is a journalist by training, and a professor of French, greatly influenced my writing.

"The book that I've written that has had the greatest impact is Entrepreneurship in Micro-Enterprises: A Strategic Analysis of Manufacturing Industries in Kenya: Textiles, Woodwork, and Metalwork. This book examines interviews of over three hundred informal business owners in East Africa. The stories are quite revealing with respect to the tenacity of human character."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Business Economics, January, 2005, Harvey Rosenblum, review of Corporate Scandals: The Many Faces of Greed: The Great Heist, Financial Bubbles, and the Absence of Virtue, p. 58.

Library Bookwatch, June, 2005, review of Corporate Scandals.