Olufemi Babarinde

Olufemi Babarinde is a clinical associate professor of global studies in the Thunderbird School of Global Management. His areas of expertise include doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa, business issues in South Africa, doing business in Europe, international development, and regional integration agreements. Included in his highly regarded research are the integration process of the European Union, African regionalism, and the European Union’s external relations, particularly with less-developed countries, Sub-Saharan Africa and the U.S.

Babarinde has authored or co-authored articles and books, and some of his forthcoming and most recent publications include “Africa is Open for Business: A Continent on the Move” (2009), “Bridging the Economic Divide in the Republic of South Africa: A Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective” (2009), “Renaissance Africa” (2009), “The Social Dimension of Globalization and EU Development Policy: Promoting Core Labour Standards and Corporate Social Responsibility” (with Jan Orbie, 2008), “The African Union: Finally in the Path of the EU?” (2008), and “Exports by least developed countries in sub-Saharan Africa,” (with Gerrit Faber, 2007).

He is a member of the editorial boards of Thunderbird International Business Review, Africa Today, and Research in Management Education and Development. He has also served as a reviewer for a handful of academic journals and book manuscripts, and consulted for companies and organizations.

He is a member of the European Union Studies Association, the International Studies Association, the African Studies Association, and the Phi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society. He is also a founding member of the African Association of Arizona, as well as a member of other civic organizations in Arizona.

At Thunderbird, his teaching includes Regional Business Environment of Europe, Contemporary Business in Europe, and Regional Economic Agreements. He has also taught courses on European Integration, Regional Business Environment of Sub-Saharan Africa, Global Political Economy, Technology Policy and International Competitiveness, and Strategies in International Development. He has taught for Thunderbird in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, South Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan. He has also taught a three-week transatlantic seminar in the Republic of South Africa on “The Big Emerging

Market of South Africa” every January since 1997.