Ron Watkins

Ron Watkins is an Associate Vice President for the University of Illinois System and a clinical faculty member at the Gies College of Business. He first joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as director of Illinois Business Consulting in 2007. Between 2012-2017 he served as senior assistant dean with various responsibilities across Gies College of Business and then as Associate Dean from 2018-2021. Ron has been a clinical faculty in the Business Administration Department since 2008. Watkins was a US Army Armor officer, later worked in industry for over 10 years, and started three companies: a consulting firm, a trucking company, and a logistics brokerage. He continues to serve as a management consultant for numerous companies, both public and private. Watkins has also been a visiting lecturer at other universities, including Beijing JiaoTong University, Colorado University, and Millkin University. He received a BA in business and communications from Eastern Illinois University in 1996 an MBA in 2003 from the Gies College of Business at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has a PhD from the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.