About Wes

Wesley Balda, PhD, is a principal at the Max De Pree Center for Leadership. He was the founding dean at the George Fox University School of Management, where he developed their executive and professional MBA tracks, and created the first doctorate in management in the Northwest. Prior to joining George Fox University, Wes served as the director and chair of the Executive Management and PhD programs at Claremont Graduate University's Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management. In addition to leadership positions, Wes has taught at the Drucker School, Claremont School of Theology, Azusa Pacific University, and Hope International University; he also served as Director of Student Services at Claremont School of Theology, MBA director and chair of the business program at Hope International University, and Director of Institutional Research at Fuller Theological Seminary.

He co-founded with Janis Balda the Simeon Institute, which led the U.S. State department's effort to provide crisis management education to officials of the former Soviet Union. Wes has worked in international efforts, including the 1985 Ethiopia Famine, community development projects in several international urban centers, and created management education programs at Cambridge, Oxford, and in Brazil.

Wes's professional background also includes work as a senior agency head for the City of Ontario (CA), Ontario Police Department, World Vision U.S., World Vision International, and as a destroyer officer in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam conflict.