O.C. Ferrell is the James T. Pursell Sr. Eminent Scholar in Ethics and Director of the Center for Ethical Organizational Cultures in the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business, Auburn University. He was formerly Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Business Ethics at Belmont University and University Distinguished Professor at the University of New Mexico. He has also been on the faculties of the University of Wyoming, Colorado State University, University of Memphis, Texas A&M University, Illinois State University, and Southern Illinois University. He received his PhD in marketing from Louisiana State University.
Dr. Ferrell is past president of the Academy of Marketing Science. He is past president of the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association and chaired the American Marketing Association Ethics Committee. Under his leadership, the committee developed the AMA Code of Ethics and the AMA Code of Ethics for Marketing on the Internet. In addition, he is a former member of the Academy of Marketing Science Board of Governors and is a Society of Marketing Advances and Southwestern Marketing Association Fellow and an Academy of Marketing Science Distinguished Fellow. He served for nine years as the vice president of publications for the Academy of Marketing Science. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Macromarketing Society and a special award for service to doctoral students Southeast Doctoral Consortium. He received the Harold Berkman Lifetime Service Award from the Academy of Marketing Science and the Cutco Vector Distinguished Marketing Educator Award from the Academy of Marketing Science.
Dr. Ferrell has been involved in entrepreneurial engagements, co-founding Print Avenue in 1981, providing a solution-based printing company. He has been a consultant and served as an expert witness in legal cases related to marketing and business ethics litigation. He has conducted training for a number of global firms, including General Motors. His involvement with direct selling companies includes serving on the Academic Advisory Committee and as a fellow for the Direct Selling Education Foundation.
Dr. Ferrell is the co-author of 20 books and more than 100 published articles and papers. His articles have been published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research,
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, AMS Review, and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, as well as other journals.
