Charlie Galunic

It has been an eventful life journey for Charlie Galunic, from Zagreb, Croatia, to the splendor of Fontainbleu, France, via Oakville, Ontario. Along the way he managed to squeeze in some quality time at Queens and also won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford.

Despite the travel and achievements, Charlie still considers Oakville home. Charlie spent most of his childhood and young adult life in Oakville after moving here from Croatia with his parents and sister, Jasna. He attended Oakwood, E.A. Orr and Brookdale Public Schools before entering T. A. Blakelock in the fall of 1979.

Curiosity and fifteen minutes to spare hooked Charlie into the Blakelock Football Team in grade nine. He would play some form of football during every Canadian autumn for the next nine years and then a further two more in England.

Charlie was also a member of the TAB Athletic team and took the Halton Gold Medal in the shot put. And he was on TAB's winning Bathtub Team.

Charlie's competitiveness and drive at Blakelock was not just confined to athletics and the football field. Academic work also captured his attention. Manifestations of this effort were to be seen in his 1984 graduation as an Ontario Scholar, Class Valedictorian and acceptance by Queen's University to study Chemical Engineering.

The combination of academic and athletic energy and drive resulted in Charlie becoming quite the achiever!

In four years playing for the Queen's Golden Gaels, he became a conference All-Star in each season and was named Captain in his final two years. In 1987, he was awarded the Intercollegiate Athletic Union's Russ Jackson Trophy (football). He also won the Queen's "Most Outstanding Student Athlete" trophy.

Honours at Queen's did not stop there. In 1988, Charlie graduated first in his Chemical Engineering class and won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. This honour took him to the hallowed halls of Oxford where, in 1990, he graduated with a BA in Economics and Politics. It was also at Oxford that Charlie met his life companion, Londoner Lucy Cuzner.

The fondness for the social sciences attracted him to academic work and a PhD program in Organization Behaviour at Stanford University. After graduating Stanford, he became a professor of Organization Behaviour at INSEAD, one of the world's leading business schools. Charlie serves as the OB area coordinator and holds the CORA chair in retailing and management,.

Dr. Galunic, Lucy and their two children, Tess and William, live near Fountainbleu, outside of Paris.