Chad Allred

Dr. Allred began his industry career as an electrical engineer designing digital equipment for 3M, Exxon and Chevron at Eyring Research Institute. He subsequently earned an MBA and became a product line manager at Intel and a marketing director at Novell. For nearly a decade he pioneered innovative alliances, advanced professional associations, managed award-winning services and technologies, and provided oversight for international user groups and user relationships with tens of thousands of corporate customers, resellers and service professionals worldwide. Dr. Allred served as a trustee for NUI Inc. and as a founding board member of the IT Service Marketing Association. He was responsible for establishing the Novell TSA and the TSANet - an industry initiative receiving the Harold H. Short, Jr. Innovation-In-Service Award. Several of the aforementioned initiatives were highlighted in a published 1994 ITSMA Best Practices Case Study on Novell Services and the IT Service Industry.

In the late 90s, Dr. Allred left industry to pursue a PhD at Purdue University and enter academics. His doctoral research examined customer satisfaction and loyalty in high-tech business-to-business service exchange experiences. Dr. Allred’s research awards include the 2011 Harold E. Fearon Award (JSCM Best Paper), the 2011 Literati Network Awards for Excellence (JSM Highly Commended Paper), the 2010 Literati Network Awards for Excellence (Benchmarking Outstanding Paper), and the 2010 E. Grosvernor Plowman Award (Best Research of the SCMEC conference).

Since 2011, Dr. Allred has become increasingly focused on innovation in student experiential learning. He uses his industry experience and contacts to engage students in a broad range of real-world projects, believing that business skills alone are insufficient to achieve success. Students must also develop the confidence and determination to overcome unexpected problems and the passion to pursue challenging new opportunities.

Since joining the faculty of Purdue’s School of Management, Dr. Allred has mentored over 75 project teams engaging students and clients throughout the world. International Marketing students have worked with local entrepreneurs to improve the well-being of others in a variety of countries, including Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Mexico, Guatemala, Vietnam, India, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and the Philippines. Brand Management students have assisted many local businesses in improving marketing strategies and branding efforts. As a founding (and current) board member of Purdue’s Fusion Point Consortium (FPC), Dr. Allred has formalized processes where students gain experience commercializing patented innovations held by Purdue’s Office of Technology Commercialization.

Dr. Allred received the 2024 Daniels Career Champion Award (Student Selected), honorable mention as the the 2023, 2022, 2020, and 2019 Krannert Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher, the 2022 Krannert Alumni Teaching Award for Innovation, and the 2021 School of Management Council’s Transformative Impact Award and.

In early 2020, Dr. Allred was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from North Chiang Mai University (Thailand) for service in global social entrepreneurship. His efforts have been endorsed by the regional governor and provincial administrator of the Chaing Mai Region. Related student projects continue to receive local, national, and foreign press attention. Dr. Allred also oversees the School of Management’s Undergraduate Marketing Programs and serves as faculty advisor to the Purdue Marketing Association - an undergraduate marketing club.