Prof. John Gibbons Lynch, Jr.’s
Interview with Bill Bowe
Editor’s Note: On November 1, 2024, both John Lynch and I took a needed break from the cascade of political advertisements raining down upon us in the week
before the highly contentious presidential election. John’s distinguished academic career has taken him to the University of Florida, the Fuqua School of Business of Duke University, and currently, the University of Colorado at Boulder. Notwithstanding the physical separation our different careers produced, we had one brief professional convergence. Knowing something of John’s exceptional teaching path, I reached out to him for help in litigation I was managing as General Counsel at Encyclopaedia Britannica. John found for me the perfect expert witness. Not surprisingly, it was a specialist colleague of his at Duke. John’s help won the lawsuit! More recently, I was grateful to John again when he agreed to talk with me about his early family life, the family business, his schooling and career in higher education, and his own family.
Shortly after our interview, John was awarded a high honor from the American Marketing Association. John had this to say by way of thanks for receipt of the 2025 AMA-Irwin-McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award.
The interview is divided into 11 chapters, accessible by clicking on the grid icon at the bottom right of the video or the chapter pop ups along the video’s bottom. An edited transcript of the interview is available to read or download below.
John G. Lynch, Jr. is University of Colorado (Boulder) Distinguished Professor at the Leeds School of Business
Summary of Interview with Prof. John Gibbons Lynch, Jr.
[Notebook LM AI]
This is a transcribed interview between Professor John Gibbons Lynch, Jr., a renowned marketing expert, and Bill Bowe. The interview unfolds as a biographical narrative, tracing Professor Lynch’s academic journey and professional experiences. The interview begins with his childhood and family life, emphasizing the close-knit nature of his family and the strong influence of his parents’ values and work ethic. It then delves into his education, including his choice of economics as a major, his discovery of psychology, and his subsequent PhD in the field. The interview moves on to discuss his distinguished academic career at the University of Florida and Duke University, where he specialized in consumer psychology and internet marketing, respectively. Professor Lynch’s work at the University of Colorado at Boulder, focused on financial education and consumer financial decision-making, is highlighted, particularly his controversial findings on the effectiveness of early financial education. The interview concludes with Professor Lynch’s current position as executive director of the Marketing Science Institute and his insightful observations on the economic effects of privacy regulation, underscoring the unintended consequences of such regulations on small businesses and innovation.
